1A Auto Blog Asks: What Are You Getting For MPG These Days?

The image above has absolutely nothing to do with this blog post, but the car deserves some credit for surviving as long as it has against all odds. Seriously, when was the last time you saw one of these?

Anyway – over the last week, I have been doing a little gas mileage experiment, because I am trying to figure out how to beat the whole “buying expensive gas” thing in true gearhead fashion. I will elaborate more on this and potential further experiments in the days ahead. In the meantime, I would love to know what all of you are doing to stretch your mileage (If anything)? I also set up a poll this morning to see where we currently stand.

[polldaddy poll=5030037]

Jeremy Nutt

Hi, I'm Jeremy.

12 thoughts to “1A Auto Blog Asks: What Are You Getting For MPG These Days?”

  1. I drive a 1993 Mercury Sable that is well maintained. Most of my daily travel is on an interstate highway. I keep my speed between 55-58 mph. I never run my tank fully empty. I fill it up when I get to 1/4 tank, no matter what the cost of the fuel is. I usually get 13 gallons on my fill up and I get anywhere from 285-310 miles out of those 13 gallons that I buy. I do notice that when I keep my speed between 62-67 mph, I notice a drastic decrease in the amount of miles that I achieve from my 13 gallon purchase from a range of 242-265.

    Driving slower is not always fun as I do keep my vehicle to the farthest two right lanes, but I’ll still have people racing up to my bumper and zig zagging around me and flipping me off as to the effect of how dare I drive so slow on their highway. I take it all in stride and think to myself, those jackasses must have money to burn.

    1. Hi Tim! Thanks for your sharing your methods. From what I have read all over the internet recently, you are doing all the right things. I have been trying 1 of those methods over the last week, and as soon as I fill my tank up today at lunch I will know the results. I’m anxious to see how my painfully boring driving style over the last week has effected the mileage! I’m hoping for at least 2 more mpg, but that may be a stretch.

  2. Driving slower gets you more MPG, the car or truck is having to cut through less air. I put my truck in neutral whenever I am gliding down hill. It has 4.10 gears so even with my foot off the gas the engine turns at 1500 RPM at 40mph. Put it in neutral RPMs go down to 600. The fewer times the engine turns the less gas you burns. -Mike

  3. A few years back I bought a 1994 Acura Vigor that had 86600 mi on it and factory specs were 20mpg/26mpg-Hwy. The 2.5 in-line 5 has plenty of torque, it wants to chirp the tires when pulling out even if You pull out easily. I had brand new tires on it and I still had to be careful pulling out so as not to chirp them..this car is fast, throw You back in Your seat fast..lol. At first I seemed to only get 18mpg local driving and I attributed it to My heavy foot..I like to get up to speed fast. I started hyper-miling (coasting in neutral down hills and coming to a stop at red lights) and gained 2.7mpg doing so. I haven’t done it since though as the last time I hyper-miled it the T-belt snapped before I ever put it back into gear. Acura vehicle maint. recomends T-belt replacement at 90000…since I only had 87000 at the time the belt snapped I wasn’t sure if it was the hype-rmiling or the age of the car/belt that caused the break. Since My motor is an interference engine I had to replace the head, bent 1 valve ever so slightly…so $400 for reman head and down time tearing it down and waiting for new head to arrive via UPS I think I’ll just stick with “trying” not to have such a heavy foot…

  4. For my commute my 95 legacy wagon gets nearly 24mpg on my 95% highway commute. 70-75mph, cruise control, middle or right lanes and no high revs if possible all help me get to work cheaply.

    My 05 STI, with larger injectors and fuel pump, sucks gas no matter what, 16-18mpg regardless but I try to use cruise as much as possible. On the road race course at miller i get a whopping 6-8 mpg!

  5. I notice huge improvements when I drop my car. An hour long highway trip floating between 70-80 (dropping to 60 or so for scary expansion joints or rough sections) nets me 33-36 mpg indicated, which from my regular calculations is only slightly generous. At normal height the same trip would be between 27-31.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *