ALT-1 Why Suvs Burn more Gas than Cars
There you sit, tall and proud, in your mighty SUV. Next to you, cruising down the freeway, some little soapbox car merely half the height of your mountain of machinery. As you survey your gauges, the low fuel reminder light happens to blink, then stay on. As you pull off the four-lane highway to the nearest gas station, you seem to remember that very same soapbox gassed up alongside you at the last stop. "Wait! Why do I have to gas up already and they don't?" Has that question ever crossed your mind?SUV's, by inherent nature, are big, clumsy, and love to drink gas. This is for a few reasons, the first of which, is in the previous sentence. Their size. Generally speaking, SUV's are taller, wider, and much heavier than cars with a comparable wheelbase. All this extra weight has a very adverse effect on gas mileage. The more mass a vehicle has, the more power it will take to get that behemoth off the line when the light turns green. More power requires more gas.With this larger size and heavier machinery comes another downfall. Aerodynamics. Or the loss thereof. SUV's are, by no means the most aerodynamically efficient vehicles on the road. In fact, the ordinary cinder block has close to the same drag coefficient as many SUV's. Here's another way to look at it. Next time you're in the passenger seat on a warm sunny day, roll down the window and put your hand out the window with your fingers pointing to the front of the car. Now, raise your hand so your palm is facing to the front. Notice a difference? That is a basic example of the difference of a small car zipping down the highway, and your Expedition lumbering at the same speed. This block pushing the air requires a lot more power than your knife-edged hand slicing through it.Finally, to move this heavier, cinder block of a vehicle, the auto makers usually offer larger engines to cope with the more mass and loss of aerodynamics. These larger and more powerful engines require more fuel to run at peak efficiency. And, of course, if they offer a larger engine, who doesn't want the extra power?SUV's have more mass, they push the air instead of slicing through it, and, generally speaking, have larger engines than cars. These factors can only have one outcome...loss of gas mileage. Now you only have to figure out "Where's the next gas station?"
