In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like the price of gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon. That figure will be even higher for less fuel-efficient vehicles that go fewer miles on a gallon to start with...
Engineers at Consumer Reports magazine tested this theory by driving a Toyota Camry sedan and a Mercury Mountaineer SUV at various set cruising speeds on a stretch of flat highway. Driving the Camry at 75 mph instead of 65 dropped fuel economy from 35 mpg to 30. For the Mountaineer, fuel economy dropped from 21 to 18.
Over the course of a 400-mile road trip, the Camry driver would spend about $6.19 more on gas at the higher speed and Mountaineer driver would spend an extra $10.32.
So my inner economist asks: Is it worth it to drive 10 mph slower to save $6.19-$10.32?
According to my calculations that 400 mile trip takes an extra 49 minutes. So another way to ask the same question is: are you willing to pay $6.19-$10.32 to save 49 minutes of travel time?
Or yet another way, is your time worth more or less than $7.57-$12.64/hour?
