# Fuel cost per month



## bbdhomer (Jun 20, 2012)

I see a lot of people talking about MPGs, problems, ECO, etc.

My question is (after searching the forums and not finding anything)
- how much money on average (in a month) do you spend on gas/fuel? And how many miles/km are you able to achieve. Forget MPG for a change here. I would like to see specific numbers.

Please indicate year/trim level if you can!

Thanks in advance! (potential cruze buyer)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AutoGuide.Com Free App


----------



## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

I do about 2500 miles a month in my Eco manual transmission, and spend about $210-220/month on 93 octane unleaded gasoline.


----------



## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

bbdhomer said:


> I see a lot of people talking about MPGs, problems, ECO, etc.
> 
> My question is (after searching the forums and not finding anything)
> - how much money on average (in a month) do you spend on gas/fuel? And how many miles/km are you able to achieve. Forget MPG for a change here. I would like to see specific numbers.
> ...


I'm not sure what you are looking for here.
1. Gasoline costs vary all over the country and they do so on a daily basis. My monthly fuel cost varies all over the board because the cost to me varies so much.
2. Unless you drive the same route every day with no deviations, the sort of mileage you get will also vary some.
Check the Fuelly website for a group of folks who are reporting their fuel cost experience. Then you can extrapolate your costs based on what gas costs in your area. To me, average mpg is the only constant you can rely on. 

Chevrolet Cruze MPG Reports | Fuelly

Update: I just returned from running an errand. 87 octane is $3.25/gal. Last week, it was $3.69/gal. It's been as high as $3.94/gal this year. I'm sure the costs are way different in other parts of the country.


----------



## Eiolon (Feb 29, 2012)

Going the same route, I spend $45 per tank (with current gas prices) for Octane 87. I fill up twice a month so about $90 a month. That's nice since I was spending $45 per tank a week so I cut my gas bill in half. Too bad I'm giving it up for a truck lol.


----------



## gman19 (Apr 5, 2011)

Here's the summary from the app I use:

Looks like about $139 a month in Fuel. 2012 LTZ/RS. This graph summarizes about a years' worth of driving, picked it up on August 10th of 2011.


----------



## bbdhomer (Jun 20, 2012)

sciphi said:


> I do about 2500 miles a month in my Eco manual transmission, and spend about $210-220/month on 93 octane unleaded gasoline.


Those are GREAT numbers O_O.
Being a canadian I have to convert each of these numbers into km/l. But the dollar amount pretty much sums it up. On my current 05 civic I spend about $350 CDN/month 87 octane and drive the same amount of mileage as you do (and mine is an automatic). 



Jim Frye said:


> I'm not sure what you are looking for here.
> 1. Gasoline costs vary all over the country and they do so on a daily basis. My monthly fuel cost varies all over the board because the cost to me varies so much.
> 2. Unless you drive the same route every day with no deviations, the sort of mileage you get will also vary some.
> Check the Fuelly website for a group of folks who are reporting their fuel cost experience. Then you can extrapolate your costs based on what gas costs in your area. To me, average mpg is the only constant you can rely on.
> ...


Hi Jim

1. Agreed. But, they haven't dramatically changed to a point where you'd be paying 300-500 more a month (lets say in the past 6 months anyway).. 
2. Ok

Thanks for the link.



Eiolon said:


> Going the same route, I spend $45 per tank (with current gas prices) for Octane 87. I fill up twice a month so about $90 a month. That's nice since I was spending $45 per tank a week so I cut my gas bill in half. Too bad I'm giving it up for a truck lol.


Nice!



gman19 said:


> Here's the summary from the app I use:
> 
> Looks like about $139 a month in Fuel. 2012 LTZ/RS. This graph summarizes about a years' worth of driving, picked it up on August 10th of 2011.
> 
> View attachment 6261


What app is this? and is it available on android devices? Thanks!


----------



## wstadnick (Feb 9, 2012)

I also live in Canada, spend about 65-70 on a tank of 91. I usually make it a week and a few days, depending on the amount of driving i do other then work. I usually drive about 50 km's to work and back. So i'd say about 250 bucks a month on gas. 

