Definitely depends on the individual.
That said, in my mind, if a couple MPG is a deal breaker then buying a $30-40K+ vehicle would probably not be in my best interest financially. Checking Fuelly, it looks the Ranger model gets roughly 20 MPG for mixed driving. The Tacoma model roughly18 MPG. Let's just assume that they are for similar configurations, or just accept the data for what it is which is a representation of what is purchased and voluntarily reported on.
That 2 MPG difference, for 15k miles in one year, means that the Tacoma needs 83 more gallons of gas than the Ranger. At $4/gallon, that is $333 extra to drive a Tacoma. That is over one year, or $28 per month. If I spend $30K+ on a truck, and $28 breaks the bank for one month, it tells me that I shouldn't be buying a new truck.
The trap is to get caught up in highway MPG, or some anecdotal reports on high fuel efficiency. I like the user reported data from Fuelly but we still need to realize the limitations. That said, there are hundreds of thousands and sometime millions of miles being reporting. I think the BS gets filtered, unlike a friend/relative/co-worker who claims some ridiculous fuel mileage that can simply be an outlier in the distribution of data.
I am also somewhat biased, as I paid cash for my most recent vehicles but can sympathize with payments. For me, I no longer own motorcycles, and don't have a boat, travel trailer, vacation home, etc. So a little extra gasoline for one rig is no sweat. Even if it were double or triple the $28 per month.
Last edited by 4th_point; 04/18/21.
