Sudden MPG drop

[Suze]

300 miles on 7 gallons is 42.8 miles per gallon.

Are you saying this is a drop from what you were getting before?

[DoraAnderson]

Originally Posted by Suze

300 miles on 7 gallons is 42.8 miles per gallon.

Are you saying this is a drop from what you were getting before?

It was 293 miles on 7.71 gallons to be exact. I guess I was saying that the gas gauge is dropping much much faster than before.

[fpage77]

Originally Posted by NeWave

or driving off with the pump still in the car...

Or some douche who locked to pump on that metal tab that keeps pump on for you and when turned off for them when full only turned off at the pump itself and never removed the now locked cocked gas pump so next person who removes nozzle from pump and hits the on level on pump before putting nozzle in car gets gas all over them.


......................... run on sentence.

[SuperGeek]

10600 miles, bought in May 08. Since day one, sometimes the first bar would drop after 90 miles, sometimes 30 miles - depending on the pump. Each pump is pretty consistent from one fillup to the next, so I have a favorite down the street. Matches my Scangauge readings within 5%. I treat the gas gauge as a warning bar for "almost empty, somewhere in between, almost full." True MPG measurement requires a 3-5 tank average.

Don't stress over the bars. Don't stress over 2MPG. Your time is worth more than the effort required to calculate 2MPG difference over a month, raise hell with someone, or generally complain. Adjust your driving habits if they'll give you another 6-10 MPG but below that, why worry? This is one of the top 5 cheapest cars to operate over a 10 year period regardless of gas prices.