I have the 2012 LT.


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

bbdhomer said:


> I see a lot of people talking about MPGs, problems, ECO, etc.
> 
> My question is (after searching the forums and not finding anything)
> - how much money on average (in a month) do you spend on gas/fuel? And how many miles/km are you able to achieve. Forget MPG for a change here. I would like to see specific numbers.
> ...


Specific numbers are useless for the reasons Jim Frye stated. What you need to be looking at is miles per gallon, then do your own calculations to determine how much you would spend every month on gas or fuel. Because every location has different gas prices, and everyone's commute is completely different, none of this will be relevant for you. 

If I tell you how much I spend per month, you could easily find the average fuel cost for a gallon of gas in my area, then use that information to easily calculate miles per gallon. Similarly, if I gave you my fuel economy in miles per gallon and my cost per tank of gas, you could easily calculate how much I spend per month. 

You're effectively asking for the same thing, but making it more difficult for you to decipher it, especially for if you're comparing different vehicles. What exactly are you looking for? Someone could come up to you and say "yeah, I spend $50 a month on my Honda Civic HF" and someone else could tell you "I spend $75 a month on my Cruze LTZ" while both would be driving the same number of miles a month. What good would that do you? They would also have to explain to you what kind of driving they do (city or highway), how long their trips are, and a myriad of other factors that will affect fuel economy. Take a Cruze LTZ and drive a 5 mile commute, and the car will barely have enough time to warm up, giving it terrible fuel economy numbers. Take a Honda Civic HF and drive down rural roads a few days a week at 55mph for 25+ mile trips, and you'll get excellent fuel economy numbers. 

If you want to make a comparison, go to fuelly.com and look at the numbers for yourself. It will show you peoples' fuel economy, how much they spend on gas, and, if the person enters it correctly, the kind of driving they do. 

For example, I spend ~$155 a month on gas. However, this is irrelevant. What is relevant is that I drive ~1500 miles per month, I do mostly in-town driving, I drive a Cruze Eco MT and I've taken several steps to raise the fuel economy numbers I put down. My lifetime average per fuelly.com is *40.4 mpg with a 74% city driving split*, which has recently started to drop due to the need to run air conditioning nearly 100% of the time. That really should be the most relevant bit of information.


----------



## gman19 (Apr 5, 2011)

bbdhomer said:


> What app is this? and is it available on android devices? Thanks!


The app is "Road Trip HD". I run it on my iPad, and am not sure if it is available or not on the Android market.
It's the best one I have found so far though; tracks all expenses you care to enter, from property taxes to maintenance
to car payments....and figures it all into the cost per mile. It's so involved I am still having to figure out how to
properly use it!


----------



## dannylightning (Jun 24, 2012)

well so far its looking like 15 bucks a week filling up with 93 and driving around 150-200 miles a week.. about half around town and half highway but my highway drive is not at constant speed, there are about 4 long exit ramps with very sharp curves where i need to slow down to 30-40 mph and speed back up again during my 10 min highway drive to work each day.. if my 10 min drive were just a straight shot i think my mpg would be even better.

the one time i drove about half a hour on a straight stretch of highway i was averaging about 43 mpg according to the screen on the car dash.....


----------



## thekevin (Feb 21, 2012)

The car in my sig goes 2347.78 miles per month since I bought it 2/21/2012 and its cost me $254.61 to get those miles.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using AutoGuide.Com Free App


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

dannylightning said:


> well so far its looking like 15 bucks a week filling up with 93 and driving around 150-200 miles a week.. about half around town and half highway but my highway drive is not at constant speed, there are about 4 long exit ramps with very sharp curves where i need to slow down to 30-40 mph and speed back up again during my 10 min highway drive to work each day.. if my 10 min drive were just a straight shot i think my mpg would be even better.
> 
> the one time i drove about half a hour on a straight stretch of highway i was averaging about 43 mpg according to the screen on the car dash.....


