What Kind of Mileage Should You Be Getting?
I fueled up my car yesterday and entered the data into FuelFrog. I got 22.4 mpg which isn’t bad for a V6 (I drive a 1997 Maxima SE), but I wondered if other people are getting better mileage.
I found the perfect site to find out. Gasaroo tracks real-world gas mileage that people are getting. This means you can enter in your car and find out what mileage other owners of the same make model and year are getting. They also have a fantastic tag line: “we want to know when you’ve got gas.”
It turns out that the average mpg is 23.40 so there’s room for improvement.
I’ve considered learning more about hypermiling. It seems like a good idea but I like my A/C on hot days and I value my life too much to draft 10 feet behind large trucks.
With my 4-cyl ’03 Accord, I’ve been getting over 30 mpg the last few months on lowest-grade unleaded (85 Octane). I’ve kept track mentally of just about every single fillup (remembering trends, not individual numbers) for 2.5 yrs and this is some of the best I’ve ever gotten, and that includes some big hills too.
BTW, I only started using low-grade unleaded instead of mid-grade a couple months when my local Chevron was charging 22 cents difference between low and mid. I don’t think most people notice the price diff because they always look at the lowest number, but as I’ve been paying more attention, you’ll see that there is often a big diff between low and mid.
30mpg is great! I’d be happy to hit 25 with my new hypermiling skilz.
I remember the grades being 10 cents apart, but I’ve noticed they’re 11 cents apart. Sneaky gas stations.
Be careful, the majority I see now are 12 cents here in Utah, but I’ve seen 18 cents and that one that was 22 cents. What I wonder is if I’m really doing harm or not with using 85 octane.
According to this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating
85 octane at high altitudes is comparable to 87 at low altitudes, but 85 at low altitudes can indeed cause engine damage. Looks like I’m safe in Utah though.