How do you figure your MPG? I normally just drive the car and never worry about the mileage.

Since purchasing this stang, I feel like I am using a lot more gas. Gee, going from a 4 cyc. Honda to a Mustang V8 doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why. Anyway, I figured my 97 should average about 18 mpg.

How do you guys do it? My husband told me one way but I don't go to the same pump to fill up.

 

When your tank is right on empty, fill it up and take note of how many gallons it needs to fill to the point the nozzle clicks off. Reset your trip-meter, drive it till it's back to the same empty point, then note how many miles you got for that. Divide miles by gallons used, that's your MPG.

Not totally accurate, of course, and you should do that a few times to get a better read, but it'll give you a good idea. I would think you should be getting better mileage than 18/mpg.

 

Fill up at the gas tank, zero your mileage on the trip odometer or just record ur mileage.
When u fill up again, see how many gallons it took at the pump ex:
300miles divided by 10gallons = 30mpg

 

What you guys said is what my husband told me but he said always go to the same pump. Beats the heck out of me for a valid reason.

Do I have to do it when the tank is almost empty? Couldn't I just pick a mark and do the same thing?

 

Like has been said, the best/easiest way is to fill the tank FULL, then "0" out the trip meter. At this point it doesn't matter how much gas you put in the tank..

Drive around until the tank is almost empty.. Then fill it up FULL. Mark down how much gas it took to fill the tank, and record how much mileage is recorded on the trip meter.

Do the math, Divide the distance on the trip meter by the amout of gas you put it, and voila! Now you know your MPG.

Keep a special note thought, how much % of your driving was city and how much highway. City MPG is always worse than highway MPG, and if comparing to someone elses numbers, remember to note the city/highway in your estimate.

 

Basically what I do is whenever I get ready to fill up my tank (from any level) I start keeping reciepts and writing the information down.

1st fill - Take down the milage using either the trip or total odometer. I prefer the total.
2nd fill - Take down the milage and Gallons used to fill up. (If you don't want to write it down right away, grab the receipt and take it home to your MPG Log).
3rd, 4th, 5th, etc...... Same as 2nd fill.


I like to do more than one fill cause driving conditions vary. Now the only thing you have to do is keep a log of your total driving miles and total gallons used. then divide the amount of miles driven by the total gallons used and viola! your MPG for your vehicle.

EXAMPLE:
1st fill - Odometer = 32,000
2nd fill - Odometer = 32,400 Gallons Filled 18.5 (listed on receipt).


32,400 - 32,000 = 400 total miles.
400 / 18.5 = 21.6 MPG

Lets say the next 3 fillups you finally get around to tallying your totals.

3 - Odometer - 32,746 Gallons Filled - 15.8
4 - Odometer - 33,098 Gallons Filled - 16
5 - Odometer - 33,423 Gallons Filled - 14.3

Add up all the gallons from fill up #2 to your final fill up and you get 64.6 total gallons filled.
Take your last odometer reading and minus your first odometer reading and you get 1423 total miles.

Now just divide them again.

1423 / 64.6 = 22 MPG.


If you consistently keep a log you can identify drops in MPG (if you log both tank to tank MPG and total MPG) and the need to do some minor servicing to your vehicle such as replace your air filter, checking the tires, and such. Hopefully this helps.

 

The reason he said to use the same pump is because different pumps have different click off points, but really, we're not going to get a really accurate MPG here anyways, so I wouldn't worry about that. In reality, just the way position you hold the pump nozzle into your tank will affect the shut off point.

The Highway/city is a very good point as well, one I'd forgot about!

 

I fill my tank untill the fuel backs up above the restrictor in the filler neck.This takes some carefull watching and clicking of the gas nozzle but it's an accurate way to calculate MPG's at every fill up.To be accurate you must park at the same pump in the same position so that the cars gas tank is at the same angle so that you get the same amount of gas in the tank.Sounds like a PITA don't it?The road I drive everyday has very few stops so I routinely get 32+MPG.The gas log method also works very well for long term figures.

 

run your car as empty as you can. fill it up and write down how many gallons you got.
reset your trip meter and when you get back down to almost empty you divide your gallons into your mileage and thats your mpg

 

Running around being close to empty just doesn't sit well with me. I never go below 1/4 mark.

Thanks, I'm going to try it.