Do You Spend $4000 A Year For Gas?

[bronsin]

I saw on the news last night a claim that the average American household spends over $4000 a year for gas! I put about 5000 miles a year on the Yaris so the bill for that is ~$500. (the trip to Alaska cost $1400 in gas) The motorcycle another 5000 miles and about $500. The wife puts 10,000 mile a year on her Camry. 10,000/24 mpg = ~400 gallons = $1400.

The trip was once in a lifetime so should be averaged out with other years.

I guess we spend about half that.

What do you spend?

[WeeYari]

My answer to that is no, not nearly that, even with the price at the pumps in Canada being significantly higher than the US.

Was the news article relative to transportation fuel only, or all gas consumption. Lawnmowers, home heating, farm machinery, etc.?

[DebbyM46227]

Around $500.00 a year for me (I'm the only person in my household). If I had to spend $4,000 for gas I'd be living on the poor farm.

[bronsin]

My answer to that is no, not nearly that, even with the price at the pumps in Canada being significantly higher than the US.

Was the news article relative to transportation fuel only, or all gas consumption. Lawnmowers, home heating, farm machinery, etc.?

Purportedly it was what the AVERAGE household spends on gas for their cars. Nothing about heating, machinery etc.

Frankly I know Americans are dumb but I didnt think they were THAT dumb. (The Ford F150 is the biggest selling vehicle here. What does that get...20 mpg or less in town?)

Personally when they want to charge me $4 a gallon for gas (or even $2.50)I view it as a gun being put to my head.

I think its too much Barney is whats doing it...


This summer I paid $1.50 a liter for gas in the Yukon. PLUS it cost ten cents to buy a Canadian dollar with an American one. So thats like $6.50 for a gallon of gas.

[BEEF]

I don't know, I drive around 500 miles weekly.

between my two vehicles, I would say I am close to $3000 but I do drive a lot.

it may help to say that my yaris is yielding 41(ish) mpg and my cavalier is yielding mid 30s. if I had a big SUV I would be so screwed.

[MadMax]

I have 20,000 mi on 2008 Yaris, that's 6667 mi per year. Roughly 35 MPG equates to about 190 gallons of gas, at $3 a gal that's $572 a year.

The Jeep has about 53,000 miles on it, had 18,000 on it when I bought it used in 2007. That's 8750 miles per year, so at 15 MPG that's 583 gallons. At $3/gal, that $1750.

Our minivan is six years old, as 60,000 miles on it so ten grand a year. It gets 20 MPG so 500 gallons a year, so $1500 for it.

Add that all up and it's $3822 on fuel, not including the two motorcycles; so in our particular family it's not inconceivable that we spend nearly four grand a year on gas!

Cheers! M2

[Yaristeve]

I spend roughly that much. The problem is that the average American commute is something like 30miles one way. Mine is 35miles one way, add a bunch of Vegas trips and visiting my mom (50miles). I put 30,000miles on my Yaris in its first year and 170,000miles on my Miata in 7 years motly commuting (but I never took my Miata to Vegas).

[bronsin]

Miata Cool!

Its the people driving cars that get >20mpg I dont undeerstand.

[contraband831]

I spend about that much, my commute is about 100 miles round trip + home visits (I'm a State Social Worker) and gas is expensive here is CA.

[wildcard]

The answer is high speed rail.



:rolleyes:

[Betrivent]

If my calculations are correct, I spend $720~ a year on gas.

[DevilGirl]

I can believe it. Just myself, I drive 100 round trip daily, so about 500 a week. The average America works 50 weeks a year (2 weeks for holidays, vacations, and just days off). So that adds up to 25,000 just for commutting (and that's when I do take the train part of the way).

Add in the errands or trips to visit family, and we're upwards of 30,000 or more a year. Average of 37 miles to the gallon, comes out to roughly 810 gallons per year. At an average fuel cost of $3.25, we're talking $2632.50 a year in gas.


