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Do you care about fuel economy when buying a land barge?

  • Yes

    Votes: 31 50.0%
  • No

    Votes: 31 50.0%
  • Electric or nothing

    Votes: 0 0.0%

Do you care about fuel mileage when purchasing large vehicles?

3K views 63 replies 35 participants last post by  adrew 
#1 ·
As more manufacturers are producing EV's and hybrids in their larger offerings, fuel economy is going up quite a bit in the sector.

You now have full size trucks like the F-150 getting a solid 20MPG+ in hybrid form, or going full electric as an EV.

However, you don't see many in commercial use, and overall they make up a very small portion of the sales, as they are quite expensive.

With that being said, do people actually care what kind of fuel economy their Escalade ESV gets? Or their RAM 1500? It's a giant brick with a V8 (usually), often four wheel drive, is poor fuel mileage expected and just passed off as part of the experience?
 
#3 ·
My biggest car is now a hybrid. Fullsize, V8 powered trucks and SUVs have been 2nd or 3rd vehicles for me since 1997, so fuel ecomomy is far down the list. Besides, my bar was set at 10-11mpg, so anything above that is gravy in my books.
 
#4 ·
It depends. If the vehicle fits a certain need and the fuel economy is as good as can be expected (let's say a Suburban 2500), then no, it's all relative. (Meaning 15 is better than 13 but otherwise it's a non-issue.)

Since I have gone PHEV and some of those vehicles are capable of high MPG depending on how you use them, I am becoming acutely aware of how wasteful large vehicles are with ICE engines. THings like sitting at a traffic light while the engine hums away is really chapping my *** now where it wasn't before. Buying a vehicle with 15 mpg isn't a big deal at a certain gas price, but when that price doubles or more during my ownership, even though I can technically afford it, it causes me to rethink my approach.

And since I don't have a need for a gigantic pickup truck, I also don't see the appeal. The closest truck to me needs would be the F-150 Powerboost hybrid.
 
#5 ·
Yes, I care a lot, for a few reasons:

  1. I'm a nerd and efficiency is fascinating.
  2. I like polar bears a lot.
  3. Because I move heavy stuff long distances, I'm what California would call a 'superuser'. If I can cut 10%, that's probably more fuel/carbon than an average driver saving 50%.

That said, as with the Powerstroke vs. 7.3 discussion (that maybe inspired this?), there's boundaries on the practicality of all of that and current fuel prices make it nearly impossible to justify diesel 3/4 tons. I would definitely be willing to pay extra for some batteries to absorb some downhill energy and feed it back uphill though.
 
#6 ·
absolutely yes.

After 20 years of Honda Odysseys getting 13mpg around town and maybe breaking 20 on the highway (sticker numbers are for suckers), I was happy to get a PHEV van to solve that problem. Also, it looks and drives better than the Honda.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have gotten a van.
 
#14 ·
I definitely have a personal limit, even for the entry level light duty class of bigger vehicles - which I prefer for the longer trips.

20 mpg on a steady highway trip is easily achieved by an unladen SUV or light-duty truck with plenty of power.

I love my cousin's Ram TRX, and wouldn't mind a Grand Cherokee Trackhawk myself - but at this point I would get annoyed by stopping so frequently for gas.
 
#15 ·
I probably care about it more than I need to considering how little I drive, plus my wife drives an EV.

Not the most important feature, but yes I care. I went from a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid (PHEV) to a Hyundai Palisade, and the mpg difference kills me inside because I know I was using so much less fuel in 2021 vs 2022.

The financial reality is it isnt life changing money, so it doesnt matter too much.
However, fuel costs are 4x for the past year with the Palisade vs the prior year with the PHEV.
 
#19 ·
Not the most important feature, but yes I care. I went from a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid (PHEV) to a Hyundai Palisade, and the mpg difference kills me inside because I know I was using so much less fuel in 2021 vs 2022.
Can I ask why the move (he says, looking at his 2021 Pacifica Hybrid in the garage)?
 
#20 ·
It's the total package/cost for me. I kind of compromised and met in the middle. I would like more MPG than what I get in my truck, but anything noticeably more efficient is twice the price.

