What's Your Car's Gas Milage? Poll

[Moonbear]

I'm just tellling you what I've heard and read from the alleged experts.

Maybe if you drive something really unusual. If you want to know what car I drive, you can just sit outside and watch for me to pull out of the garage. There are at least 3 others in the same model and color in the parking lot at work (though maybe not all the same year; and there are others in different colors), so I don't think it narrows down much. I wouldn't recommend giving out your license plate number, though.

They also warn against telling tales of college party life or other compromising information. Some companies are now searching for this information in order to make hiring decisions.

That's because some people are silly enough to share that information with their real names attached. Of course, I take the view that if the company I apply to work at snoops around to learn what I do in my non-work hours, or what youthful indiscretions I've made, then I probably don't want to work for them anyway.

 

[russ_watters]

If you don't drive like a jackass, the EPA estimates are actually very accurate. My Tempo is 14 years old and the gas mileage is still pretty close to the EPA estimates. It only differs from the estimates when driving on snow or gravel.

Apparently, it depends on the car - I got very close to the rated mileage with my last car, but not with my current car. Part of that is that some are more sensitive to variations in driving conditions than others. My last car (an Eagle Talon) had a tiny engine, but it got into 5th gear as low as about 35mph, which meant in suburban driving I was often in 5th gear. With my 6, I don't get into 5th gear until 50mph, which means in suburban driving I'm rarely in 5th gear. It also seems to be much more sensitive to driving faster, meaning above about 65, the fuel economy drops off pretty quickly.

 

[BobG]

Gallons per mile (or thousand miles) is a more useful than miles per gallon. What you're really interested in is how much your travel is going to cost you. Miles per gallon gives you one extra step in calculating your cost.

Over the last week, I used over half a tank of gas and the odometer didn't even budge ... but then it hasn't budged for a couple years now.

On trips on the Interstate, where I can actually get a somewhat accurate estimate, I get a little over 20 mpg in my '91 Jeep Cherokee with the 6 cylinder engine. It seems to get better mileage traveling East than West, at least between Colorado Springs and Omaha. It kind of surprised me that the difference is noticeable considering the elevation loss is so gradual, but the wind also tends to blow across the prairie from West to East. That nearly straight up front windshield kills the mileage, I think. In normal driving, a lot is outside the city, but I think I still spend enough time in city traffic to push my mileage under 20.

I haven't seen my Ford Explorer recently, but I think it was getting around 25 mpg on the highway. With a little more streamlined body and cruise control, the mileage is a lot better than you'd expect from an SUV (actually, I'd compare the Explorer and other modern SUVs more to those vans popular in the 70's than a true SUV - they're not nearly as good off road as my old Jeep, but they sure are a dream for road trips.)