Then you add in his commute, which isn't as bad. But we use his car for the long trips. In total, around 12,000-15,000 miles a year on his car. At around 35 miles to the gallon, that's 428.5 gallons. His is diesel, so he's paying on average about $3.95 a gallon, so in total $1692.57.


$4325.07 total for the year between the 2 of us. This does not include the occassional drive that his mom takes using his other car.

[Flipper_1938]

I drove 33,000 this past year in my Yaris. That's about $2500 at $3 per gallon.

I'm glad I get 40 mpg.

[Sparcoboy]

About 200gallons at 8$ a gallon is 1600$, you americans should be happy with the price of gas and diesel :D

[thebarber]

Living close to work = winning

[swede]

With my commute of ~200km a day in the yaris and my wife driving our SUV, we spend more than that a year in gas. Roughly about $4800 CDN a year. It sucks, just bought my Yaris this past weekend hoping to save a few pennies.

[thepartsmancometh]

we put right at 20k per year on the yaris, so with varying MPG and $/gallon we probably spend $1800-ish per year on fuel for that car. I only put 10k or so per year on my car, but with significantly worse fuel economy and WAY higher gas price (93 octane ftw!) its almost equal dollar wise.

[Yaristeve]

The answer is high speed rail.



:rolleyes:

Yeah, I wish they would go ahead and bulid the LA - Vegas rail. I'd be there every weekend...

[cwitte]

I spent $1678.10 to drive 16948.9 from 12/1/10 to 12/1/11. (yes I track it that closely) 11820.5 was work driving at >75mph and reimbursed at the current IRS mileage so that is a good deal for me.
:thumbup:

My wife spends more than I do for gas for the Minivan. It costs her almost $3000. So I would say we probably spend slightly more than average. I don't track her as closely its just an estimate of $50 per tank every 8 days.

She needs the minivan though as we use that as a pickup.

[digitalrain]

Spend $1000 a year driving 6000 miles a year. Wow you got an awesome deal on your Can dollars / Only 10 cents to buy a buck.:wink: Been paying $5 a gallon for some time now, It's not so bad with the MPG of the Yaris tho'.

Purportedly it was what the AVERAGE household spends on gas for their cars. Nothing about heating, machinery etc.

Frankly I know Americans are dumb but I didnt think they were THAT dumb. (The Ford F150 is the biggest selling vehicle here. What does that get...20 mpg or less in town?)

Personally when they want to charge me $4 a gallon for gas (or even $2.50)I view it as a gun being put to my head.

I think its too much Barney is whats doing it...


This summer I paid $1.50 a liter for gas in the Yukon. PLUS it cost ten cents to buy a Canadian dollar with an American one. So thats like $6.50 for a gallon of gas.

[tk1971]

I got my Yaris back in January and have been tracking everything from gas prices to number of miles driven.

I took the average of gas prices, miles driven, mpg, and the price of regular vs. premium fuel for the last 6 months and multiplied it by 2 for an estimated annual number. This is what I got:

Spent $1,715.43 per year driving 19,152 miles.

Using my previous car that requires 91 octane (turbo) getting 21 mpg, I'll be saving $1,846.90 yearly.

I can't imagine what the numbers will look like if I drive my Expedition on a daily basis.

[Hamster]

Living close to work = winning

Hah, hah, yeah, I have to agree with you. I moved this past summer so that I can be close to work. I now live 2.5 miles from work, and take the public transportation. I hated driving to and from work. Not so much because of the cost of gasoline, but rather because I view stop-and-go rush hour traffic as such a waste of my time. Anyway, because I don't use my car to get to work, I need to fill up the tank maybe only about once every two months. So, that probably averages out to me spending $12 a month or so on gas, so $144 a year. That's mere pocket change. I guess that's why when the media comes up with these statistics, they say "average" for a reason. You're going to get some people who drive a crazy high amount, and your going to get other people, like me, who drive a crazy low amount. And then it all balances out.

