In doing these posts and in working on The Vehicle For Me, I've found a need for more than just the basic specs to use as priorities. Horsepower and MPG and front legroom are extremely useful factors in understanding a set of vehicles, but sometimes I want to get a more complete picture. That's why I have added some "calculated" priorities. As of today these are total exterior volume, percent passenger to exterior volume, and mpg & power. I'll go over each of these now.
Total Exterior Volume
We already have the Passenger Volume spec, which is all the available volume inside a car minus trunk/cargo space. Total Exterior Volume is calculated by multiplying the exterior length, width, and height of the car. This is a good way to find out which cars are smaller than others, or larger if that's what you're looking for. This volume is measured in cubic feet.
Percent Passenger to Exterior Volume
I thought it would be an interesting thing to see the ratio of passenger volume to total exterior volume as a percentage, and that is what this is. I am interested in this mostly in an academic sense as a way of measure efficiency of design. A higher percentage here shows that the manufacturer was able to eke out more interior space from a smaller exterior volume, and that seems like a good thing to me.
MPG & Power
There is a perpetual battle between horsepower, weight, and fuel economy, and that push and pull is what I'm trying to capture in this metric. I generate this by multiplying power-to-weight ratio and city and highway fuel economy, where a higher number is better. For cars from different segments and body styles, this may not be a great way of comparing, but when you're looking at similar vehicles, it can be useful to see which ones have struck the best balance between MPG and power.
Are there any other calculated metrics you guys are interested in? I'm always open to suggestions.
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