How much will it cost to drive to WDW if gas goes to $5/gallon?

[DawnM]

Well, my vehicle may be around .35 per mile right now. We have just over 90K miles or so on my SUV and the initial cost was $32,500. However, we plan to keep it past 200K miles if at all possible. It is paid for at this point and is a 2004. It currently drives like the day we bought it and DH has done all routine maintenance himself. We have bought new tires, which were costly, but necessary.

We don't stay in hotels on the way down, so that cost doesn't need to be factored in. We also typically only eat one meal at a fast food place each way and take snacks and a cooler for the rest. We get to the condo in time to eat there and get home in time to eat dinner at home.

So, if you want to figure in all of that.....it would be around $750 (at $5/gallon), including lunches at fast food joints.

However, since we do plan to keep our vehicle for the long haul, and DH works on cars himself, that cost goes down significantly in the future, which is why I don't take all of that into consideration for this particular question.

Now, we could take our 4 cyl. Saturn VUE, which we paid $15,500 for in 2002 and gets 28-30 mpg (30 freeway).....let's see.....it has 80,000 miles. .19 per mile- $386 at $5/gallon plus $50-$60 for food......about $450.

I would calculate our 1996 Saturn Station Wagon, but we wouldn't even attempt to take that one at this point. Not sure it would make it.

Dawn

We would need about 125 gallons, so the gas cost would be $375 @ $3, $500 @ $4 or $625 @ $5.

But just looking at gas prices isn't realistic. Assuming a 150,000 mile life for our SUV (we're already at 110k and bought it new), it'll cost us a total of about $50k. That's the initial cost, maintenance, repairs, and other variable costs. That's 33 cents per mile, so add another $700.

If we drive, we spend a night each way in a hotel, plus two extra days of eating out, so add another $200.

If we fly, we usually find four tickets for under $800. A rental car is about $200 per week.

So for us, driving is about $1275 - $1525 (at $3-$5 per gallon) per trip. Flying is $1000 for a week, $1200 for two weeks, or $1400 for three weeks.

 

[Merryweather27]

I don't have a trip planned, and I've never driven to WDW, but I looked up the math because this thread made me curious.

It's about 525 miles from my house to one of the WDW resorts.
My car gets about 33 miles per gallon. (Honda Fit)
525 miles/33 miles per gallon= about 16 gallons x $5 = $80 one way; $160 r/t

Gotta love the better mileage vehicles, right? We have a Honda Insight hybrid (gets 40 mpg on the highway, better in the city) and drove it to WDW from St. Louis and back last year.

At a theoretical $5/gal, it would cost us $255 to drive the 2034 round-trip miles (1017 each way). Even though there are only 2 of us, all flights for our usual travel dates cost at least that much PER PERSON.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Gotta love the better mileage vehicles, right? We have a Honda Insight hybrid (gets 40 mpg on the highway, better in the city) and drove it to WDW from St. Louis and back last year.

At a theoretical $5/gal, it would cost us $255 to drive the 2034 round-trip miles (1017 each way). Even though there are only 2 of us, all flights for our usual travel dates cost at least that much PER PERSON.

Yes! I bought my car last summer, when prices were much lower, but I did not forget how high they had gone a few years ago. I didn't have a car at that time, so this is the first time I've paid more than $3/gallon for gas. My car is not a hybrid, it's just small. However, the storage area is like Mary Poppin's handbag. People are always stunned at how much I can cram in my little car. Also, adults always comment on how roomy the back seat is. They look at it with hesitation before getting in, but then they are surprised at how much space there is in the inside!

I posted my math because I kept thinking I must be doing something wrong since my numbers were so much lower than every one else on this thread. But, I am closer to WDW than a lot of people on this thread, and my car gets better mileage than most on this thread, so I think it's pretty accurate.

I think having a lot of luggage brings down the gas mileage a bit, but it would also be mostly highway, and the 33.5 that my car has calculated is a mix of city and highway driving, so it probably will roughly balance out.

 

[Fabooliss]

For those that think $5/ gallon isn't going to happen... gas prices in Canada just hit $4.53 a gallon on Thursday, and have sat there all weekend ($1.20/litre).

SO glad we traded in our minivan for a hatchback car!

 

[growinupdisney]

Even though it makes me sick to pay the price of gas right now...boy I miss those $.96 a gallon prices. It is still much cheaper to drive than fly form NC to Florida so I will continue to drive!!!

 

[Mrs. Charming]

Ohhhkayyy... I suppose I'll be buying plane tickets. Holy sticker shock.

 

[Purseval]

At $5 a gallon, it would cost $515 in DH's car. My car takes super so I used $5.30 per gallon which comes to $604.

Try a tankful of regular unleaded in your car. If it doesn't knock under normal driving conditions you can safely use regular for some instant savings. Very few cars actually need premium unless you happen to use it for racing where the 1/2 second performance boost would matter.

 

[curly5]

Just a couple of thoughts to those driving down 95. Get gas in VA. Do not get gas in NC. We have .49 in gas taxes per gallon! Get gas in SC before you hit Florence. Prices go up again after Floerence cause of Myrtle Beach and Charleston.

 

[DawnM]

Was it a good financial trade overall?

We do have a 4 cyl Saturn VUE that gets 30mpg on trips (28 around town).

what does your hatchback get?

The only thing that would be better for us is a hybrid/electric car, but the cost of the vehicle itself is high.

Dawn

For those that think $5/ gallon isn't going to happen... gas prices in Canada just hit $4.53 a gallon on Thursday, and have sat there all weekend ($1.20/litre).

SO glad we traded in our minivan for a hatchback car!

 

[taaren]

I just paid $3.95/gallon on Tuesday, though here I've seen it go as high as $4.4-something. Of course, my car would have to be able to swim for me to make this calculation ...

