Tundra fuel economy math.

Suppose you drive a Tundra (big assumption, I know). You love to drive it. You love the sound, the power, the responsiveness (especially in beast mode). Your driving style nets you 12mpg.
This means that, if fuel costs $2.00/gal, your Tundra costs $0.167 for every mile you drive it down the road.

This 12mpg business is starting to get old. You hate it. You think, “I must be spending WAY too much money on gas. This truck is too thirsty! And, isn’t it a bit behind the others in terms of features?”

So, you check out the competition. For many late nights, you pore over data, YouTube reviews, various forums. Domestic Brand F’s half ton sticks out to you. It has better towing and payload numbers, far more standard features, and F says it gets 20mpg. “20mpg?! Where have I been?” You decide that your Tundra is behind the times. It’s time to get into a new truck. Good thing your Tundra has such great trade-in value!

You go to the nearest F dealer and find an F truck you want. You’ve gone back and forth with the dealer, and the deal is finally acceptable to you. $48k OTD for the F truck with the dealer giving you $35k for your Tundra. You still owe $15k on the Tundra, which means that $20k of your Tundra’s value goes toward the new F truck, and you will be financing $28k on the new truck. “No big deal; my monthly payment won’t change much at all,” you think.

You decide to do it. You are now the proud owner of truck F! You’re going to save so much money at the pump! And all the features! Why didn’t you do this sooner???

In the words of everyone’s favorite infomercial guy, “But wait, there’s more!”

More math, that is.

F says its truck gets 20mpg combined. But remember, Toyota says the Tundra gets 15mpg combined; yet the way you drive, you get 12mpg. Let’s say for the sake of reality, that your driving style will net you 17.5mpg in your new F truck. Thus, if fuel costs $2.00/gal, truck F costs $0.114 for every mile you drive it down the road.

So, the big question is, assuming ZERO repairs, how many miles do you need to drive in your new F truck before you start to actually save money at the pump?

We can find this by setting the total cost from this point forward for each truck (amt. owed + fuel cost/mile*miles driven) equal to each other and solving for the number of miles:

$15k + $0.167x = $28k + $0.114x
=>
0.053x = 13,000
=>
x = 245,283 miles.

**TL;DR: Your new domestic truck, even though its fuel economy is almost 50% better than the Tundra, is going to have to be driven 245k miles before you break even on the purchase.**

Conversely, you can drive your Tundra an additional 245k miles before it becomes more expensive from this point forward than purchasing domestic truck F, which is almost 50% more fuel efficient.​

This is simplified. It assumes ZERO repairs, and it does not take into consideration interest rates for financing, the costs of insurance, property tax (if applicable in your area), or maintenance costs, which will vary truck to truck. No one’s warranty lasts 245k miles, so we know there will be repair costs beyond standard maintenance, even for the Tundra. But, the data shows the Tundra will in all likelihood have far lower repair costs over the long term.

If you’re considering doing this, and it seems that many are on this forum, plug your values into the above equation:

(Amt owed on Tundra) + (cost per mile) = (net price for new truck) + (cost per mile).
Solve for the number of miles, and decide if it’s worth it.

 

That’s a lot to follow.....I just enjoy mine and put the gas on the credit card to get double hotel points and pay it every month

 

Too many apples and oranges. I don't hate my mpg because I literally don't ever think about mpg.

 

You're right; it is a lot. That's why I put that TL;DR.

Most people just think better mpg = savings. What is above is the reality.

 

Me either really and with the larger fuel tank compared to my Silverado it seems the same

 

I will argue that Tundra is also a domestic truck.

 

Maaaaaaath.

I averaged 10.4 mpg to work this morning in my Tunny. I just got my 2017 Silverado work truck back from the dealer a couple of weeks ago after a full new transmission replacement due to it grenading and leaving me stranded over two hours from home on the side of the road with (luckily) one bar of service. I'll gladly deal with the shitty gas mileage any day compared with the alternative.

 

That was pure entertainment! With a math lesson I paid as much attention to as calculus when the hottest girl in the school sat in front of me.. Thanks for the chuckle.

 

Bold assumption to think a Ford will last 240,000 miles

 

I couldn’t agree with you more OP!

In my opinion people only look at the basic numbers when making these financial decisions. To each their own but purchasing a replacement vehicle to save money RARELY saves you anything. Maybe if you commuted 60k a year and went from a Tundra to a Hybrid Corolla...

Same goes for buying a second vehicle to save gas costs. Never works out the way excepted... Buying a second vehicle to lessen miles on your favorite truck (Tundra)...HELL YEAH! I am guilty as charged any many of my friends and family think I am nuts for doing it. But I never made the saving money argument just the crack heads destroying my car argument.

 

Also, if you drive such that you get 12 mpg in your Tundra, what are the odds you're actually going to get 17+ mpg in something else? I get almost exactly the same highway fuel economy as my former boss gets in his 5.3 GM.

 

At least gas isn’t like it was several years ago. Like $4 a gal in the south

 

Isn't it similar math as to when to take social security at 62 or 70, the catch up is 15 years.

