Fuel Ecomomy!

[Autophile]

To all who are getting +30mpg. How are you doing your actual calculation?

Calculating my freeway mileage was one of my first projects with my car. As I mentioned above, I drove from Houston to Sacramento nonstop when I first purchased my car. At the start of the trip, I reset my tripometer to zero and noted the position of the fuel gauge. From there I kept all of my gasoline receipts during the trip. The total distance was about 1980 miles, and the gallons used (approximated +/- a gallon or so) was approximately 67. So, that works out to about 29.5 gallons per mile. It's the most efficient car I own!

 

[svalleynsx]

You can't accurately calculate mileage based on the reading of the fuel gauge. The proper way to calculate it is to fill the tank, drive X miles per the odometer*, fill it again, see how many gallons it took, and do the division. The emptier the tank is before you refill it, the more miles and gallons you have, and the more accurate your reading will be (by diluting any possible variations in how full the tank was each time the pump clicked off).

Correct. I should've added the only way to get a valid measurement would be to take the mileage from a topped-off tank to a nearly empty one and divide by the gallons filled.

 

[wilsonp]

Re: Re: Re: Re: 33? No way!

Plus, there will be no way to stay awake that long without caffeine; with caffeine, there will be no way to keep going for six hours without making a stop.

Penguin Peppermints!!!
http://www.peppermints.com/

(Of course, I'm on Tangerine Altoids right now...)

 

[Autophile]

Plus, there will be no way to stay awake that long without caffeine; with caffeine, there will be no way to keep going for six hours without making a stop.

Take it from me, a 20 ounce Mountain Dew is good for about 6 hours... I must have gone through 4 or 5 on my trip.

I've gone from Nashville to Sacramento nonstop, too (in a Toyota truck). It was 38 hours.

Other than arriving bleary eyed, with some "travel hair", it ain't no 'thang.

 

[nsxtasy]

By "making a stop", I was referring to the need to pull off the road to gas up the car and use the restroom; I wasn't commenting on how long you could go without stopping to sleep.

Surely you didn't sit behind the wheel driving for 38 hours without gassing up the truck or using the restroom...

 

[Autophile]

I guess the secret there is in my incredibly huge bladders... one for me, one for the truck...