I know that the average person drives 13,476 miles per year; how are those miles distributed on a per month basis? I’m guessing people drive more in November (Thanksgiving) than February, so just dividing 13,476 by 12 wouldn’t help. Thanks!
Averages do not work. For any individual, you have to take the daily going to work driving and multiply it by the days worked. Then take a typical weekend and see howm much you drive. That is a rough total of routine activities. The rest is highway driving going somewhere or on vacation.
You may find that a typical driver makes an average of 3 trips per day, axcluidng vacation trlavel. If we divide 13,476 by 3x365, we get 12.3 miles per trip. That’s enough to heat up the engine sufficiently to drive offf sludge.
An older driver who goes 6,000 miles a year can wreck an engine if he lives in a cold climate, by not warming it up sufficiently. Avoid such cars unless they were parked indoors and had frequent oil changes.
You have to really break down those stats for a better understand.
Retired people drive far less then 13k a year…But younger people tend to drive more then 13k a year. My biggest years was when I had 2 kids playing high-school sports. I was averaging 50k+/yr. Now I have just one kid playing one high-school sport (basketball) and I’m down to just under 40k/yr. November through Feb are big travel months for me because of BB games and practice. When my oldest son was in high-school he played Baseball and (April-June, then Aug - Oct) where my biggest travel months. A couple of those years my daughter was also playing Lacrosse. And we were all over the state during those months.
Breaking it down by month…It really doesn’t show you much.
Here’s an idea - find out the monthly US gas consumption and ratio out the miles in proportion to gas used per month.
Texases: If I had monthly gas consumption I could do that. What I’m looking for is monthly data. Everything I’ve found is by year, and I’m trying to coax data out on a month-by-month basis. I was hoping for a link, or at least a suggestion. I’ve tried the a variety of Federal resources, and have found nothing.
You just need to poke around on the EIA web site:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WGFUPUS2&f=4
That’s ALMOST perfect. I don’t need to be precise, just “close enough”. I think this will do just fine. Thanks!
No such thing.
You can’t take my annual mileage and devide it down…then predict which month I’ll drive more and which less.
We went nowhere for Thanksgiving, but our trips to Albuquerque ( 350 miles round trip ) for doctors and shopping are unpredictable yet add to the average.
My 06 Ford Escape hybrid monthly average…702.6 miles, calculated from new 9/3/05
http://www.eia.gov/oog/info/twip/twip_gasoline.html
Texases and I ended up on different pages of the same site.
If you’re using the monthly gas consumption, you’ll have to adjust a bit for the lower miles per gallon that cars get in the winter, partly due to the winter blend gas.
I guess texases link was good enough for what you needed. But what are you actually trying to accomplish? I.e. what is the info for?
I work for a car dealership and with gas prices on the rise we are seeing a significant rise in the number of customers asking about fuel economy.
I wanted to create a chart that could estimate savings based on present fuel consumption, future movements in the price of fuel, and improved fuel economy from a new purchase.
I want to have the number of miles driven per month (on average) so I can compute a weighted average fuel cost for the year.
Of course it isn’t an exact science (and I do realize that I’ll have to account for seasonal variations in fuel economy…one thing at a time! :), but if it provides a useful tool that adds value for my customers and lets them better decide what vehicle is right for them, then I’ve done my job.
Thanks for the links. I think I should be able to glean the kind of information I am looking for from it.
If you’d like to see my finished product, I’ll happily attach it when I’m done. I’m certain there are similar calculators on-line, but I’d prefer to custom make one myself.
But then there’s the difference in any SAME vehicle driven in completely opposite manners.
Tell them that too.
Instead of driving like they’re late and in a race against time,
Drive like they’re on ‘‘rez-time’’ and bank the difference in fuel mileage gained.
( ‘‘rez’’ time, ie; reservation time, you have all day to go nowhere in particular and you have no deadline to get there. )
I’m waaaaaaaaaaaay far off the average.
I’ve had my car, bought new, since may 2010. I turned over 5,700 mies this morning at work.
I have out of town trips, thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother’s day, Easter and summer trip or 3 t the cabins june through august.
Why in the world would you go monthly? The reason it’s typically done yearly is the difference is a much larger number and therefore more compelling to the average consumer. Go to the other extreme, daily savings are $2.76 whoo-hoo!!! Not.
Im your average semi-retired person with 2 cars. My own car is now 5 years old and just turned 33,000 miles. We drive more in the summer than the winter, but most of our holidays are by plane and rental cars. My wife puts a whole 5000 miles per year on her car.
In 2011 we spent more on our pets than on keeping the 2 cars running (gas, maintenance & repairs).
When we were both working we put on 15,600 miles each per year. Since my work took me everywhere I spent a great deal of time in rental and chauffered cars.
@Twin Turbo: Because I’ll have to estimate monthly fuel prices as well. Throughout the course of the year, fuel costs move up and down, as do miles driven. While there should be correlation between the two, it isn’t going to be perfect. With the average miles driven per month, I can do a better job estimating. As mentioned earlier, I’ll also have to account for seasonal changes to fuel efficiency caused by cold weather. But with those variables, and holding everything else constant, I should be able to come up with something that is helpful.
@Ken Green: it most certainly does matter how they drive. If you look at a sticker on a new car, it will give you city and highway estimates, and underneath it will give ranges for each. I often make mention of those hyper-milers out there to point out that how you drive can play a HUGE role in your gas mileage. Of course, safety is always the most important concern (thus drafting directly behind a semi - while fuel efficient - isn’t safe and is not advisable).
Um, if you’ve been following the small claims court case in California where the lady lawyer was awarded $10,000 for not getting the promised mileage, you would be wise to not make many representations that could back fire on you. The EPA estimates are for that purpose so they can compare the fuel efficiency of one model to the next. Just IMHO.
It’s an ESTIMATE, why do you feel compelled to forecast future changes in gas prices on a month to month basis? BTW if you could do that with any reasonable accuracy, you could make a lot more money in a different job. You’re way overcomplicating the entire thing. Look at gas futures projections for the year end, average it out project savings and add an asterisk- based on projected fuel costs by XYZ organization.