 

Valid points here. I never understood why anyone would go from one 1/2 ton to another 1/2 ton. They're all the same. If you're going to blow money, at least go to an f250. -- What I'm doing lol

 

I was maybe being a bit generous. My thinking was getting 12mpg in a 15mpg truck is like getting 17.5mpg in a 20mpg truck. But maybe it’s more like getting 16mpg in a 20mpg truck (80%)...

 

Give it time brother...

 

A mechanical engineer once said;

"The least expensive vehicle to own and operate is the one parked on your driveway."

 

I hope not it’s been ranging from 1.79 to 1.99 here in sc for a while now

 

The DIC in my brother's Sierra SAYS he gets 28 mpg...

... On a long downhill section of highway with a tail wind. I notice he neglected to tell me what it thinks he got on the way back up that hill.

 

Agreed. I drove a 2016 Tundra for a bit at work. It's fuel economy was maybe 1mpg less than the 2011 Sierra with the 5.3L I used to own and maybe 2mpg less than the 2013 F150 with a 5.0L that I had before my current Tundra. Now, the GM never left me stranded and only had 1 major repair done under warranty. The F150 had over $6000 in warranty work + another $1200 out of pocket done to it between 2014 when I bought it and 2016 when I got rid of it.

I'd have to see a more than 5mpg swing before I'd even start considering buying another truck. Based on my experience, Toyota is the only manufacturer who is actually honest with their mpg claims. None of Big 3 trucks I've ever drive, and through work I've driven dozens, have come anywhere close to the claimed fuel economy.

 

Live and learn. For some of us dumber ones, the lessons can be more expensive.

Back in '08 when the market crashed and gas was $5 a gallon even in Indiana, I had an '05 Jeep TJ (Hobbes, my partner in crime) and a 25 mile each way commute. I convinced myself it was a good idea to trade the Jeep for a fuel efficient commuter car - an '08 Honda Civic. Now, I was getting a pretty good 17-18 mpg pretty regular out if the Jeep (commute was mostly 55 mph roads without too many stops). The Civic though, would squeeze out 42-44 mpg easily.

Problem is, while the Civic was a nice enough car, I hated it. It was a soul-less toaster and lacked any and all character, charm, and rowdiness my Jeep had. So, I made mistake #2 and bought a cheap, high mileage 99 Jeep TJ for "fun, weekends, and when weather got bad". Holy crap, while it was fun, that '99 (which I dubbed "Lady Redbush", due to her Chili Pepper Red paint and my amusement when I heard Peter call Lois that in a Family Guy episode) cost me more money than an actual Red Headed mistress would have cost me! She was high maintenance, so to speak, and while she never stood me up (even with a broken piston skirt and oil pan full of metal shavings from the cylinder wall) she still got me several miles home AND a few more miles to the shop I had do the engine swap). She was a lot of fun cavorting around with, but she was always demanding attention. Things I replaced, well, let's make the list shorter and tell you I did NOT have to repair or replace the transmission, transfer case, the axles, nor any body work. Almost everything else I repaired or replaced.

The expensive lesson here is now knowing I could have easily bought the Civic while keeping and paying off the '05 Jeep and been a good chunk of money ahead. I'd have saved even more money if I'd just kept Hobbes to begin with and never considered the Civic. But then, I wouldn't have had Lady Redbush and all those experiences either...

So yeah... unfortunately I've "been there, done that".

 

Anyone who is consistently relying on the computer for a true MPG without hand checking it a few times is kidding themselves.

 

Not if you’re upside down on it from always trading in for new ones.


Pay them off and then drive them for 10-15 years.

 

It's the same thing as having two cars to save on fuel, it makes no sense unless you get the secondary for real cheap and lasts a while.

Great math BTW.

 

But since we already own two cars, I may as well take the wife's Corolla if I'm not towing or hauling.

 

I hope not too...but globalization is unavoidable under the alleged incoming administration. Which NEVER plays well for gas prices...

 

I just pretend I'm actually getting the 17.5 mpg's I see on the gauge cluster from the supercharger, eventhough I'm really getting about 12.5.

 

That's exactly what I do. Since The Woman works from home, the Corolla is my commuter vehicle.

 

Great post. This is the stuff that drives me nuts when people think they can make money by buying a new truck.

My truck is within 5% of my F150‘s MPG. That’s based on doing a 100-mile freeway trip with a similar load. Real world to real world comparison. Many OEMs fudge their mileage ratings and Ford is horrible. Not to mention, you need to buy the stripped down 2-wheel drive with the base V6 to get the advertised MPGs.

And never, ever trust the computer. My Tundra was always about 0.5mpg too generous the times I’ve compared it. My F150 was 1.0-1.5mpgs too generous.

Finally, for those of you with the “what about when fuel gets expensive” comments...Do the same math. You will save some money, but it is still not enough to make a reasonable positive business case.

 

There is also the other math. Sell $40k+ tundra with outstanding loan balance and buy older one with cash. Don’t worry about fuel cost.

Truck payment $0, buy kids a basketball hoop so you can use it = priceless.