Q: Sabina’s car has 50% better fuel efficiency (miles per gallon) than her old car. The new car uses diesel which is 20% more costly than the gas in her old car. On a percent basis, how much will she save on a long trip?
A: 20%
For this problem, we made up numbers to make the Math easier 🙂
We can use 10 miles per gallon for Sabina’s old car which would make the new one 15 mpg.
We can pick an easy number that plays nice with 10 and 15 like 30.
If she goes 30 miles on a trip, she will need 3 gallons with the old car but only 2 gallons with the new car.
Now we need a price for gas so we assumed $4.
If gas is $4/gallon but diesel is 20% more at $4.80 per gallon, she would have spent 3 x $4 = $12 with the old car but now spends only $9.60 for the new car (2 x $4.80).
She saved $2.40 on $12 which is a 20% savings.
