Everyone should know how many miles per gallon their car gets, but many people do not. I didn’t even know my car’s MPG, until today when I calculated it out.
How to Find Your Official Gas Mileage
If you want the quickly know your approximate mpg, the good ol’ U.S. government has set up this website where you can look up your car’s gas mileage or compare miles per gallon for different cars. And just recently, the EPA has changed how it calculates MPG to more accurately depict real world driving conditions.
According to their site, my car gets 24 miles per gallon (highway and city gas mileage combined). Based on an average gas cost of $3.01 per gallon and average annual driving of 15,000 miles, that works out to a whopping $1883 each year just spent on gas! That’s not even counting car repair costs, rotating tires, or oil cost.
How to Find Out Your Own MPG
To find out your car’s actual gas mileage, you just need to do some simple mathematics.
- Fill up your car with gas, and reset your odometer to zero.
- Drive like normal.
- Next time you need gas, pull up to the gas station and write down how many miles you’ve driven since you last filled up.
- Fill up your car, and write down how many gallons o’ gasoline it took.
- To find your car’s MPG, divide your miles driven by gallons of gas. Voila!
Using this method, I divided my miles driven by gallons of gas (426.8 / 14.454) to get my actual gas mileage ( 29.5 mpg! ). Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. How many miles per gallon does YOUR car get?
November 14th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I gave up driving my 1998 Dodge Truck that at its very best only got 13 MPG.
I ride two BMW Motorcycles:
A 2002 K1200LT with 37 MPG
A 2006 R1200GS with 42 Plus MPG
I ride daily, rain or shine and use the bikes as my primary transportation.
The Dodge truck has been parked since 2002 with only 120 miles on it since then.
-Dave Dragon
Ride it like you stole it
November 14th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
That is awesome. Helping the environment and helping your wallet at the same time, good job.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:47 am
7.8 MPG. I tried to get a bigger engine, but they did not offer it.
I drive hard at the stop lights, and brake hard to. This is about the lowest I can get on my Crew Cab Dually Pickup (long bed) with the 8.1L engine.
Yes, I don’t care about gas prices, and no one who buys a $50k truck should.
Also, its a free market.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Didn’t you (John Galt) already invent an engine that doesn’t need gas?
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Dirty? Perhaps. I drive a 96 Geo Metro 3cyl. It gets 42/44mpg normal driving depending if AC is on or 47 if hypermiling.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I wanted to know how much gas I will need to pump from my house to my niece house. So I can figure out the amount of money on gas. I have a Mazda Tribute /2007 we live in Pasco county and my niece in Pensacola . I hope somebody can help me out .
Thank You so much
Glorissa
June 9th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I drive a jeep 92 and I get like 20 miles to the gallon. gas is now $4.25 at the gas station by home and $4.14 every where else. it sucks. How I save on gas is by not driving as much, and noting running the extra trips.
Amy 6-9-08
June 11th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Dang, 20 miles to the gallon. You might be able to increase that mileage by following some of these gas saving tips.
Good job not driving as much, you can save some money fast by watching how much you drive.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Before you buy a car, go to: http://simplestuff.info/mpg
God, I looked at some cars I was considering and they are ridiculous. People should be required to run laps around the car dealership before buying a car. The worse mileage the car gets, the more laps you need to run.
I would guess that would change things a lot.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:50 am
True, it would be funny to watch people huffing and puffing as they ran around the lot. But people that buy inefficient cars are already paying the price each time they fill up.
August 21st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Hi,
What do you mean by ‘reset your odometer to zero’? How do you do it? Thanks!
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 am
ay girl to reset dat odometer you hafto make sure you headlight fluid is full (so you dont get shocked) and pump your breaks 6 times when you start. then when it starts hold down the accelerator with the car in park (this will put the car into overdrive which will reset the odometer)
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:21 am
I thought to reset the odemeter all you had to do was push a button….. like under the mileage. Right…?
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:28 am
You are correct, Nana. I think Gangsta Pat has a custom-made car, so his works differently.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I drive a 1995 nissan pathfinder, it was “rated” at 15mpg city and 19 highway. I keep it in good (read mint) condition, and I get 24mpg on the highway and 19 in the city. Even when gas prices peaked this summer, I drove the suv still, although not as much.