[Nanook]

I got my Yaris back in January and have been tracking everything from gas prices to number of miles driven.

I took the average of gas prices, miles driven, mpg, and the price of regular vs. premium fuel for the last 6 months and multiplied it by 2 for an estimated annual number. This is what I got:

$381.19 per year driving 19,152 miles.

Using my previous car that requires 91 octane (turbo) getting 21 mpg, I'll be saving $1,846.85 yearly.

I can't imagine what the numbers will look like if I drive my Expedition on a daily basis.

Your math doesn't add up to me?? $381.19 to drive 19,152 miles?? Maybe i need to spend the night at a holiday inn?

[nemelek]

I know someone at work that puts 30,000 miles on his truck a year. At 15 miles/gallon and gas being 3.25/gallon he spends $6,500 a year for gas. This idiot still finds it necessary to polk fun at smaller cars.

[bronsin]

I know someone at work that puts 30,000 miles on his truck a year. At 15 miles/gallon and gas being 3.25/gallon he spends $6,500 a year for gas. This idiot still finds it necessary to polk fun at smaller cars.


:laughabove: :laughabove: :laughabove: :laughabove: :laughabove:

[MadMax]

Your math doesn't add up to me?? $381.19 to drive 19,152 miles?? Maybe i need to spend the night at a holiday inn?

Yeah, at 35 MPG it still requires nearly 550 gallons to go 19,000 miles...

So unless gas is 69¢ a gallon in southern California (which I don't believe it is! :biggrin:), someone's math is a little messed up! :iono:

[thepartsmancometh]

I know someone at work that puts 30,000 miles on his truck a year. At 15 miles/gallon and gas being 3.25/gallon he spends $6,500 a year for gas. This idiot still finds it necessary to polk fun at smaller cars.

I work at a Toyota dealer, but we are also a Ford dealer. We have a mechanic that drives at least 700 miles a week in his older F150 and bitches about gas prices (he says he spends 120-150 per week on gas).

Then he makes fun of the yaris, and similar cars.

then he tells me about his 45ft diesel motor home....

and how taxes aren't fair to him, and he's struggling.... :confused:

Gotta love people

[fnkngrv]

Living close to work = winning

Working from the crib = bigger winning :thumbsup:

[salmonz]

$45/week in gas here = $2340/yr+ just for the commuting. (well, was, up until last week)

Canadian gas prices suck.

[MUSKOKA800]

We do less than 80% for that figure burning more expensive Canadian gasoline. But no Full size vehicles here. Our Escape is no gas sipper but it doesn't do much duty with the wife only a few blocks from work.

[jerome]

I've spent $334.26 (in almost 7 months) since 5/29/11 :biggrin:

I haven't filled up my tank since 11/1/11! Although it's coming soon.

[hyprmiler]

Looks like I spent $2,848.99 cents last year ;)




That's with 2 cars in our family. Both yaris sedans (08 and 09). Both commuters that do a combined 80 miles a day, 5 days a week... that's 1600 miles a month.

1600 x 12 = 19200 miles a year (combined on both cars)

Not bad.


p.s. I love mint.com - it indexes EVERYTHING for me. :headbang:

[Altitude]

Working from the crib = bigger winning :thumbsup:

+1

Owned Jeep for 13 years put about 60K on it - about 10K of that is from cross country trips.

Owned Yaris for 3.5 years put about 22K on it - about 6K of that is from cross country trips.

[tk1971]

Your math doesn't add up to me?? $381.19 to drive 19,152 miles?? Maybe i need to spend the night at a holiday inn?

You're right, it doesn't add up. I somehow copied and pasted a cell that didn't work.

It should be:

$1,846.85 saved per year driving 19,152 miles, and spending $1,715.43.

[bronsin]

My 09 Yaris has ~28k on it of which ~18k miles are x country trips.

Very comfortable, very affordable trips I might add...