The Gas-Guzzler and the Fuel-Sipper

One of the biggest concerns of new car buyers today is fuel efficiency, for both financial and environmental reasons. When my husband and I decided to give up our gas-guzzling 4x4 truck, we wanted the most fuel efficient car we could afford. After pricing hybrids, and walking away brokenhearted, that affordable fuel efficient car turned out to be the 2009 Toyota Yaris- sedan version, with power locks and windows.

Shortly after haggling and arguing and then finally driving away from the dealer lot in our brand-new beautiful light blue Toyota Yaris, we were faced with the task of delivering the gas-guzzling truck back to my mother-in-law, the truck's true owner. This meant driving both vehicles from Central Texas to New Mexico, dropping off the truck and then driving just the new car home. A perfect chance to see exactly how much more fuel efficient the Yaris was than the truck.

The Vehicles

2005 Dodge Dakota SLT, 22 gallon fuel tank

2009 Toyota Yaris Sedan, 11 gallon fuel tank

The Hypothesis

We both knew that the Yaris would be more fuel efficient than the Dakota, but by how much? Exactly how much would we save on gas by driving the Yaris? Would it be just a little, or would it blow us away? Without guessing any particular figures, we hypothesized that the answer would be "a lot."

The Trip

We both started with a full tank of gas in Temple, Texas. Our road trip took us through Fort Worth, Wichita Falls and Amarillo, and then along the straight highways of eastern New Mexico to Albuquerque for a total trip of 789.1 miles. The average gas price during our trip was $1.58.

The Dodge Dakota stopped for gas four times, guzzled 48.9 gallons of gas, and cost my husband $78.29.

The Toyota Yaris stopped three times, sipped 22.6 gallons of gas, and cost me $35.48 for the exact same trip.

The fuel efficiency of the Dodge Dakota averaged 16.14 miles per gallon. During a long stretch of non-stop highway, it performed its best at 17.89 miles per gallon. There was a stretch of hilly road where we drove faster to make up time, and the truck performed its worst on this section, coming in at 14.68 miles per gallon. The advertised fuel efficiency for the 2005 Dodge Dakota was 18-21 mpg on the highway. Hmm. Not even close.

The fuel efficiency of the Toyota Yaris averaged 34.92 miles per gallon. The best stretch was on long easy highway where it performed at 36.96 miles per gallon. At higher speeds on a hilly section of road, the Yaris only measured 31.83 miles per gallon. The advertised fuel efficiency of the 2009 Toyota Yaris was 36 mpg on the highway. On the optimistic side of "pretty close."

At its worst, the 2009 Toyota Yaris proved itself to be twice as fuel efficient as the 2005 Dodge Dakota. No, we can't haul trailers or go off-roading with it. But the 4-door Sedan is surprisingly roomy and has a decent sized trunk that will serve us just fine on a day-to-day basis. We'll be saving quite a bit of money in 2009, even if gas prices keep rising.