Honda Civic Crowned Top Car on Cost2Drive.com

Beats Out the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord for Most Frequently Entered Vehicle

It turns out concerns over driving costs don’t go away with the purchase of a fuel-efficient vehicle.  After pouring over data from a million vehicles that have been entered on our popular trip calculator we’re ready to announce that the Honda Civic, one of the most fuel-efficient vehicles on the market, takes the crown as the most frequently entered vehicle on Cost2Drive.com.  Over 31,000 Honda Civic owners have turned to Cost2Drive to help plan car trips, narrowly edging out Toyota Camry and Honda Accord owners for the top spot.

Top Three Vehicles Entered on Cost2Drive.com

When we launched Cost2Drive we thought the site would attract owners of larger, less fuel-efficient vehicles like SUVs and pickups, so we were a little surprised to find such fuel-efficient vehicles dominating the top of the list.  It appears that concerns over driving costs remain even after the purchase of a fuel-efficient vehicle, perhaps because gas prices remain at historic highs.

In a previous post we revealed that Ford ranked as the top car brand on Cost2Drive with Ford owners entering over 125,000 vehicles in our Galculator, and yet no Ford vehicles landed in the top three positions.  However Ford is well represented with four vehicles in the top ten list including the Ford Explorer which is the top-ranked SUV, and the F150, the top pickup truck.

Top Twenty Vehicles Entered on Cost2Drive.com

We were curious to see how this list compares with the overall distribution of all vehicles on the road today in the US so we posted a question on popular Q&A site Quora seeking that information.  An Edmunds analyst was kind enough to provide us with the overall breakdown.

One noticeable discrepancy between these two lists is that SUVs and minivans rank higher on Cost2Drive whereas pickup trucks rank higher on the list of all vehicles on the road.  This could be because Cost2Drive attracts more of a leisure travel audience such as families that are planning vacations.  Evidence of this can be found in the high volume of routes to Disney theme parks entered on Cost2Drive in 2011,  where the leading vehicles are minivans.

Based on 10,000 routes to Disney parks entered on Cost2Drive.com

Average Age of Top Ten Vehicles

The average age of the million vehicles that have been entered on Cost2Drive.com is 7.3 years, meaning our audience is driving cars that are 2.7 years younger than the 10-year average age of all vehicles on the road today in the US.  As a final bit of analysis we decided to take a look at the average age of the top ten vehicles to see how it compared with all vehicles.

Average Age (years) of Top 10 Vehicles Entered on Cost2Drive.com

The average age of the top ten vehicles is 7.6 years,  slightly older than all vehicles entered on Cost2Drive.com.  The Ford Focus came in as the youngest vehicle entered with an average age of 5.1 years and the Ford Explorer was the oldest at 9.2 years.

*Important to note is that the analysis covers vehicles going back to the 1990 model year, and that results for the two youngest vehicles are skewed due to later vehicle launches (Ford introduced the Focus in the US market in 1999 and Honda launched the Odyssey in 1995).

This post is the final installment of a 3 Part Series where we revealed data on a million vehicles entered on Cost2Drive.com to coincide with the North American International Auto Show.  The two previous posts looked into the top luxury vehicles entered on Cost2Drive and the top car brands overall.

If you have any questions regarding the above information or C2G, LLC  feel free to send us a note here or email me directly at jim@costtogo.com.

Happy Driving!

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Chevrolet Launches…a Hedgehog?

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In what may be the most brilliant marketing ploy of the new year, yesterday at the 2011 North American International Auto Show (aka Detroit Auto Show) Chevrolet launched the Sonic.  The Sonic, which  apparently is a revision on the Aveo, comes in two models; one that is very typical of a dreary sedan, and a hatchback that…well…looks an awful lot like Sonic the Hedgehog.

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If  you want to learn more about the car, please go elsewhere as this is probably the most poorly researched article you’ll find (something at which I excel).  That’s because upon hearing the news I immediately went to Google images to compare photos of the  popular Sega character with the car, the results of which are above.

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Now, I did see a tweet that claims GM had no intention of leveraging off the absolutely HUGE fanbase of Sonic the Hedgehog players, but being the father of an eighteen-year-old boy who grew up fanatical about this game, I have my doubts.  What better way for an older established brand to break through to a young generation of car buyers than through a beloved video game character. I’m almost certain there’s a clever marketing genius at GM/Chevrolet that is delightfully rubbing his or her hands together at the thought of this coup.

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So what next?  How soon before racing versions of Sonic the Hedgehog come out with cars that are identical to the  Chevrolet Sonic?  Will Ford panic and scramble to put out a Mario Kart version of the Escort?  Only time will tell, but the lines between virtual and reality appear to be blurring.

Oh…and regarding those numbers above. As I started this post I sent the image above out on Twitter and those are the number of clicks so far.  Game, Set, Match GM.

C2G Launches Electric Car Commuting Calculator for Detroit Auto Show

To coincide with the start of the North American International Auto Show (also known as the Detroit Auto Show), C2G, LLC announces the launch of the Electric Car Commuting Calculator, a Facebook application that calculates how much money you’d save driving an electric car to work.

Already a Top 10 application in the Facebook Auto category, the Commuting Calculator determines the amount of money you’ll save commuting to work in an electric car compared to your current vehicle. It does this by calculating the fuel cost of your daily work commute  and subtracting the electricity costs associated with driving an electric vehicle to arrive at a monthly and annual cost savings.

Although simple in appearance, there are actually some sophisticated processes running behind the scenes.  For example, the Commuting Calculator identifies gas prices near your home address from 80,000 stations across the US which makes the commuting cost personally relevant to you.  It also identifies the proper grade of fuel for your vehicle (regular, premium or diesel) from a vehicle database of more than 20,000 vehicles going back 20 years.  The electricity costs are determined by the EPA’s cost-per-mile findings for both the Volt and the Leaf.

You’ll note we’ve also built the application on the Facebook platform to make it  easy to share with friends, but you don’t have to be a Facebook member to use it as its available for free to anyone with access to the Internet.

To visit the application go to http://apps.facebook.com/costtodrive or go to Facebook.com and type in ‘Commuting Calculator’ in the search box.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Why are gas prices so high?