Calculating Gas Mileage

[amazinghl]

Fill the tank up, reset the tripometer to 0, drive until you need gas, then fill it up again, record the miles on the tripometer and how many gallons of gas you put in, then divid the miles by the gals *miles/gals*, you have it!


Please do not use miles / tank as tank is not a very good way to measure how much gas. A tank could be 7 gal, or it coule be 11 gal. Miles/gals is much more helpful to diagnosis a problem.

[The Math God]

when the tank is filled, don't top it off, let the pump shut itself off.
That extra quart or two that you get by topping off will make a difference in the MPG.

[Dr. Bob]

This whole thread sounds like it came from the Department of "Duh!", but continuing on...

If you don't fill the tank to the same level, results can be skewed a bit.

One way to reduce the variability of filling to different levels is to calculate miles and amount of gas used over multiple tanks - the more tanks, the less variable the results would be due to filling differences. Combine 4-5 tanks and your results are pretty accurate.

[Luke]

As a follow-up to Bob's comments above:
I've set up a spreadsheet, calculate the last:
ten tank fulls,
twenty tank fulls
thirty tank fulls &
forty tank fulls.

I also, always us the same pump.

[Shawn00766]

Thanks.
I will do that when i fill up again

[1993SC2]

I go to www.gasbuddy.com which shows cheepest gas in the area, and has a mileage log. Their forum is kinda dumb though. No polls and a lack of car people. RThe mileage log automatically figures it out (miles traveld divided by gallons purchased), and other neat stuff like MPG graphs (my satty got 23 in the winter, and now she's up at 28)