You purchase your dream car, the car runs well and everything is good. But 3 days go by and you find yourself already at the fuel pump. At this point you ask yourself how much you drove this week and start running the numbers and things are just not adding up. Well this is a common problem people face after purchasing a vehicle. The economics of a vehicle are not taken into account, specifically the fuel economy. Unless you are driving an electric vehicle, fuel is one of the biggest costs when it comes to operating a vehicle. When purchasing a vehicle take a look at the miles per gallon (mpg) rating. This will give you a good idea of how many miles you can travel per each gallon of fuel consumed. A very fuel efficient vehicle would have about 35 mpg rating combined city and highway. Now if you are driving on highways most of the time 40 mpg would be great highway mileage. In the city, your car should get you about 30 mpg if you are looking for a fuel efficient vehicle. Now some of the thirstiest vehicles can be as low as 10 mpg. This kind of fuel efficiency is not recommended as it will burn a hole through your wallet. However sometimes we need a truck or SUV. Recommended fuel efficiency for a truck or SUV would be around 22 mpg combined and in the city about 19 mpg on the highway 26 mpg. Now with gas prices on the rise, new trucks and SUVs are getting pretty competitive with their fuel economy levels.