My truck gets decent (for what it is) mileage, is simple/reliable, has enough capability/ground clearance stock, low-range 4x4, a lot of room and juuuuuust enough power. It's an uncommon/hard-to-find version (2.7/4x4/access cab/"long bed") that is a couple inches longer than a Tahoe. It's rated 19/22 but gets low 20s around town with a light food and 25 MPG on the highway at 65-70 MPH. At 80 it gets 21-22. If you punch it all the time it gets the rated figures. I think I had a psychological limit of 20 MPG on the low end with no tolerance for teens.

I've been very careful with mods to avoid adversely affecting the MPG. Instead of a hi-top camper shell, I got a cab-height one (more aerodynamic) and when I got off-road tires, I got E-loads in the stock 245/75-16 size that only weigh 39 lbs (vs almost 50 for KO2s). I'm not going to do the Typical Tacoma™ mods like huge wheels and tires, a heavy front bumper, huge lift and tons of skid plates that drop the MPG to the low teens and have the owner wanting a re-gear.

To get a SUV with similar room (enough for two people to sleep in) and low-range 4WD, I would've had to spend at least twice as much on an Expedition or Tahoe. I have less power than those or an F-150, but about the same amount of room and save about $500/year on gas. Combined with the much lower purchase price it was worth it for us.

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#21 ·
Not particularly, since I don't drive enough for it to be a major financial consideration.
 
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#22 ·
Short answer, no. Longer answer: it doesn't matter what the fuel economy is because my commute is 5 miles lot-to-lot. My wife's commute is 1.5 miles lot-to-lot. We have to think about which vehicle has not been driven on a longer trip and take it when a "long" trip is needed in our day-to-day.

If I ever have to drive 60-70 miles a day again, then the fuel economy will matter, or we could get an EV as a 3rd vehicle similar to when we owned a Jeep Wrangler and Honda Pilot as our primary vehicles.
 
#23 ·
As more manufacturers are producing EV's and hybrids in their larger offerings, fuel economy is going up quite a bit in the sector.

You now have full size trucks like the F-150 getting a solid 20MPG+ in hybrid form, or going full electric as an EV.

However, you don't see many in commercial use, and overall they make up a very small portion of the sales, as they are quite expensive.

With that being said, do people actually care what kind of fuel economy their Escalade ESV gets? Or their RAM 1500? It's a giant brick with a V8 (usually), often four wheel drive, is poor fuel mileage expected and just passed off as part of the experience?
While there are so many positives of having a larger vehicle, we see a lot of people choosing options with better fuel economy. With gas prices so high, many people are choosing hybrids or options with better fuel economy,
 
#24 ·
Perhaps a bit different from an F150/Ram Pickup or other BOF vehicle, but I very much cared about efficiency when I got my 2016 Touareg TDI last January. Yes - where I live, diesel is 25-50 cents more than premium, so any savings are lost to increased cost of fuel. but the increased efficiency is within 5% +/- of the net-cost difference between the two fuels, so it costs the same to drive per mile, you just get more mileage out of a tank with the TDI. I have gotten 33 mpg hand calc'd 100% highway which is good for 800+ mile range which is pretty nice.

Fortunately I can delete when warranty is up so efficiency, reliability, and power will only go up at that point, and hopefully diesel prices will return to somewhat closer to "normal" - i'd even take the same cost as premium, since that's what i always ran on my cars before the Touareg anyway.
 
#25 ·
When I was shopping F150s a couple years ago I wanted the 2.7T because of the mix of decent fuel economy when unloaded and power/torque for the type of towing I do (light car on an open flatbed).

When the 5.0 that I ended up purchasing came up for sale, I took a look at my wants for better fuel economy and asked if made a huge difference given my expected usage rate of 5-7k per year. I decided given that, the lower purchase price of that particular example outweighed the FE benefits of the 2.7T. Given that I’ve done 10k miles in it since and the 5.0 hasn’t been that bad on average - 17 MPG - I’m not that upset that I didn’t go with the 2.7T. Besides, there’s less to worry about long term with the 5.0, which is a plus.
 
#26 ·
Not really a consideration for the V8's I've purchased (Chevy SS, and Lexus GX460), nor for the wife's incoming Audi SQ8. All three of those were limited use vehicles and not something I'm doing a long daily commute with. For that, I use the Tesla MYP to offset my carbon credits!
 
