Calculating Your Gas Mileage

Considering that the cost of gasoline seems to be rising on an almost daily basis, it seems that the number of miles per gallon has never been more important. If you go to any car dealership, or even go online to look at an automaker's website, there the basic miles per gallon (MPG) that a vehicle gets is put in a prominent place for all to see. In fact, a vehicle's MPG is one of the largest selling points in today's auto market.

If you have ever wondered how they come to the MPG figure, or if you would like to calculate you actual gas mileage, then you are in luck. If you would like to go about calculating your gas mileage, the process is simple and fun. There is one slight drawback though, since this is going to cost you some money to fill up the gas tank.

1. Prior to starting, you need to do two things the first is that you need to fill up your gas tank. Fill it completely. The second thing that you need to do is write down the current mileage reading from your odometer. You are going to do this same thing whether you are trying to calculate your highway or city gas mileage.
2. Drive around until your gas tank needs to be refilled. This means that you really need to drive until your gas tank reaches "E" and the emergency light flashes. This is going to ensure that your gas tank is properly empty, and that you can get an accurate calculation. Fill up the gas tank again, and write down the new current reading from the odometer. At the same time, you also want to write down the number of gallons it took to fill up the gas tank.
3. Compare the two readings from the odometer. Simply subtract the smaller odometer reading from the larger one. This is going to tell you the total distance that you have driven. After you have done that, just divide the distance you drove by the number of gallons that it took for you to be able to fill your tank. The resulting answer is going to be your miles per gallon.
4. Whether you are calculating your highway, or city mileage you are going to do the same process as listed above. One word of warning though, to be sure that you get a truly accurate reading, do not mix the city driving with the highway driving, otherwise you are not going to get true results.