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Do the MPG Math!

Since I am prone to sharing old sayings, this has to be a favorite of many of us:  figures lie and liars figure.  So let’s start out with some figures:  558 x .33 = 184.14.  The 558 is the gallons of gas used in a year by the average driver, with the number being provided by no less than H&R Block – see the link.  The .33 represents the 33 cents increase in gas prices year over year, with the figure provided by U.S. Energy Information Agency as of February 27th.  So $184.14 represents the added cost faced by drivers at the pump – for a year.  So if that figure is divided by the number of months in a year, the monthly figure is…$15.35.  There are hundreds of ways to do the math and yes, it obviously takes a larger amount of money to fill the tank but an added $15.35 a month is not what I call a ‘bite’.  This may be where you call me a ‘liar’, but just putting it out there.

You can jump on the ‘woe is me’ bandwagon that includes political candidates, talk-show hosts from the right and left, and an assortment of doomsday advocates from every walk of life.  Or you can move forward and merchandise the ‘hot’ vehicles in terms of fuel mileage and bring traffic into your showroom today.  If you have trained your sales team properly, there should not be any problem in clearly demonstrating the significant savings of nearly every vehicle on your lot.  With warranty protection and no charge maintenance packages, those savings alone cover way beyond $15.35 a month.

No, don’t go with ‘woe is me’ but yes, step out and touch your market that is mentally positive in spite of our national news media and tired of that average of 10 year old vehicle!  They will come to your showroom ready to buy, so sell them; if you don’t someone else will.   And remember that figure – they drove their last car for an average of 10 years!

This is the third in a series on gas prices and how they affect automotive retail.  View part one.  View part two.  View part three.

John Paul Strong

John Paul Strong combines his two decades of automotive marketing experience with a team of more than 150 professionals as owner and CEO of Strong Automotive.

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