I drive what I like, not what others dictate I “should” drive.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Alright, good for you. I don’t know who’s dictating what you should drive, is it your parents?
October 29th, 2008 at 9:02 am
No, it’s the random people who put notes under the wipers of all the suv’s in the parking lot telling us we’re killing the environment, and when I attend thanks giving/christmas and the like, I have this uncle who hates sport utilities.
My parents were actually the ones who suggested I get another suv, my father gave me his 1993 pathfinder when I was sixteen, that was years ago. It is in storage now that I have the newer one.
I do try and carpool as much as I can, although thats just so I save my own money… And it is the most practical vehicle for my needs, I am a computer tech guy, and I carry lots of stuff with me. Nice website you got.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Yeah, I get annoyed with anyone who slaps notes on cars. And I can see how it’d get annoying having a relative who was really loud and pushy with their opinion, for true.
Good job carpooling. And whether it’s to help the environment or save money, the end result is the same. I’m glad you like the website, I’ve slacked off on it lately, got to get back on it soon.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:19 am
how many miles does a 2.2 diesle frontera do to a gallon
May 26th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
you press the button beside it!!!
May 26th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I like BOOBS do you?
June 12th, 2009 at 3:17 am
25 mpg is that good or bad?
June 15th, 2009 at 8:53 am
25 is bad! I'm not sure what you guys are driving, i know V8's are all the rage over there. I average 50-52 mpg out of my diesel "warm hatch", and i dont hang around! this is european miles to the gallon please bear in mind.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Lo'dy, if you think 25 is bad, you should see the MPG that a lot of cars get around here. I believe that there was just recently a big release of diesel cars here in the USA that get around 50-60 MPG.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
i have a suzuki esteem any one know the mpg on my station wagon 4 cylynder
July 27th, 2009 at 3:30 am
I get 11 MPG :'-(
October 1st, 2009 at 2:43 pm
i have a 186 chevrolet monte carlo ss 8 ciylynder 350 v-8 automatic how many mpg dose it get?
November 4th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
lol.. I was just reading through these and had to laugh knowing I used to drive a 72 ford high boy with a 460 in it, getting on average 4 miles to the gallon. now a days, its horrible to get under 15.. I just want a big truck with good gas mileage and not have to pay 45,000 dollars for the dumb thing. Is that too much to ask for?
November 28th, 2009 at 6:18 am
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January 9th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
i need major help! i drive myself to school and home everyday.. and i leave campus for lunch and run little errands but my parents dont know about it. they are starting to get suspicious on why im always low on gas. if i can figure out how many miles i can hold ill spread it out so itll take me like 2 weeks or so before i need to refill, but i dont know how to do that!! what do i do?!?!?!
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:22 am
Its real simple. After finding out how many mpg that you get, mapquest how many miles it is from your house, to her house. Multiply how much you spent on gas per gallon times how many miles it is from the two homes. that should work.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:11 am
have i told you that i love you very much thank you very very much, you’re the best.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
getting a tune up can also help on te gas mileage and general maintance on your vehicle also helps. It may costs 20 to 30 dollars to buy the spark plugs and tools to do it yourself. I am 51 and did this recently for my 6 cylander van and it does drive alot better. Also the air in thetires does make a difference too. Just take care of the vehicle, you will be glad you did!
February 21st, 2010 at 8:41 pm
i got 8.8 mpg on a 4.6 ford f150
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:26 pm
my 92 dually with 7.5L gets 10 to 11 mpg
March 11th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
I know in the great usa we can,t get some of them toyota diesels most other contries have and I know they would sell them toyota pickup trucks like hotcakes if you could get one with a diesel the oil companys don't want them here we only have big diesel motors in our trucks mine is a 6.6 if I could get a 4.0 or smaller I would of bought it.
March 12th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
It might be time to consider siphoning gas out of other people's tanks. Not only will this let you go longer without asking your parents for gas money, but it'll teach people a lesson for not locking their gas tanks. Everybody benefits.
March 12th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
They're starting to import some of the smaller diesel cars and trucks, so maybe you'll soon be able to get a high miles-per-gallon diesel truck after all, hotdog.