The website Go Banking Rates (GBR) wanted to find out how much money the average American driver spends on gasoline in each state throughout their lifetime of driving. To do this, they used a method based on data from the government and the American Automobile Association (AAA).
They assumed that the average American drives for 61 years, from age 16 to 77, and calculated the yearly miles driven in each state. They also considered the size of the average car’s gas tank and its fuel efficiency. Then, they multiplied the yearly miles by the number of times the gas tank needs to be filled each year. After that, they multiplied the total gallons of gas needed by the average price of gas in each state. Finally, they multiplied this yearly cost by 61 to get the lifetime cost.
For example, let’s say a driver in a certain state drives 12,000 miles per year and gets 300 miles out of each tank of gas. That means they need to fill their tank 40 times a year. If the gas tank holds 15 gallons, they would need 600 gallons of gas per year. If the average gas price in that state is $3 per gallon, the yearly cost would be $1,800. Multiply that by 61 years, and the lifetime cost would be $109,800.
According to GBR’s findings, this hypothetical driver’s lifetime gas cost would be the sixth-cheapest in the United States. They found that Wyoming residents have the highest lifetime gas cost, followed by California.
However, there are some uncertainties in GBR’s calculations. They used average numbers for gas tank size and fuel efficiency, but these can vary widely depending on the type of car. Also, the price of gas has changed a lot over the years, so it’s hard to accurately predict the lifetime cost. They didn’t account for diesel vehicles or the fact that some cars are more fuel-efficient than others.
GBR’s study gives us an idea of how much money people might spend on gas over their lifetime, but it’s important to remember that individual circumstances can vary widely.
