Gas mileage

I have a friend that would claim he was getting 40 mpg in his 94 accord.... come to find out he’d fill up between like 3/4 and 1/2 a tank. Lol

 

If you're just talking about gas costs, sure, you save money driving a more fuel efficient vehicle during the week.

But how much did that Civic cost you to purchase and insure?

 

Honestly, though, 40mpg isn't that out of the norm for a small car. Those old ass Geo Metros get like 40+mpgs without thinking.

My wife even manages 35+ out of her '14 Corolla Eco (she isn't exactly soft of the skinny pedal, and drives in a lot of traffic). When I drive it, 40 isn't that hard.

 

I don’t remember the exact mpg he said he was getting but it wasnt realistic mpg for running through full tank of gas. I had a 93 accord m/t at the time and I was getting like 28-30 from full to empty.

I could probably get 28 mpg in my truck too if I just drove 56 miles between gas stations and fueled up.

 

So was he actually filling up his tank, or only putting in like 1/2 a tank?

If he's filling up his tank until it clicked, and resetting his ODO, that's simply how much gas he burned in that mileage. Now, if all his gas stations were down hill from the last, that's def not a fair comparison, lol.

 

What is this "gas mileage" that you speak of?

 

Why would that matter? You divide miles driven by fuel consumed. Doesn't matter if you figure it after burning 10 gallons @ 200 miles or 100 gallons @ 2000 miles, you get the same numbers either way.

Fuel mileage can vary a lot depending on driving conditions. I've gotten 23 mpg and 16 mpg from different tanks on the same day with my Tacoma. The 23 mpg was in mountains where safe speeds were no more than 55-60 mph. The hills were rolling enough that I could coast down hill and not have to touch the gas until I was 1/2 way up the next hill then repeat. The 16 mpg was on flat interstate at 70 mph, but driving into a steady headwind.

The onboard fuel mileage calculations can vary a lot too. My Tacoma is old enough to not have that feature, but my Honda and F150 do. The Honda is always about 3 mpg optimistic. The Ford is always within 1/2 mpg and high as often as low.

Normal numbers for my vehicles: The Tacoma is 16-17 mpg for my every day driving and 19-20 hwy. The F150 is about 1 mpg worse. My Honda is 25-26 mpg for my everyday driving and 37-38 hwy.

The old Honda is worth more to me to keep than sell. Its worth about $2K-$3K. But driving it as much as possible isn't just saving gas. I can put 4 tires on the Honda for less than 2 on the trucks. I'm saving miles on the trucks which will cost considerably more to replace down the road.

 

He’d fill it up and then refill like 100-150 miles later. I always seem to get much better fuel mileage those first few gallons lol but idk


I do know I never got over 20-22 with my 97 RC m/t 4x4 with the 235 tires or whatever factory size tire it came with.

 

I had an '01 Elantra that I frequently got around 38 mpg in at altitude. This doesn't seem that outlandish to me.

 

Easy guys, the Civic is 20 years old and only cost $2500 when purchased. I have a 100 mile daily commute so even fueling the Civic multiple times a week puts a beating on me. Being underemployed sucks.

 

oh god, was he one of those "it damages the motor if you let it get less than half a tank" people?

 

No he drove like he stole it most of the time which made it more unbelievable.

It’s just much easier to drive 55-60 for 100 miles and average 40 mph than it is to drive 400 and keep that same average.

 

I'm right around 17 mpg. Been logging it for the last 5K miles. Best I've ever had was 19mpg.

 

Yeah, that’s pretty normal for tacoma 4x4’s.

Best I ever got, ironically, was a road trip towing this Coleman pop up trailer. It only weighed like 800#, but was pretty u stable at speed, so I spent the entire trip doing 55. 18 mpgs over a 2k mike trip.

That was murder though. I don’t even go that slow with my 4runner and 18’ 3500# travel trailer, lol

 

I'm one of those people that it doesn't make sense since I live 3 miles from my workplace. I really wanted to buy a used manual 1st gen Scion xB but financially makes no sense for me.

Anyways, I average about 16 mpg in my 2004 D-cab Prerunner 3.4L.

 

I have a record in my Fuelly account where I got 21.x mpg on a trip through NC doing about 75 on cruise.
This was stock height, stock tires inflated to 35 psi. Got just a little over 365 miles on that tank before I felt the need to stop, still had over a gallon left at fill-up
Not bad for 4wd Auto, although having a tonneau cover aids with less wind catch in the bed

Now if I see over 15 I'm usually content, 18 on highway trips.

 

IDEK how people manage 25 plus on their 5 lugs. Granted I'm on 235's and haven't regeared, but I get ~20 mpg day in and out; Even with the bed loaded and going up to 7000 feet elevation up the mountain, versus coasting and babying it lol.

TBH i'd rather have it consistent bc then I would actually OCD about variable numbers too much

 

Conversation so subjective, in the cold months up north we have fuel additives which definitely deflate the MPG on vehicles, check again in April or May and watch the MPG creep up 1 or 2 per gallon. And the obvious already mentioned is age and condition of motor/transmission, elevation and other roadway factors.

All that aside, it comes down to driver and speeds they drive the vehicle at. Made it a point a few weeks ago where i drove 60-65 mph up to northern VT in my friends Subaru averaging 29.5 mpg. He claimed highway was around 25-26 for him, proved him wrong in those 200 miles, on the trip home he drove and guess what the mileage went back to? Yes 26 mpg. There is a fine line in coast, accelerating and braking where you can save mpg keeping a distance and graduating accelerating/braking where its needed.

I bought a commuter 2003 civic with 180k on it a few years back, 5 speed with new headgasket and it ran amazing for $2500, it was my only car... Needed something cheap because i just closed on a place and it needed a lot of work which was coming out of my pocket. Let me tell you, the mileage is amazing on these little 1.4, 1.5 1.6L engines, the car is significantly lighter, smooth, fwd, tuning has been honda's thing for decades if you think about it. They offered the slow, excellent mpg civic/accord back in the 1980's which most people did not fully believe in at the time. I never calculated my mileage but would say low to mid 30s in city and 40 highway. Was not a gas station crawler...

 

For sure. Money wise it's hard to add up. I bought my scion in March. My commute is 60 miles round trip, car gets 34 mpg, I'm in denial about the truck's mgps but fuelly says 15 mpg (it's gotta be less with the camper, I stopped recording it) and the motorcycle which I don't ride as much gets 47 mpg.

The motorcycle paid for itself in gas a long time ago. I was commuting daily on it. It's an inexpensive bike...$4K used. But, there's still the whole getting hit by a car on the highway incident with some nasty injuries and a follow up surgery to account for.

The car will pay for itself in gas eventually...maybe 5-6 years including insurance, registration and maintenance? But it's true value is that I parked my truck for 5 months while I built a flat bed camper on the back and didn't have to worry about using it for commuting. I believe the daily driver is one of the best truck mods.

 

the 5-lug came with smaller tires than you are running, have you accounted for the % of overage? you may gain that 2-4 mpg back on conversion. 235 are also heavier by a few lbs each I would think, not to mention your loads and altitude (I remember something affecting mpg)