Why fuel economy matters

Some cars travel much farther on a gallon of fuel than others. We will explore the mtcars dataset, which includes 32 car models, to ask:

• Does vehicle weight relate to miles per gallon (MPG)?
• Do cars with different cylinder counts have different average MPG?

How to interact: Hover over points for vehicle details. Drag to zoom and use the chart toolbar to reset the view.

Explore weight and fuel efficiency

Compare cylinder groups

What the data tells us

• Average MPG: 20.1 across all 32 cars.
• The weight plot shows a strong downward pattern: heavier models generally have lower MPG.
• Four-cylinder models have higher average MPG than eight-cylinder models in this sample.
• These are associations, not evidence that weight or cylinder count alone causes the difference.

Explore it yourself

Return to either interactive chart and hover, zoom, or reset axes to explore individual vehicles and patterns.

Dataset: R’s built-in mtcars dataset.

Created: November 3, 2026
Built with: R Markdown + Plotly (no iframe or widgetframe dependency).