 

[cajunaggie]

I have a 2010 CR-V & it gets good gas mileage...~29-30 HWY.

I have been doing research on CNG & it only costs $1.75 right now with very low changes in costs (has only been a penny it over 5 months!) You get a little less gas mileage w/CNG-my car would probably get about 20-22 HWY but the costs is still WAY less than regular gas.

It would costs about $4000 to convert my car to CNG. This would allow it to run on both CNG & regular gas. So if I am somewhere that doesn't have CNG, I can keep filling up with regular. I am not looking @ converting before out trip but I do think that it will be done soon.

We are also super excited that we have TWO airlines now flying out of Shreveport, LA to Orlando, FL. They don't fly 7 days a week yet so travel would have to be planned accordingly but flights are not real expensive-just saw one for May 19th that was only $79.

 

[shortbun]

$5 gas would cause protests in the US similar to what's going on in the Middle East. I don't think it's going too much higher as people realize the amount of oil gathering dust at terminals all over the US and the world. Some of the increase was refiners caught off guard changing from winter blend to summer blend.

I bet we see oil drop 3-5% in the world markets this coming week as profit takers sell.

Lol,No it wouldn't. americans will just keep filling up their gas guzzlers. I would love it if Americans would take a positive tack and cut their petroleum product consumption. You overestimate the basic American; we are not that smart. sigh

We have a scooter and bikes for in town travel. Recently, I taught my son how to use the bus/COTA when he doesn't want to worry about the security of his bike. We also plan errand days and home days so we're not out running around in the car crazily. Our grocery has great fuel discounts for grocery purchases and you also earn grocery discounts for fuel purchases. If I use my gas discount and fill up then I earn great grocery discounts for per gallon purchases that are cheap. We get double discounts for gift card purchases which we do for other purchases we need to make. For instance, we purchased a generator from Sears Hardware this fall and paid for it with gift cards we had purchased at our grocery store. We purchased those over two weeks so we could get nearly free tanks of gas AND get credit for the gas purchases on my groceries. This netted us 50 gals of fuel for about $.30 a gallon and 20% off two grocery purchases of up to $300 each. Not bad! Then, my husband had a Home Depot purchase he needed to make for work so we did the whole thing over again in November. Then at Christmas, we netted a free tank of gas for all of our gift card purchases as gifts.

We have almost eliminated buying anything in plasic and what we do buy gets recycled. I take my own bags to the grocery. We grow food in our garden and do canning and freezing. We buy local materials rather than increasing the demand for transport. We compost.
People, do what you can to eliminate your need for fuel and petroleum products. We Americans represent 1/3 of the world's oil consumption.

 

[Kat&Dom]

Gas prices right now in Alberta are $4.88 per gallon. They tend to hover between $4 and $5 per gallon. We got up to $6 per gallon a couple of years ago - that really hurt and ate up a significant portion of the budget.

 

[*love*2*shop]

we just got home this morning from our disney cruise. we drove from nh to orlando and back....we have a gmc acadia and the trip is 1300-1400 miles each way. we stopped 3-4x for gas at $50-60.00 each time. BUT we also didnt have to rent a car when we got there ( usually thats 300-400.00 for a week or so)

This is for 4 of us- Still not bad considering they wanted almost $2,000.00 for 4 plane tixs these past 2 weeks because of school vacation.

I just used the fuel price finder on AAA to check out how much a trip from Grand Rapids Michigan to Orlando would currently cost. Gas here is about 3.50 a gallon. And for a Chevy Traverse it is already $500 round trip.

 

[MichaelColey]

I have a 2010 CR-V & it gets good gas mileage...~29-30 HWY.

I have been doing research on CNG & it only costs $1.75 right now with very low changes in costs (has only been a penny it over 5 months!) You get a little less gas mileage w/CNG-my car would probably get about 20-22 HWY but the costs is still WAY less than regular gas.

It would costs about $4000 to convert my car to CNG.

You might want to look a bit closer at the math. At $1.75 per gallon of CNG at 21 MPG, that's 8.3 cents per mile. At 29 MPG with $3 gasoline, it's 10.3 cents per mile, which would take 200k miles to recoup your costs. At $4, it's 13.8 cents per mile, which would take 70k miles to recoup your costs. At $5, it's 17.2 cents per mile, which would take 45k miles to recoup your costs.

So, how long are you going to keep your vehichle, what percentage of the time will you be able to find CNG, how stable do you expect CNG to be if it really catches on, and what price do you expect gas to go to? (When it spiked a few years ago, it didn't stay long.) Odds are, you're not going to recoup your costs unless it's a nearly new vehicle that you're going to keep a long time, CNG prices stay low, and gas prices go up considerably.

 

[nana2tots]

Well didn't accomplish nothing w/ this, it dosen't have the city, Greensboro, a 350 Diesel truck, lol

 

[disney1990]

No $5.00 gasoline? They just showed a gas station in Washington DC tonight on the news where the price was $4.85 a gallon. Ouch!

 

[HHSTigerFan]

We have decided to rent a car for our trip to Disney this summer, leave our gas guzzlers at home and pay $285 for a mid category that gets 32mpg.. gas savings will pay for rental and won't be putting 3K miles on our vehicle..

 

[Brer Shay]

We're planning to drive down (5, possibly 6 of us) in August. We're a 2000 mile round trip with roughly 20 MPG. That puts us at 100 gallons, so $500. No way we an fly for that, but still high! I'm so glad we found out about the YES program to save money on our tickets.

 

[Trinity524]

Results

Start City: TX, San Antonio
End City: FL, Orlando


One-Way Trip: 1159 Miles
82.79 Gallons Used
$270.28 Fuel Cost


Round-Trip: 2318 Miles
165.58 Gallons Used
$540.56 Fuel Cost