Numeracy at the gas pump

This summer I want to take a trip to Kelowna (well, actually, I want to take a trip to Cancun but my numeracy skills allow me to realize I cannot afford that).
Anyways, I am thinking about going to Kelowna and want to try and figure out the cost of driving.

In order to calculate the cost of driving, I will just consider the costs of gas to drive the distance without accounting for 'wear and tear' on my car.

So, in order to figure out the gas costs for a drive to Kelowna, I need to know the distance between Vancouver and Kelowna (might depend n the route, I prefer the Coq.), the price of gas, how much my ank will hold and how much mileage I get per tank of gas.

According to Yahoo Maps, the driving distance between here and Kelowna via the Coquihalla is 388 kilometers.

My car holds 44 litres of gas. Today the gas station in front of my house has regular gas at $1.06 per liter, so I will use that in my calculation.

To estimate my gas mileage (why don't we say 'kilomerage'?), I am going to look at what Ford posts as the mileage rating for my car and make a bit of an adjustment for my age of the car (7 yrs old, excellent condition).

Ford lists this as 32 mpg for highway driving. I chose highway, as this trip will be on the highway. Of course, imperial instead of metric. Let's convert it.

One mile is 1.6 kilometres.
To figure out how many kilometres are in 32 miles, I multiply 32 by 1.6. This is 51.2 kilometres.

One gallon (American measure) is 3.8 litres.
So 32 miles per 1 gallon works out to 51.2 kilometers per 3.8 litres.

How can I figure this out to be more meaningful?

Knowing the kilometres per litre might be better.

51.2 k / 3.8 litres

To figure out the per litre rating, I will divide each side of this ratio by 3.8.
51.2 k / 3.8 = 13.47 k
3.8 l / 3.8 = 1 litre

So, I have figured out that my car gets about 13.47 kilometres per litre. I will round this down to 13 kilometres per litre.

Filling my 44 litre tank will allow me to drive about(13 kilometres x 44 litres) 572 kilometres.

Yahoo tells me Kelowna is 388 kilometres away. I will be driving there and back, so that total is 776 kilometres, not including any driving around Kelowna and area that I will do during the trip.
To travel 776 kilometres, I will need (776kms/13.47 kmpl) about 60 litres of gas.

Before leaving on the trip, I would fill the 44 litre tank. Assuming it was completely empty, at $1.06 per litre, it would cost (44 x 1.06) $46.64. To ensure not running out of gas on the return trip, I would fill 'er up again in Kelowna for the return trip.

On the 388 kilometres trip getting to Kelowna, how much gas would the tank need to be full again? If the whole trip is going to use up about sixty litres, then half of that (one way) would be 30 litres.

If 30 litres has been used, then I would need to top up with 30 litres.

So, with one full tank ad then a top up of 30 litre, how much would I spent on gas altogether?

As I already figured out, the first full tank would cost $46.64. The 30 litre top up would cost me (1.06 x 30) 31.80. Adding up the two, I get $78.44 altogether.

So driving to Kelowna would cost me about $80 in gas, certainly a lot easier to justify than a $1200 ticket to Mexico....