Gas Prices

Just did an interesting calculation on MilesGallon.com. It shows that although gas prices in Spain are almost double those in Canada ($1.60 a litre compared to $0.95), the fuel efficiency of cars almost compensates, so that total driving costs for gas are just about 30% higher.

My 1998 Daewoo Lanos in Spain just did 820 km on 61 litres of gas (two fills), which is 7.4 litres per 100 km, and since the price here is 1.196 euros, or $1.60 per litre, the cost was about 12 cents Canadian per kilometre.

My 1998 Toyota Corolla in Canada does about 9 litres per 100 km, and since the average price of gas in Calgary is now around 95 cents, the cost is 8.5 Canadian cents per kilometre.

So it costs me 8.5 cents per kilometre in Canada and 12 cents per kilometre in Spain.

Newer small cars in Spain are much more efficient, commonly getting about 6 litres per 100 km, whereas in Canada, even my almost new Honda Fit, which is supposed to be super economical, only gets around 10 litres per 100 km. If you compare new cars, then, the cost of driving in the two countries is almost the same.