Berkeley lab says that roof racks cause as much as a 25 percent loss in fuel economy and accounted for almost 1 percent of national consumption in 2015.
Roof rack gas mileage.
The empty roof rack had a nearly 2 percent impact on fuel economy which translates to a little more than three quarters of a gallon of gas.
Generally adding a loaded roof rack to your car will lower your gas mileage by at least 10 percent.
He found that compared to the baseline of no roof rack the empty rack reduced his mpg by 12 7 and the roof rack with a bicycle reduced it by a whooping 27 3.
The roof rack mpg experiment.
Your fuel cost is ten cents mile or 1 500 year.
Off the showroom floor the regal tourx gets 21 miles per gallon in the city and 29 mpg highway for a combined fuel economy of 24 mpg.
Some drivers may see their gas mileage drop by as much as 20 percent depending on vehicle type and type of roof rack.
The control test the tourx without roof rails.
Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg.
So if your car usually gets 30 mpg on the highway and you add a full roof rack your highway gas mileage will drop to 24 27 mpg.
Let s say that you drive 15 000 miles per year gas is 2 50 gal and your gets 25 mpg.