Fueleconomy.gov's "My Trip Calculator": Plan Your Route, Pick Your Car, and Estimate Your Fuel Cost

Fuel Economy's "My Trip Calculator": Plan Your Route, Pick Your Car, and Estimate Your Fuel Cost Just in time for Fall weekend getaways, fueleconomy.gov's newest tool-"My Trip Calculator"-is an interactive trip calculator and mapping tool that helps you plan your route, pick your car, and estimate your fuel cost for the trip: www.fueleconomy.gov/trip/.

My Trip Calculator prompts you to enter your start and destination addresses, set your city driving percentage, and select up to three cars for comparison. Based on your input, the calculator displays the EPA fuel economy estimate ("MPG"), the national average fuel price ("Fuel Price"), the amount of fuel used ("Fuel Used (gal)"), and the cost of fuel used ("Fuel Cost") for each car.

My Trip Calculator is unique because it lets you plan your route, pick your car, and estimate your fuel cost all in one place, with fueleconomy.gov's database of all light-duty cars and trucks sold in the United States since model year 1984. You can personalize "MPG" by entering your own fuel economy number rather than using the EPA estimate. The website updates the national average fuel price each week, or you can personalize the fuel price to what you are paying per gallon. And, because it's based on a mapping tool, My Trip Calculator provides estimated miles and driving time for your trip, turn-by-turn driving directions, and a trip map.

So, for example, I can see that the Interstate drive from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Washington, D.C., is about 488 miles and takes a little over 7 hours. The fuel cost for this Interstate trip in my wife's 2009 Toyota Highlander is about $81, while it's about $65 in my 2002 Toyota Camry and about $39 in my friend's 2012 Toyota Prius. If we decide to take a side trip along the scenic route (the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive through Virginia), I can see that the mileage increases to about 585 miles and the driving time to about 11 hours. The fuel cost for the scenic trip increases to about $97 for the Highlander, about $78 for the Camry, and about $46 for the Prius.

Although My Trip Calculator is new, the Fuel Economy team is already planning some enhancements for the near future, including estimates of how driving speed will affect your fuel use and cost on a trip, and how much fuel and money you can save per hour of added driving time on a trip.