Boost your tires to at least 40psi (I have mine at 50psi and have digitally measured no abnormal tire wear in the last 7000 miles) check your spark plug gap and set it to .035, and remove the intake resonator duct underneath the airbox (see my signature for writeup). 

The above will allow you to coast farther, shift sooner lower, and accelerate at a lower RPM than you could before, which will boost your fuel economy significantly.


----------



## deerebilt (Apr 6, 2012)

bbdhomer said:


> I see a lot of people talking about MPGs, problems, ECO, etc.
> 
> My question is (after searching the forums and not finding anything)
> - how much money on average (in a month) do you spend on gas/fuel? And how many miles/km are you able to achieve. Forget MPG for a change here. I would like to see specific numbers.
> ...


avg cost / mi .09
avg cost / gal 3.57
abg mi / dollar 10.98
avg cost/ month 118.80
avg mi / month 1304
acg fill up 11.57 gal


----------



## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

If you're concerned about going over the max sidewall pressure of 51 PSI on the Goodyear FuelMax Assurance, set your tire pressures at 45 PSI cold. I have been monitoring my TPMS since setting at 45 PSI cold (mid 60s when set) and they have yet to exceed 50 PSI even in 100+ temps and extended driving.

Also, the Max sidewall pressure is the "cold" pressure, so you should be able to safely set to this pressure as there is a significant amount of overhead available to handle heat related pressure increases. Personally I discovered that 45 PSI results in a slightly noiser tire but the overall ride is smoother.


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

obermd said:


> If you're concerned about going over the max sidewall pressure of 51 PSI on the Goodyear FuelMax Assurance, set your tire pressures at 45 PSI cold. I have been monitoring my TPMS since setting at 45 PSI cold (mid 60s when set) and they have yet to exceed 50 PSI even in 100+ temps and extended driving.
> 
> Also, the Max sidewall pressure is the "cold" pressure, so you should be able to safely set to this pressure as there is a significant amount of overhead available to handle heat related pressure increases. Personally I discovered that 45 PSI results in a slightly noiser tire but the overall ride is smoother.


I would agree with the statement that the tires are noisier. 

At 50psi, my pressure change between cold and "hot" (driving on the highway) in 90 degree weather is minimal. Maybe 1-2psi. The temperature fluctuations were far greater when I had the factory 35psi in my tires.


----------



## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

I have a 2012 1LT automatic with the RS package

According to fuelly.com (which I have put every fillup on) its been costing me just under 11cents a mile at an average of $3.91 a gallon(mostly premium gas). Fuelly indicates for 5,000miles I spent $540 in fuel costs. 

I drive bit slower than most(as long as no one is behind me) so on two lane highways its 55-60. interstate is 65mph unless there is a ton of traffic then its 68-75mph. For me the difference between 65mph & 75mph is 6+mpg(going slower). at 75mph I seem to only get about 32-36mpg.


----------



## CruzeEcoBlueTopaz (Jan 5, 2012)

*This was April for me.

Total Fuel Spent = $ 701.78
Total Fuel Used = 180.3 g
Total Work Miles = 7461
Total Personal Miles = 1406
Average MPG = 49


This was May for me.

Total Fuel Spent = $ 727.48
Total Fuel Used = 183.4 g
Total Work Miles = 7895
Total Personal Miles = 1343
Average MPG = 50


I dont have June info yet. 

I drive about 375 highway miles everyday and the past couple weeks ive been averaging between 56-58 mpg ( DIC ) everyday. I fillup everyday about 8.5 gallons 87 octane 100% ethanol free and I pay $ 3.90 here in Boise.

*


----------



## 98sonoma (Nov 30, 2010)

****, you drive a lot! I thought I had it bad...traveling salesman?


----------



## bbdhomer (Jun 20, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Specific numbers are useless for the reasons Jim Frye stated. What you need to be looking at is miles per gallon, then do your own calculations to determine how much you would spend every month on gas or fuel. Because every location has different gas prices, and everyone's commute is completely different, none of this will be relevant for you.
> 
> ....
> 
> For example, I spend ~$155 a month on gas. However, this is irrelevant. What is relevant is that I drive ~1500 miles per month, I do mostly in-town driving, I drive a Cruze Eco MT and I've taken several steps to raise the fuel economy numbers I put down. My lifetime average per fuelly.com is *40.4 mpg with a 74% city driving split*, which has recently started to drop due to the need to run air conditioning nearly 100% of the time. That really should be the most relevant bit of information.


