Now, I'm not a car buff by any standards so I need a hand on this one. I was looking through the British headlines and found this cool little article about the "Top 10 most economical cars". At number 3 is the Mini Cooper. Nice little car but it states it does around 72.4MPG. I flick over to the American headlines and find this little article about the "EPA's Fuel Economy Leaders". And now the Mini Cooper is only managing 28/37 MPG. I'm fairly certain that a mile is a mile is a mile. Perhaps it's the Gallon part....
Yes..it is. I figured it out. A UK Gallon is about 1.2 US Gallons.
So to use this new found knowledge lets take a look at gas prices..as I get asked this a lot..
Price of gas in WV today $4.00 for one US Gallon (for ease).
Price of gas in Hertfordshire, England £1.24 (GBP) for one Litre (UK)
1 Litre (UK) is the same as 0.26 US Gallons.
so 3.85 Litres (UK) = 1 US Gallon (roughly)
so £4.78p (GBP) for one gallon of gas here.
Which is $9.42 for one gallon of gas.
Phew. I guess that sounds about right. But remember the average wage in the UK is £23,607. (around $45,000 in 2002) compared to average wage in the US ($38,651 (2006)). And cost of living differs too, though I can't find some hard stats to prove that :-p AND we've been paying around that amount for..well years and years.
Still the articles are worth reading because with the rapid decline of trucks and SUV's thanks to the "soaring gas prices" we may be seeing a lot more of these economical vehicles from Europe and more of the ones that are already here.
Have you noticed how much the news like to use the same phrases...like "Soaring gas prices" or Pain at the pump".
5 comments:
I've seen several mini-coops here. I drive a short wheel base van, which actually gets really good gas mileage. It still hurt to put $60 in it the other day. Of course, most days I don't drive, so it'll last about 3 weeks.(just long enough to see another jump in price LOL).
I've seen a few too! I still don't think i'd get one though :-p It does hurt putting $60 in...I remember only a year ago when it hurt putting in $40! I wish $60 would last 3 weeks though for me.
From what I've heard mass transit is much better in the UK too, making driving or even owning a car somewhat optional. Not so in most places in the US (including WV).
Yeah, mass transit is simply not an option around here.
That's right about the mass transit. you can jump on a train or a bus for very litle and get practically anywhere in the country. They run very often too. It certainly helped when you've had a few too many down the local boozer.
There is the train line that runs between Charleston and Huntington that could easily be improved to offer a kick-ass train service. However, I really doubt that that will ever happen.
Post a Comment