Not To Be Trusted With Knives

10,000 km in 161 days

October 23, 2009 by Beth

Today I hit the 10,000 km mark on Zaphod, my beloved Smart Car!

Because I’m a super nerd, I’ve been tracking my gas mileage ((really, any excuse to make a spreadsheet and I’m happy)).  And so far, this is where I’m at:

A few observations:

• I have driven a lot.  Part of this is because I drive 35 km each way to get to work and part of it is because I do a lot of driving for work.  The territory covered by the organization for which I work is *huge* and I’m often having to go to places for meetings or site visits or suchlike.  ((For example, this week I was out in Aggasiz, which was a long, albeit beautiful, drive, Surrey and Port Moody for meetings.))  As a comparison (and to make me feel better), my dad bought a new truck on the same day I bought Zaphod and he has put more than 20,000 km on his.
• 7 cents per km isn’t too bad for gas, especially given the fact that I have to buy the premium gas, as apparently Smarts are “designed for” the expensive gas and if you don’t use it, you’ll void your warranty.  I do try to take advantage of the fact that I am often out in places like Abbotsford for meetings and gas is generally cheaper in Abby, so I try to fill up when I’m there.
• A fuel economy of 5.92 L/100 km  is bang on what Smart claims it will be for city driving ((they say it will be 5.9)).  However, I do mostly highway driving, so you’d expect I’d be closer to the 4.8 estimate for highway driving, or at least the 5.4 estimate for combined city and highway driving.  On the plus side, I’m getting slightly better gas mileage than what’s reported by other smart drivers on http://www.fueleconomy.gov/
• Based on these numbers, I estimate that I’ll drive ~23,000 km and spend ~$1,600 in gas in a year. According to Transport Canada ((from their 2005 Canadian Vehicle Survey)), the average per year for car drivers is 15,400 km ((cf. pick up trucks (15,000), vans (18,500) and SUVs (16,500))).  The average fuel economy for cars is listed at 9 L/100km, although this is data from four years ago and I’d be interested to see if it’s any better today.

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