A Creative Communications Agency

Gas is getting expensive, we know. Car/truck companies are trying to make the best out of a bad situation and have been recently running advertisements where they boast about how far you can drive on a tank of gas with their larger size vehicles. Is this something to boast about or just a misleading statement that consumers may not clearly understand?

Who’s making these type of statements; mostly the automakers who are trying to unload the large volume of trucks and SUV’s that are sitting around, taking up lot space at dealerships and, if you’ve been around Detroit, any vacant lot where they can put them.

But what kind of statement are they making. Typically car makers have always included the Miles Per Gallon (MPG) a vehicle gets as a feature. It’s the biggest type on the window sticker and something that the consumers are focusing on now even more. Stay focused. The new trick is to talk about Miles Per Fill-up (MPF) or Miles Per Tank (MPT), this way it sound like you can drive really far and fill up fewer times with an SUV or truck. “462 miles per fill-up” , or something close to that, was one quote I heard on TV. That sound good right? Well you better do some thinking and get a calculator.

Here is the problem with that statement; SUV’s, trucks, big cars, and every car to be accurate, have different gas tank sizes. That is what you are filling up, the whole tank. A small car that gets a high number of miles per gallon; a Toyota Corolla gets 35-36 miles per gallon and, as I can attest to, only takes about 11 gallons to fill-up. In the new language a Corolla only gets 385-396 Miles Per Fill-up. That must be bad because that SUV gets well over 400 gallons per fill-up! Truth be told any big SUV probably has twice the size tank of a Corolla, thus costing twice as much to fill. Let’s do the work backwards:

Said SUV gets: 462 miles per fill-up

Divided by: 22 gallon tank (complete guess but probably close)

Equals: 21 miles per gallon! That sound about right in most of the larger vehicles, could even be considered good in some cases.

Remember always look to Miles Per Gallon for an honest number to calculate costs. Filling up the tank all comes down to the cost of the fill. Those are the numbers you’re watching go higher and higher into that expansive tank in your SUV. Does it really make you feel better knowing you drove a little farther between fill-ups when it costs around $100?

It is a creative spin on how to make something sound better than it really is. Stay alert people, the ads are trying to distract you from the more important issue; Miles Per Gallon - Live by it, Drive by it, Fill by it.