Technology Tip Number 88
Saving Gasoline With Online Data

The internet is full of information.  Some of it is organized in easy to search data bases.  Today's technology tip is an example some very practical applications for online data.

Many of us have cars and many of us are concerned about the environment.  And most, if not all of us, would like to save a few dollars, yen or rupees when we fill up our fuel tanks.  Here's a few online resources that can help you determine the most fuel efficient cars that are out there:

First, here's some information about how to calculate the miles per gallon for a car in the U.S. (M.P.G.). If you would prefer metric measurements, here is a website that will help you calculate liters of fuel consumed in 100 kilometers (L/100km).

Now here's a website produced by the U.S. Federal government that contains MPG data for all makes and models that are available in the U.S.: FuelEconomy.gov You can easily use it to compare cars side-by-side. The site also gives you information about greenhouse gasses, hybrid and alternative energy vehicles and ways to improve your gas mileage. This site is a great example of a searchable online database. You can also find a similar information from the Canadian Government at their Natural Resources Canada website.

Here is a list of the most fuel efficient vehicles in Europe from Spritmonitor.de in Germany. They also have a search feature where you can find other vehicles.

There are plenty of other resounces out there: The 12 most fuel efficient vehicles in India, a fuel economy label generator from the government of New Zealand, the 10 most fuel efficient cars in South Africa.

Once you have a car and you'd like to drive it someplace you might want to go to CostToDrive.com to find out how far the distance will be, how long it will take, how much the fuel will cost and where you'll have to fill up your tank. Here are the results for a road trip from Times Square in New York City, NY to San Francisco, California in a 2013 Ford Fiesta.

You can use technology like this to help you pick your next vehicle and even plan your road trips more carefully.

PRACTICE ACTIVITY:  Try using these websites sometime today and see what you can learn from them.

TO KEEP ON LEARNING:  If you're looking for more information about fuel economy try searching the internet for:

Fuel Economy
Miles per Gallon
Most fuel efficient cars

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