Yes, I know things like gas price, driving habit, condition, roads, traffic can factor into these numbers. But I think a "general input" from the community would show the _range_ of driving people do (on the forums anyway, even though not everyone would respond). And im also assuming not every member of this forum has a fuelly account or update the account as frequently as one should/would. Whoever probably joined fuelly in the first place to closely monitor their numbers, and with that 'care' in mind or to 'achieve the highest mpg possible' they might not be driving 'normally'. So totally depending on fuelly could also be potentially misleading.

To be honest, I don't really understand the MPG concept as clearly as most of you do. I need to see specific numbers to come up with an approximate image in my mind, that's how my mind works - yes, might be slow. yes, inefficient way. but once I understand the lower level specifics maybe I can go ahead and understand it a bit further.



dannylightning said:


> well so far its looking like 15 bucks a week filling up with 93 and driving around 150-200 miles a week.. about half around town and half highway but my highway drive is not at constant speed, there are about 4 long exit ramps with very sharp curves where i need to slow down to 30-40 mph and speed back up again during my 10 min highway drive to work each day.. if my 10 min drive were just a straight shot i think my mpg would be even better.
> 
> the one time i drove about half a hour on a straight stretch of highway i was averaging about 43 mpg according to the screen on the car dash.....


Interesting how many little things can factor in to gain 'the best' mpg.



thekevin said:


> The car in my sig goes 2347.78 miles per month since I bought it 2/21/2012 and its cost me $254.61 to get those miles.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using AutoGuide.Com Free App


Awesome.



deerebilt said:


> avg cost / mi .09
> avg cost / gal 3.57
> abg mi / dollar 10.98
> avg cost/ month 118.80
> ...


Very nice, thanks for the details!


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

bbdhomer said:


> Yes, I know things like gas price, driving habit, condition, roads, traffic can factor into these numbers. But I think a "general input" from the community would show the _range_ of driving people do (on the forums anyway, even though not everyone would respond). And im also assuming not every member of this forum has a fuelly account or update the account as frequently as one should/would. Whoever probably joined fuelly in the first place to closely monitor their numbers, and with that 'care' in mind or to 'achieve the highest mpg possible' they might not be driving 'normally'. So totally depending on fuelly could also be potentially misleading.
> 
> To be honest, I don't really understand the MPG concept as clearly as most of you do. I need to see specific numbers to come up with an approximate image in my mind, that's how my mind works - yes, might be slow. yes, inefficient way. but once I understand the lower level specifics maybe I can go ahead and understand it a bit further.
> 
> ...


Look at it as a function of how many miles you can drive with a set amount of fuel. The "miles per gallon" calculation is done when you fill up your tank, and is averaged over several fill-up of the gas tank. There are many variables that play into this. For example, if I have a remote start on my car and I remote start it in the winter to allow the car to be warm for my own comfort when I step inside and drive to work, that will be fuel consumed that will not help me go farther. I will be able to drive less miles as some of the fuel I used was not used for actual movement. 

On these cars, there are a very large variety of factors that affect our fuel economy, among which are:
- tire pressure
- driving habits
- shift points
- average speed
- temperature
- spark plug gap
- average trip length (in miles)
- transmission type (manual or automatic)
- added weight in passengers and cargo
- octane level (relevant to the 1.4L Turbo motor, especially in the summer)
- trim level (Eco vs Non-Eco)

See the link in my signature titled "how to get better fuel economy." There, I list some practical advice to help you achieve better fuel economy numbers with your car. Those that have strongly heeded that advice have been able to consistently achieve significantly improved fuel economy. You can make a difference with little things, such as waiting until the car is warmed up to operating temperature before using the heater, or using A/C only when necessary and using it on and off in recirculate mode for better efficiency.


