Thanks for asking, now I found it as well. :o

I love categories. However, I think this is definitely a case where we could get too many, too soon. The issue of vehicle weight has come up several times though, and this was my first thought as well (given that most of the closest competitors in my class are a 1000+ lbs. lighter than me). I'm not sure this should be something that necessarily gets one into the top ten(s), but I am very curious about MPG/weight ratio.

For example, it often occurs to me when I see a semi rig on the highway, hauling say, half a dozen bloated Pickups/SUVs, that there is a tremendous disparity in their FE vs. weight. That is, the SUVs are getting say, 15 MPG and weigh 3,600 lbs (i.e. Jeep Liberty) while the semi truck, trailer, and load totals out at around 70,000+ lbs. and is still getting... 6 MPG (or so). That's nearly twenty times the weight, but only two and a half times the fuel... so I'm thinkin' this can be expressed in some nifty figures and would make for an interesting tool for comparison.

Just did some looking around to see what that might entail, and came across this thread, in which we find the following, which is what I was getting at:

Curb weight w/ 200 pound driver:

Prius II: 3,090 pounds
Prius I: 2,965 pounds
HCH Manual: 2,884 pounds
Insight Manual: 2,080 pounds

Average MPG per the Real Mileage Database (this morning):

Prius II: 48.3 mpg
Prius I: 48.3 mpg
HCH Manual: 46.9 mpg
Insight Manual: 66.9 mpg

Average mpg/pound:

Honda Insight: .0322 mpg/pound
Prius I: .0163 mpg/pound
HCH: .0163 mpg/pound
Prius II: .0156 mpg/pound

bbgobie -

I'm don't see anything wrong with looking at data from different directions. I guess it's just a baseball stats thing to me :o . From a personal POV, I don't mind if I'm never in the top ten of anything, but I can see why other people would want to see their car in comparison to similar cars. A Chevy Malibu will never be able to "compete" with a Geo Metro in terms of pure MPG.

Just make a crossover category. And all categories should have "other" category. In fact, if Matt implemented it, everyone would start in the "other" category for all options by default. That way he wouldn't have to troll through all the Garage entries and make guesses (Matt, "other" would have value "0").

Personally, I think of a crossover as a car, but 2wd/4wd/awd can be another category.

CarloSW2

All I know is when you get up there and start mucking about in the top 25 or 30. You better have a tin can or your going to get your teeth kicked in. :)

I'm very happy to be able to compare in terms of % over/under EPA. I think that's as level a playing field as you can get without going insane. They've already done the work in figuring out a car/truck's likely FE.

Oh please lets not have "other".

I'm familiar with another FE/mpg forum which has an "other" category. There is always someone with a regular gasoline vehicle who does not pay attention when setting it up - and it ends up tagged as "other". To make matters worse, the only person who can change the car's category is the administrator. So there it stays, in a category all by itself.

The more we break it down into smaller and smaller types, the fewer cars/trucks there will be in each type. So maybe there will be a grouping for SUVs between 3500-4000 lb, split into stick and auto tranny? With one SUV in each category? How about we subdivide that into c/d below 3.5 and above 3.5? With and without a boat strapped on the roof?

Exactly, that is what you all should be shooting for, % over EPA. If you want to be in the top 10 buy a metro and go for it.

I still want an 'Other' category, I don't think a top 10 would matter in it but for random stuff like tractors and ATVs. Stuff that could still get better mileage if someone actually cared and could be something interesting to add to the site. I don't think any street legal vehicle should be in the Other category though.

Btw my 2006 Yamaha Wolverine 450 ATV gets 31mpg running around the mountains. My Max II 6x6 gets 8mpg on land :) No category to list them in on this site or I probably would add them to my gaslog.

Instead of a large variety of categories I think just keep the main ones and add more information about each vehicle that can be searchable. That way the normal lists stay as they are but if you are curious about a very narrow range of vehicles you can do a search and get your results. Doing something basic like comparing all 90-94 auto metros to 90-94 5psd metros does not need separate categories but a having a way to find just those cars in a search would be great.