Woburn, MA, November 8, 2013 –iSeeCars today released a list of the 20 largest U.S. cities and how they compare by percentage of cars with the best and worst miles per gallon. iSeeCars analyzed 25 million used cars listed on iSeeCars.com over the past year and found that Los Angeles metro area has almost twice the number of fuel efficient cars as New York city. iSeeCars defines best MPG cars as eco-friendly cars having 30 miles per gallon or higher and worst MPG as gas guzzlers with 22.5 miles per gallon or lower.
Based on the iSeeCars analysis, “The top 3 cities with the highest percentage of eco-friendly cars are all in California, perhaps not too surprising since the state has some of the best incentives for buying hybrid and electric cars,” says Phong Ly, CEO of iSeeCars. San Francisco metro area leads the way where almost 10% of the vehicles are eco-friendly.
Largest 20 U.S. Cities by % of Highest MPG (Eco-friendly) Cars| Rank |
City DMA | % Cars with 30 MPG or Higher |
| 1 |
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA | 9.5 |
| 2 |
Los Angeles, CA | 8.8 |
| 3 |
Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, CA | 7.9 |
| 4 |
Orlando-Daytona Beach, FL | 7.7 |
| 5 |
Seattle-Tacoma, WA | 7.2 |
| 6 |
Phoenix, AZ | 7.2 |
| 7 |
Tampa-St Petersburg (Sarasota), FL | 7.1 |
| 8 |
Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD) | 6.7 |
| 9 |
Atlanta, GA | 6.6 |
| 10 |
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, FL | 6.5 |
| 11 |
Boston, MA-Manchester, NH | 6.5 |
| 12 |
Chicago, IL | 6.0 |
| 13 |
Denver, CO | 5.8 |
| 14 |
Philadelphia, PA | 5.7 |
| 15 |
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX | 5.7 |
| 16 |
Houston, TX | 4.9 |
| 17 |
Cleveland-Akron (Canton), OH | 4.9 |
| 18 |
New York, NY | 4.6 |
| 19 |
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | 4.6 |
| 20 |
Detroit, MI | 3.6 |
Largest 20 U.S. Cities by % of Lowest MPG (Gas Guzzler) Cars
| Rank |
City DMA | % Cars with 22.5 MPG or Lower |
| 1 |
Detroit, MI | 71.2 |
| 2 |
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | 71.1 |
| 3 |
Denver, CO | 70.9 |
| 4 |
Houston, TX | 69.3 |
| 5 |
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX | 67.0 |
| 6 |
Cleveland-Akron (Canton), OH | 65.5 |
| 7 |
Seattle-Tacoma, WA | 65.2 |
| 8 |
Chicago, IL | 65.2 |
| 9 |
New York, NY | 64.5 |
| 10 |
Phoenix, AZ | 63.6 |
| 11 |
Atlanta, GA | 62.7 |
| 12 |
Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD) | 62.5 |
| 13 |
Boston, MA-Manchester, NH | 62.1 |
| 14 |
Philadelphia, PA | 62.1 |
| 15 |
Tampa-St Petersburg (Sarasota), FL | 61.8 |
| 16 |
Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, CA | 60.2 |
| 17 |
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, FL | 59.0 |
| 18 |
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA | 58.4 |
| 19 |
Orlando-Daytona Beach, FL | 58.3 |
| 20 |
Los Angeles, CA | 57.4 |
- Collectively, about 6% of vehicles nationwide are eco-friendly, fuel efficient vehicles while 66% are gas guzzlers
- The top 10 cities represent 32% of all best MPG vehicles nationwide while the largest 20 cities make up almost 50%
- Chicago and New York City have about equal number of cars listed for sale but Chicago has 30% more eco-friendly cars
- California has 8% of the used cars listed for sale but has 12% of all the eco-friendly and high MPG vehicles nationwide
- Interestingly, Phoenix is on both top 10 lists for having the highest percentage of best and worst MPG cars
- Of the largest 20 cities by population, the top 3 cities with the highest percentage of gas guzzlers are Detroit, Minneapolis, and Denver.
Methodology:
iSeeCars analyzed more than 25 million used cars listed for sale on iSeeCars.com over the last year and studied the cars with combined miles per gallon of 30 or higher (eco-friendly) and those cars with 22.5 miles per gallon or lower (gas guzzlers) across the largest 20 DMA’s (Designated Market Areas) by population. The number of eco-friendly cars for each city as a percentage of all the cars for sale was calculated and used to rank the cities with the highest percentage of best MPG cars. The percentage of gas guzzling cars for each city was calculated and used to rank the cities with the highest percentage of worst MPG cars.
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