It seems like everyone is looking for ways to increase their MPG’s (miles per gallon) or become a hypermiler. If you are late getting into the game and don’t know how simple it is to calculate your MPG, let me explain.
I enjoy math – well, the easy stuff anyway – and I thought figuring out MPG’s was pretty much common knowledge, but I was wrong. I have had a few different people ask me how to do it.
The great thing is that it is simple to do and there are also some great tools for calculating and tracking your MPG if you want.
The TRIP Odometer method for calculating MPG
The trip odometer is the one that you can reset with the little button. The real odometer is the one you can’t adjust.
- Fill your tank.
- Reset the trip odometer.
- Drive until it is time to refill again.
- Look on the fuel pump or on your receipt to see how many gallons it took to fill up your car. Write this number down.
- Look at your trip odometer to see how many miles you drove.
- Take the miles driven and divide it by the gallons used. This number will by your MPG for that tank.
- Make sure to reset the trip odometer again to calculate the next tank and compare.
The Odometer method to calculate MPG
- Fill your tank.
- Write down the mileage on your odometer. (This will be the total numbers of miles driven on the car)
- Drive until it’s time to fill up again.
- Check the pump or your receipt to see how many gallons it took to fill up your car. Write this number down.
- Look at the odometer to see what the current reading is.
- Take the current odometer reading and subtract it from the previous one.
- Then take that number and divide it by the number of gallons used. This will give you your MPG for that tank.
Cool MPG tool
One of my new favorite tools for calculating and tracking my vehicle’s MPG has been FuelClinic.com. It is a free service that basically does the steps listed above for you and provides pretty little graphs and charts as well.
I don’t think I have the motivation to track every tank of gas that I use, but it has been helpful to see how effective some of the gas saving tips have been that I’ve tried.
What’s your MPG?
As you can see my Fit is averaging about 32.6 MPG’s over the last couple weeks. My Focus is averaging about 31.3.
What kind of gas mileage are you getting? If you already know how many MPG’s you are getting why don’t you share it in the comments so we can all see.
This article was featured in the Carnival of Frugality
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
My 2002 Honda Civic gets between 28-31 on a regular basis and we’ve had it up over 35 on the Interstate. And we don’t practice hypermiling or anything – just a nice solid car!
Our 2006 Pontiac G6 GTP gets about 21-25…not anything to write home about. But we love our car and it’s the newest thing we’ve ever owned lol.
@Crossn81
yea I love civics, don’t the new ones get close to 40 mpgs?
My 1995 Toyota Tercel gets between 35-40 MPG depending on driving conditions (A/C, speeding…etc).
It wouldn’t surprise me if the new Civics got in the 40 range since ours has gotten pretty close! A few years ago it was interesting to note that both Toyota and Honda had gas engines that got better gas mileage than their hybrid versions. But I don’t recall if that was city or highway or both.
I forgot to mention the MPG that I get on a regular basis – my 1970′s model bicylce get great mileage for my commute! My wife does most of the Civic’s driving.
@Crossn81
that is pretty crazy about the hybrid ones MPGs, I wonder if that is still the case, I mean why would it be worth the much larger price tag?
as far as the bicyle, be careful if you ever come to st. louis, a buddy of mine got pulled over by a cop for “speeding” on his bike! no joke!
What’s been interesting is that now that I’m on a budget, I rarely have the money on hand to fill the tank (I do those $50 gift cards at the Optima/WalMart gas stations to save 0.03 per gallon).
So I really haven’t been able to do the calculations, but I know they aren’t good on a 1997 Grand Caravan SE.
@MintheGap
you are probably right, but I’ll bet it is better than a hummer
Love the MPGTool. While calculating your MPG is pretty easy, it doesn’t really give you real-time feedback so you can tweak your driving habits to optimize your mileage. The best way to do this is by using an MPG Meter that plugs into your cars computer system. MPG Meters are particularly useful when using hypermiling techniques.
Very useful article, as I am sure many people are trying to figure out how to do this. Thanks!
@ChristianPF – Yes, probably much better than a Hummer. And yet, if I could downgrade to a car I’d probably do it.
Car-seats and all, you know?
my 1992 civic hb does 13 mpg and i i got a turbo to thanks
I have’nt used the mpg tool yet, but I’m going too. My mpg on my 08 Toyota FJ is about 18 mpg hwy and 12mpg towing a cargo trailer with a trike.
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