----------



## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

A lot better than the old car, which is all that I really care about. 

I sometimes get disappointed when I see like 30 mpg in in town driving. Then I remember that that is actually pretty awesome. And seeing it close to 40 is amazing 

I really don't care enough to try to beat other peoples numbers. I drive the speed limit or 5-7 over or keep up with traffic. 

I've never had 1 tank that was 100% highway driving.



Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app


----------



## cwerdna (Mar 10, 2011)

bbdhomer said:


> Yes, I know things like gas price, driving habit, condition, roads, traffic can factor into these numbers. But I think a "general input" from the community would show the _range_ of driving people do (on the forums anyway, even though not everyone would respond)
> ...
> 
> To be honest, I don't really understand the MPG concept as clearly as most of you do. I need to see specific numbers to come up with an approximate image in my mind, that's how my mind works - yes, might be slow. yes, inefficient way. but once I understand the lower level specifics maybe I can go ahead and understand it a bit further.


As others have stated over and over, it's pretty darn pointless to compare fuel costs per month given all the factors mentioned. Take a look at AAA Fuel Gauge Report just to see the variation in cost per gallon, depending on the state.

At one point, when I was living in WA, I had almost all very short drives (which was killing my mileage in my Prius, I have no Cruze) but at many points was filling up only once every 3 weeks or month. Looking at my spreadsheet, those months, I was spending $15-$25/month on gas (well, I had another car too that I'd drive but wasn't tracking gas expenses). Gas was also much cheaper back then than now (in 2010) and WA state gas prices are lower than CA.

At one point, when I had a fairly long commute and was working in CA in mid-08, at gas price peaks, I was spending ~$100/month. I again had two cars and would tend to alternate but would drive the Prius more in times of high gas prices.

There's a guy on Priuschat who racked up 465K miles on his 09 Prius before trading it in. You can bet he was spending a **** of a lot more per month than I was.

Here's another example for, take a look at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=31070&id=31377. Let's assume one guy has an '11 Cruze 1.8L automatic and can only get EPA city ratings while the other guy has a '12 Cruze Eco manual w/mostly a highway drive and achieves EPA highway ratings. Assuming they drive 1000 miles/month, one guy would've used 23.81 gallons and the other guy 45.45 gallons. If gas were $3.50/gal for both, one guy spend $83.33 for gas and the other $159.

Let's assume the city driver lives in Hawaii, where gas is averaging $4.309/gal right now. He'd have spent $195.84. Let's assume the highway guy lives in South Carolina, where gas is $2.998/gal. He'd have spent only $71.38.

Pretty pointless, eh?


----------



## dannylightning (Jun 24, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Boost your tires to at least 40psi (I have mine at 50psi and have digitally measured no abnormal tire wear in the last 7000 miles) check your spark plug gap and set it to .035, and remove the intake resonator duct underneath the airbox (see my signature for writeup).
> 
> The above will allow you to coast farther, shift sooner lower, and accelerate at a lower RPM than you could before, which will boost your fuel economy significantly.


thanks, i will give that a try and see what happens.... it does seem you may be cooler air with the intake duct in there though. at least from what i could see with the picks..


----------



## Skraeling (May 30, 2012)

There is something to be said for over inflating as well and wearing the crap out of your tires unevenly... just saying.

You can probably get away with a few psi over what your door placard says, but going crazy high is just asking for trouble I personally think.

It also depends on the kind of tire as well how hard it is to begin with etc. My Conti DWS do NOT like being over inflated at all, they are kind of soft so it just made them wear weird. Did improve responsiveness as they are notorious for being spongy.


----------



## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Per month, per year? Outside of state and federal income and FICA taxes, highest single bill is our property taxes. Just for the city and county, but I receive a lot of services for that, like picking up a half a bag of garbage each week. Would be that much less if these corporations were more interested in far less packaging and deposits on empty bottles. Buying a lot more trash then the usable stuff on the inside.

