"That shows they are insecure and probably feeling inferior. "
Not really. We’re just trying to get you to understand that you “fuel gauge math” isn’t the correct way to determine fuel mileage. If you’ve been around for more than a hot minute, you’d know that one of the reoccurring themes on this board is people making outlandish claims about fuel mileage. Usually the person will say something like " I have a 1995 Camry that used to get 49 MPG, and I took in for service and when I got it back it only gets 30 MPG." 9 times out of 10 the person has been using flawed methodology to compute his/her mileage. The most common example of this flawed methodology, is using the fuel gauge to guesstimate mileage. Fundamentally, it’s not nearly as accurate as the preferred method, which goes something like this.
Fill the fuel tank, note the gas station and the pump you are using, and stop pumping after the pump clicks off the first time, reset the trip odometer and/or note the mileage on the odometer
Drive until nearly empty
Return to the same station and use the same pump you had used previously, refuel, and stop at the first click. Note the amount of fuel you have pumped into the vehicle
Divide the number of miles traveled and the amount of fuel you have pumped into the tank. This will give you the actual fuel mileage of the previous tank of fuel.
Repeat this 3 times and then average the results. This will give you pretty good idea of what kind of fuel mileage you are getting.
Using the fuel gauge simply isn’t an accurate means of determining fuel mileage. I promise you the method described above is more accurate.
Most of the regulars on this board are quite knowledgeable and have established their credibility and can discuss a difference of opinions in a more or less civil manner.
“I just removed about 10-15 posts, by beninsd and a few others. I think the other affected users were FoDaddy, waterboy, cigroller, and keith”@waterboy,’
‘it’s plain to see. Just look at the rest of that comment and then others after it where the same persons that are in the wrong continue on with the same thing as above. They are looking for trouble and found it. I’ll do less than 250 words here, it’s not fodaddy, keith, cigroller etc… they just keep at it’
I’m trying to keep up with the action, so please pardon our appearance if comments look a little out of place.
waterboy, I took out one of your posts for editorial reasons, but not because there was offensive content. It just didn’t make sense without beninsd’s comment there.
cigroller - thanks for not contributing any more pollution than we’re already cleaning up!
Getting back on topic, I think the point is that driver influence is less important than the article suggests, and really only works in one direction. You can certainly get bad gas mileage by driving poorly. But your ability to get better mileage than the car was designed for is quite limited. Even our friend, who bragged about his great mileage, was only getting what the manufacturer originally claimed.
I agree. This is a case of the manufacturers throwing the blame back onto the consumer. Every time the price of gas goes down, the manufacturers make their vehicles larger and more powerful, at the expense of fuel economy.
It seems that gasoline prices tend to level off for several years, then all of a sudden it will double in price overnight. While it is level, all the 40 mpg cars disappear. Now that gas jumped in price recently, they are coming back.
No matter how diligently a driver is at extracting the best possible gas mileage, he wont get a Suburban to match my Saturn when it is just driven normally.
Now if the manufacturers start to consider some new technology in the engine, like computer controlled valve timing, then maybe it will happen.
I think it somewhat depends on the vehicle. Some cars, like my underpowered Civic DX, will get decent fuel economy no matter how hard I stomp on the accelerator. However, if I was driving a Mustang, or riding a large displacement motorcycle, I could completely ruin my fuel economy by being aggressive on the throttle.
I’ve done a lot of variation in my driving style with my Escort and the mpgs vary little if at all. I once actually spent one week doing my interstate commute at 65mph & another week at 75mph. (I do about 5-600 miles a week all on the same interstate route). The fuel economy was not all that different either way. This would not be the case if I was driving, e.g. a box truck. Its the same when I go through “phases” - more mellow or aggressive driving periods. The difference is there, but not very big. The 'scort is mostly in control.
NO driver and no driving technique will ever coax this thing even up into the twenties mpg.
Just idling takes XX gallons per hour that aint gonna change with any driving technique.
Next is hyper miling driving techniques which I will not to use.
I will not ‘‘sand bag’’ the driving lanes.
“you guys are idiots and don’t have the right info”
“I love proving people wrong”
Classic thin-skinned troll…
The EPA MPG estimate are based on a lot of things, but not driving at a steady 55mph, not then or now.
My Toyota Matrix got 38mpg driving at mostly a steady 60mph with a little stop-and-go mixed in.
But I have the good sense to realize those conditions are very different than the ones EPA used to come up with 33mpg highway.
OTOH, driving from Wash. DC to Chicago with 3 people in the car, luggage, 60-75mph and AC running it averaged… 33mpg.
“Attached is a chevy ad from 1981, they do actually claim 31 mpg highway. No idea why the official EPA estimates from the fueleconomy.gov archives are so different.”
Buried in the ad, third column, midway down, is the four-word sentence: “Actual highway mileage lower.”
