With gas prices soaring (again), most people are becoming more conscious of fuel efficiency (again). The last time gas prices went through the roof, most people learned that driving large SUV’s and trucks with a single passenger is probably not a good idea. Hopefully they have since moved on to a more efficient vehicle. I know I did. Though my last one wasn’t that bad (2000 Honda Accord). My Honda FIT is a great little commuter car and it has, what is pretty common in newer cars now, a fuel efficiency gauge on the dashboard.
Much like a reporting dashboard, a car dashboard provides you real time information via gauges, and numbers. Speed, RPM, odometer, trip miles, fuel level, etc. They are all informative, but the fuel efficiency gauge is, in my opinion, the only one that will make you actually change your driving style (if you want to) based on the information provides (in fairness, the speedometer should also make you change, and probably RPM too). The gauge provides a bar that grows and shrinks to show you real time efficiency. Ease off the gas down hill and watch it hit 80 mpg. Take off from a light and see that you are barely getting 5 mpg. The real time feedback makes you drive smarter (or at least should). The number below the bar chart gives you the average mpg’s for a given period (I reset mine every time I fuel up). A tank of gas is a long enough interval for real time average reporting. While lifetime average would be nice to know, after a certain point it will not move much and reduces the ability to change quickly to become a more efficient driver.
But what if I still want my lifetime average? Or trending? Seasonal information? Fuelly.com has you covered there. Fuelly has a web/mobile/app interface to track your fill ups. Enter your odometer reading, gallons, and price per gallon every time you fill up and Fuelly provides a dashboard with some nice reports for the BI junkies in all of us. Now you can see your driving trends (admittedly, I was more efficient earlier on), seasonal changes (less efficient in winter months – too much “warming the car up?”), annual and lifetime averages, and dollars spent, down to the individual fill up. While it would be nice to be able to customize my reports, the information provided does make me a better driver – it even tells me how much money I could save by becoming a more efficient driver.
FWIW – thanks to the real time gauge, and Fuelly.com I’m beating the EPA estimated MPG Rating for the Honda Fit – 27 city and 33 highway. I have a lifetime average of 33.5 mixed driving!