Quote:
Originally Posted by wsybert
If you do the math.... At your average 14.5 mpg, and 12k miles per year at $3.60/gal. That is $2979.00 per year.
If you assume the diesel will average 18.5 mpg, which I think is conservative, and at 12k miles per year and $4.00/gal, you would pay $2594.00.
The diesel would have to average 16.1 mpg, for the costs to be equal.
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It all depends on the WAY that you drive. If you like & USE the pedal on the right often reving above 4K RPMs, you are probably going to average under 20MPG. If you live in a city and only commute 5 miles a day and average under 15MPH on that trip (lots of stop & go), you might also average under 20MPG. However, if your average speed is more "typical" and shows around 30MPH (or higher) it would mean that you have a good mix of city & highway driving and by not revving over 3K RPMs, you should be able to average more like 24MPG with a new diesel. If you drive almost exclusively on the interstate (e.g. avg MPH is above 45) then some are reporting getting up to 26MPG. There are some who "claim" to be getting 29 & 30 MPG on exclusively interstate trips on flat terrain but IMHO you can take those with a grain of salt as most of those posts appear to be people trying to "brag" and anytime you see that, you HAVE to be suspect. My recommendation is that you use something more common as a point of calculation (like 22MPG) as that appears to be a level that almost everybody can obtain on these vehicles (look on independent sites like Fuelly for their averages).
In my area, Diesel was about 5 cents CHEAPER than the premium I use to run. Then we had these recent (last 2 months) of reduced gasoline prices and diesel in this area is now actually about 20 cents more than premium ($3.77/gal vs. $3.57/gal) so there will be annual (& even daily) fluctuations in those differences.
The difference using ~24MPG for the Diesel & your figures for an average of 12K miles/year is 827.5 gallons vs. 500 gallons ($1,885 vs. $2,979) so purely calculating fuel savings is more likely over a thousand a year. The REAL benefits to Diesel come in other areas like more towing power & better performance when going up mountain roads due to the huge torque advantage the diesel has over the petrol variants of these vehicles. Pair that with the CRAZY discounts that can place the cost of the Diesel versions LOWER than that of the gasoline versions and it seems like a no-brainier for some of us