#27 ·
I depends. When we bought our Jeeps we had zero concern about MPGs because of the capability that we wanted those vehicles to do.

Now for our daily driver we do take that into consideration. That is why we have multiple cars for multiple jobs. For hitting the trail and camping we have the Jeeps. For driving to work or around town we have the GTI or 318ti.

If we had to have one car to do all the things that we want to do it would probably have the MPGs somewhere in the middle of those extremes. So around 22-23 mpg for a one car does all and likely some sort of PHEV if one existed (the Wrangler 4xe is the closest thing out there).
 
#28 ·
The truck i have to drive for work is a 2022 ram 1500 with the hemi, 4x4 crew cab. I average 19-21mph combined. I am always very impressed with this. I personally drive a mk1 cabby that averages around 26ish. So given that the truck probably weighs 3x the cabby. It leaves me more impressed
 
#29 ·
Care.....sure

Does it always affect decision making? It is one of multiple factors considered ....and the weightings of those factors have changed massively during our phases of life, places we've lived (urban/suburban/rural US, Europe), increasing income, kids ages/sizes (I am 6'5"....so that too has changed massively over time :ROFLMAO: ), etc.
 
#35 ·
My large vehicle is paid off and gets 8-10 mpg. BUT it sees less than 5k miles a year. Still, when towing 700 miles round trip, that $100+ per fillup is harder to swallow than I thought it might be.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Not right now but if I drove at least 10k a year I might. I think for most people the total miles they drive is the key. I live in a city and probably drive around 7k a year. I thought most people were under 12k miles per year because that's what most leases have as a limit. However, I know some rural people who drive 20k~ a year. They basically have absorbed the cost of gas into their lives and only care if it goes up significantly, what I mean is the fact that they are paying ~$500 a month doesn't stand out even though that's quite a bit of money relative to their costs.


For every 100,000 miles

Gas $3.50
MPG

10mpg $35,000
15mpg $23,000
20mpg $17,500
25mpg $14,000
30mpg $11,666

MPG = Miles per US gallon
Values in USD
 
#41 ·
For every 100,000 miles

Gas $3.50 $4.50
MPG

10mpg $35,000 $87,500
15mpg $23,000 $57,000
20mpg $17,500 $43,750
25mpg $14,000 $35,000
30mpg $11,666 $29,165

MPG = Miles per US gallon
Values in USD
I think you had a math error on the $4.50 column, but I like where you're going with it since the average American keeps their primary car for roughly 100,000 miles. A little more if it's a man, a little less if it's a woman based on stats, but still a good midpoint. Here's what I came up with:

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To me, this demonstrates why 30mpg compact cars like the Chevy Trax or Hyundai Venue are still pretty good value in a world where the new Prius can run you $10k more. Over the course of 100,000 miles, even at $4.50/gal gasoline, the Trax/Venue would cost you $6000 more in gas, but still end up having saved you money versus paying a $6k+ premium for the Prius.

However if you're shopping a new Venue against an old 15mpg 4WD truck with oversized tires, then a $25k Trax would be equal in total cost of vehicle+gas to a $10k used truck, plus of course that $10k truck will end up costing you thousands more in repairs and maintenance, showing some of the false economy of old, low MPG used cars.
 
#37 ·
All I can add is I bought a Mercedes Sprinter (5cyl diesel) a couple of months ago to use as a "work truck". Was pleasantly surprised at getting around 22 mpg's in it on average....the same as my RC350 LOL!
 
#38 ·
Is it new? I've noticed that newer trucks, really last 20 years, have gotten better on the highway. EVs don't suit people who drive long distances on the highway without stopping often enough for other reasons that could then include a charge or towing. However for short distance stop and go, <100 mile daily commutes, and for those just looking for an interesting car they are great.

I saw a video with I think a Canadian fire department in a remote area that uses a Model 3 for non-emergency calls. So it's plugged in and ready to go at the fire station. If for some reason it wasn't working they have other vehicles but they are saving alot.
 
#40 ·
Yes and no.
If I’m looking at 2 trucks or SUVs and one tends to get way better fuel economy when checking fuelly then that’s a consideration even though I don’t expect either one to get “prius” mpgs. Example, in 2017 I chose a F150 2.7 over a tundra 5.7, why? Well cost for what I actually needed and fuel economy.
 
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