I’m about to take a gig where I’ll be commuting on weekends – 500 mi roundtrip each week, smooth hiway driving. But through the mountains in the winter, so I want 4WD or AWD. Annoying, because of the mpg hit, but what can you do? :-). I also want manual transmission, just because it makes driving more fun – I know it no longer makes a big difference on mpg. I’ve been looking through www.fueleconomy.gov, and many of the cars in my sights (under 50K miles, probably 2005 model or later) are listed within a few mpg the same – roughly 25-28 hiway. Obviously, actual mpg will be different, and will depend more on my driving style and the weather and whatnot – but that will all be the same no matter what car I get. So here’s the question: how meaningful are the differences between 25 and 28? Can I depend on the 28 mpg being 10+% better than the 25 mpg? (For the number of miles I’ll be doing, the gas price difference starts adding up.) Or is there so much variation in actual cars that I can think of all those cars being in roughly the same range? Thanks.
Wish you could, but different cars vary widely in how they do compared to their EPA ratings. So car A rated at 28 mpg may do better or worse than car B rated at 25 mpg. More likely better, but many do worse. Go to the EPA web site and see what people report.
I wonder if it might help to take gear ratios into account since you’ll be cruising at freeway speeds for those long trips. My car was decently rated but I found out later its geared pretty crappily for the freeway and seems to get the best mileage at around 50mph. At normal freeway speeds though, the fuel economy plummets. And the EPA might rate the freeway mpg at a totally different speed than you’ll be driving. I don’t remember exactly how I did it (I’m not good at computering) but I found the actual gear ratios for my vehicle and other very detailed specs on vehix.com.
And driving stick rules! 
A set of winter tires might be a better strategy than AWD or 4WD.
They will improve stopping as well as going.
Good point, a VW TDI with 4 winter tires would do well.
I am in agreement with circuitsmith. With good winter tires, I am not sure you need 4WD or AWD.
The EPA mileage figures are meant for one thing: to compare vehicles at time of purchase. You may or may not get similar gas mileage, but the a vehicle that gets 20% less in the EPA test will very likely get 20% less in real world driving. Now is the time to use the EPA ratings for their intended purpose.
But does it really matter? For each 10,000 miles you drive, a vehicle that gets 28 MPG will save you $150 over a vehicle that gets 25. If you do this all 52 weekends, it will cost you about $400 more each year with the low mileage vehicle. If that’s enough to influence your decision, then stop looking at the lower gas mileage vehicles. OTOH, a 25 MPH truck in great condition will have fewer repairs that a less well maintained truck that gets 28 MPG. One repair is likely to eat that $400 and then some.
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Remember small irritations will add up at those mileages, as well as fuel costs. Take a long test drive before deciding on anything.
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Don’t know where you live, but some mountainous areas where I live (California) REQUIRE snow chains on the passes in the winter. And many modern cars DON’T take snow chains. I’ve run into this very issue, and it’s a very vexing one. Make sure you’ve taken this into account before you make a decision.
Scrabbler
Thanks everyone, all helpful comments. Not sure yet what I’ll do.
If you want awd, that’s fine. You don’t need a special reason to get it any more than you need to rationalize wanting a manual transmission. I feel you can rationalize awd even with very little snow travel. But I feel people should make the decision on it’s own merits. I know too many people who get awd because they don’t want the expense and trouble of snow tires. It’s my opinion that snow tires are more important on awd in snowy areas because of the conditions and speed you will be tempted to drive. Together, they are unbeatable, but you should try one out in slippery conditions you will face to see if the advantages are worth the added expense to you. Generally, people I know wonder why they ever bought one in the summer and their memory returns and then love them when caught in snow and ice they can’t avoid.
I agree with “jt and texases”. EPA mileage figures are more for comparison and not absolute value. The actual amounts are not as significant as the comparative difference.