Then the combined cable, internet, land line, and in particular the cellular phone bill as the next highest bill. Really a major ripoff for microvolt signals. I can do without that, but my family can't. Daughter overran that 5GB limit on her smart phone so US Cellular tacked on an extra 210 bucks on the bill. Didn't know about that but was outraged, she is going to have to pay that back. US Cellular gives no warning, have to use even more GB's to get on their net to learn if you are approaching that limit. Maybe time to find a different cell phone company.

Then comes the gasoline bill, even exceeds the combined electrical and natural gas bill, hopefully the Cruze will drop that down a tad, but we are only talking about a tad. Still only about 15% efficient, and why aren't we using natural gas to power our vehicles. We have plenty of that gas, read up to a 4,000 year supply and burns much cleaner than gasoline.

Home furnace is 97% efficient and AC produces 13 time the resistance value for cooling and that is 24/7, we don't spend that much time in our cars. Guessing maybe 3-5% at the most. Transportation cost to school or work is not tax deductible, unless you are a CEO with a 47 million buck Gulfstream used to entertain your customers. Then that cost, plus the crew and maintenance is 100% deductable.

Gas is not 4 bucks a gallon, more like $5.60 per gallon with the EPA insisting on making this dirty fuel burn cleaner, BTU ratings of the fuel we buy today has been drastically lowered. Least with natural gas, a therm is still a therm.

But that is only a small part of owning a vehicle, depreciation, outrageous parts cost, exorbitant labor charges, registration, and insurance. Really getting nailed anyway we turn with the automobile. They know that, and that we have to have one, can't even earn a living without one. They have us where they want us, plus making new laws to make owning an automobile even a lot more expensive.

As I tell my wife, lets just been over and take it with a smile, they sure know how to nail us. This is not the country I grew up in and was forced to spend six years of my life defending it. Not very happy what this country is doing to us. As well as exporting our jobs, only the government has the authority to do that.


----------



## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Ohm and it doesn't help they outlawed studded snow tires and dumping tons of salt on the roads. Can just watch your only means of transportation return to its natural state.


----------



## bbdhomer (Jun 20, 2012)

NickD said:


> Per month, per year? Outside of state and federal income and FICA taxes, highest single bill is our property taxes. Just for the city and county, but I receive a lot of services for that, like picking up a half a bag of garbage each week. Would be that much less if these corporations were more interested in far less packaging and deposits on empty bottles. Buying a lot more trash then the usable stuff on the inside.
> 
> ...
> 
> As I tell my wife, lets just been over and take it with a smile, they sure know how to nail us. This is not the country I grew up in and was forced to spend six years of my life defending it. Not very happy what this country is doing to us. As well as exporting our jobs, only the government has the authority to do that.


Great rant, agree with everything you said. 
Unfortunately - its becoming a global culture and the "norm", especially as the internet is turning the world into a global village.


----------



## cwerdna (Mar 10, 2011)

NickD said:


> Then comes the gasoline bill, even exceeds the combined electrical and natural gas bill, hopefully the Cruze will drop that down a tad, but we are only talking about a tad. Still only about 15% efficient, and why aren't we using natural gas to power our vehicles. We have plenty of that gas, read up to a 4,000 year supply and burns much cleaner than gasoline.
> ...
> Gas is not 4 bucks a gallon, more like $5.60 per gallon with the EPA insisting on making this dirty fuel burn cleaner, BTU ratings of the fuel we buy today has been drastically lowered. Least with natural gas, a therm is still a therm.
> 
> But that is only a small part of owning a vehicle, depreciation, outrageous parts cost, exorbitant labor charges, registration, and insurance. Really getting nailed anyway we turn with the automobile.


As for natural gas, there are many commercial vehicles that run on CNG (Eligible Vehicles - Single Occupant Carpool Lane Use Stickers has a whole bunch). You could buy a CNG Honda Civic. I see some around here, on occasion. 

One could also go w/a BEV or PHEV, if electricity rates are low in your area. It's dirt cheap in places like WA.

Yep. As many magazines point out, fuel costs are generally not the biggest cost of ownership of a car. It's the depreciation. And yep, insurance can be expensive.


----------

