It was back in August of 2009 when I wrote about figuring what it would cost me to drive my Dodge Caravan one mile. Since then I have come across new information. It seems that I am not the only one who realizes that the old way of measuring a cars efficiency by miles per gallon leaves out too many variables.

Since August of 2009, everyone that I have talked with have raised their eye brows. It is as if a light bulb was turned on in their brain. The old standard of miles per gallon can no longer a standard good for measuring return on money when driving. The new standard should be Cost Per Mile.

Why are so many people interested in knowing the Cost-per-Mile?  Automobiles are no longer running just on fossil fuels.  Electricity is measured in terms of cents per kilowatt. The future cost automobile efficiency must be reflect. The Cost Per Mile or CMP ratings will eventually become the new standard.

There has been in the last few year great discussion about Cost per Mile or CPM. This ranges from the fossil car fueled people, to the hybrid car folks, even the bicycle riding community are in discussion on the topic.

Some old friends at the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, in Santa Cruz California has done some real in-depth research. The title of their result is The True Cost of Driving. They have put together a quite interesting calculator.

Some other folks took the numbers from AAA and came up with national averages for driving a certain type of car per mile. The website is called PierceTransit.org. There numbers are lower than ones from Santa Cruz.

At Ooida.com a trucker who put together a worksheet for figuring Cost Per Mile for Truckers. I was surprised how much it does cost a big rig one mile.

I wanted to know what it really cost me to drive my little Dodge Caravan one mile. I wanted the calculator to be flexible enough so I could change numbers like price of gas and other expenses as they change. So I created my own spreadsheet in Excel.

It is not rocket science to figure out what it cost you to drive one mile. You can get the following dollar amounts from your bookkeeping software. The hardest one may be figuring out how many miles you drive in a year.

If you want to find out what it really cost you to drive you car or truck one mile. Just click on the above image of the spreadsheet and print it. Then fill in the blank.

All I ask is that you post at the end of this article your reaction when you find out how much it REALLY cost to drive you vehicle one mile.

Tags: bicycle, Calculator, Dodge Caravan, Fossil Fuel, Fuel Economy, Gas Mileage, Hybrid Cars, Ooida.com, Pierce Transit, Santa Cruz