The Mileage Effect

I had noticed this before but never given it much thought until reading a similarly themed thread in the Smart Car of America forums. There seems to be a unique phenomenon, which I’m dubbing here The Mileage Effect, whereby the increase in gas prices is causing everyone’s mileage to increase.

Here’s how it works. I (or other smart owners) are filling up the tank at the local gas station, gauging in their heads the mileage on this most recent tank. Every other person at the station comes over to ask, of course, how much mileage it gets. When told upper 30s and low 40s, they express enthusiasm. Then, and here’s the good part, they tell you how they’re getting in the mid-30s in their Volkswagen Jetta or Toyota Camry, or whatever other car they’re driving.

The base Jetta is rated at 21 city, 29 highway (very respectable!), and the Camry is rated at 21 city, 31 highway (also good!). The EPA ratings were lowered recently to represent more realistic mileage, so if you drive the highway at lower speeds and with few hills, you can certainly exceed the EPA ratings by a few miles. It’s possible you can even get 35 or more. But if you tell me you’re averaging that kind of mileage, you’re certainly embellishing. And if you start to tout the mileage of your Ford F150, you have a problem.

What is causing everyone’s mileage to exceed EPA expectations suddenly? I’m convinced that people are so stressed about the ever-rising cost of gasoline that it preys heavily on their minds. In any conversation about mileage, they want to make themselves feel better by over-inflating their current situation. Rather than be judged for still driving an F150, for example, they will tell you that their mileage is pretty good. It makes them feel better. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But the feeling is that people are comparing their car to the smart and belittling the smart’s gas consumption. This seems rather silly to me. If you buy a minivan, I am not going to brag about how many people my car fits in comparison to yours. If you buy an F150, I am not going to brag about how much my car can tow. If you buy a Ferrari, I am not going to brag about how fast my car can go. It is not fast, it can tow very little, and it holds one person and some groceries or a bag of golf clubs. It’s not made for any of those things. It is, however, made to drive around town and get best-in-class mileage. That is, in fact, why many people bought the car!

So you can try to make yourself feel better by over-inflating your mileage if you choose. I’ll just smile and nod and maybe say “that’s great” so that you feel even better when you climb up into your GM Suburban and drive away. Then I’ll calculate the mileage on my last tank and think of how much gas I’m saving driving the smart instead of my SUV. I know the truth.