mandasol
Active Member
I was reading this thread A new record for me. and I was sitting there thinking why do some countries use L/100km (liters per 100 kilometers) and here in the US we use mpg (miles per gallon)? I did some conversions and did a little research and now I realize L/100km makes more sense, not just because of the metric system, but even if we used G/100m (gallons per 100 miles) in the US it would actually show a better measure of consumption.
It also reminds of when I bought a Prius V in 2012. I went from a SAAB 9-3 getting about 25 mpg to the Prius V getting around 44 mpg without adjusting my driving style, and I thought that was pretty good. On a Prius forum someone had asked about what mileage people were getting and I posted I would get around 44 mpg driving normally. I got berated on that forum for being a newbie and hyper-milers were chiming with their techniques for squeezing out 60+ mpg. I don't like to start flame wars so I just left it be, but I had already done the math and I knew that it was pretty dumb to use all that effort to drive like a eco-weirdo pissing off other drivers to squeeze out what looks like an amazing extra 15-20 mpg but at the end of the year it's hardly any savings as you go higher in the mpg numbers.
But seeing it now in L/100km or G/100m it makes it way easier to see. So if my Prius was getting 44 mpg then that would translate to about 2.27 G/100m, and say a hyper-miler at 63 mpg (19 mpg savings) would be at 1.59 G/100m for savings of a little over half a gallon over 100 miles. Whereas when I made the change from my SAAB at 25 mpg or about 4 G/100m to the Prius V (same 19 mpg savings), I was saving nearly 2 gallons, so it makes it visually more apparent the change from 25 mpg to 44 mpg is saving considerably more fuel than going from 44 mpg to 63 mpg even though it's the same 19 mpg improvement, plus I didn't have to drive like an egotistical weirdo.
I didn't care for the vibe in the Prius community so I stopped participating in those forums, and then later I realized I hated the way the Prius drove so I got rid of the Prius and went in the opposite direction and drove and X5 that got 16mpg or 6.25 G/100m - seeing in these numbers it's kind of shocking. One of the reasons I got the 2.0T was to make a somewhat compromise, so I'm now I'm getting around 22 mpg (driving all city, pretty aggressively ) or 4.55 G/100m - a nearly 2 gallon improvement, so hypermilers eat my dust!
It also reminds of when I bought a Prius V in 2012. I went from a SAAB 9-3 getting about 25 mpg to the Prius V getting around 44 mpg without adjusting my driving style, and I thought that was pretty good. On a Prius forum someone had asked about what mileage people were getting and I posted I would get around 44 mpg driving normally. I got berated on that forum for being a newbie and hyper-milers were chiming with their techniques for squeezing out 60+ mpg. I don't like to start flame wars so I just left it be, but I had already done the math and I knew that it was pretty dumb to use all that effort to drive like a eco-weirdo pissing off other drivers to squeeze out what looks like an amazing extra 15-20 mpg but at the end of the year it's hardly any savings as you go higher in the mpg numbers.
But seeing it now in L/100km or G/100m it makes it way easier to see. So if my Prius was getting 44 mpg then that would translate to about 2.27 G/100m, and say a hyper-miler at 63 mpg (19 mpg savings) would be at 1.59 G/100m for savings of a little over half a gallon over 100 miles. Whereas when I made the change from my SAAB at 25 mpg or about 4 G/100m to the Prius V (same 19 mpg savings), I was saving nearly 2 gallons, so it makes it visually more apparent the change from 25 mpg to 44 mpg is saving considerably more fuel than going from 44 mpg to 63 mpg even though it's the same 19 mpg improvement, plus I didn't have to drive like an egotistical weirdo.
I didn't care for the vibe in the Prius community so I stopped participating in those forums, and then later I realized I hated the way the Prius drove so I got rid of the Prius and went in the opposite direction and drove and X5 that got 16mpg or 6.25 G/100m - seeing in these numbers it's kind of shocking. One of the reasons I got the 2.0T was to make a somewhat compromise, so I'm now I'm getting around 22 mpg (driving all city, pretty aggressively ) or 4.55 G/100m - a nearly 2 gallon improvement, so hypermilers eat my dust!
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Trying to keep the bar pegged to the right end (50 mpg end) of the scale is it's own kind of fun. But it does get tiresome, and I find myself "blasting, bursting, billowing forth with the power of ten [million] butterfly sneezes", once aaagain. Which is why I bought this engine to begin with. I don't really care what mpg I am getting, not really: when the fun of tromping around traffic in my way is why I have this trim.
