loflin

Just my input on "computer accuracy" to maybe clear up confusions.

The computers mpg calcuations is very accurate (it knows EXACTLY how much gas it using and how many miles it's driven).

Measuring via trip odometer and fill-up gallons CAN be accurate IF you use the same pump each time (exact same pump, not just same gas station), stop the fill at the same place (either top off or not) and fill each time with approximately the same ambient temperature.

(and BTW you need to use the exact gallon numbers and a calculater, no rounding )

The fact that the "miles left to go before empty" is conservative (i.e. you can run past 0) is NO indication of the inaccuracy of the computer's mpg calculations AT ALL. The miles to go is cacluated on your most recent mpg (each manufacturer's calcuation may be a little different, some use last 5 minutes of avg mpg others may be hours of drive time). MOST people start driving REAL conservative when they are staring at miles to go of close to 0, so your actually mpg goes up. Finally, all manufacturers will "call it early", as the last thing they want is a customer complaining "my car said I still had 10 miles and it stopped!"

RC1818

makes lots of sense.....but there seems to be anutha issue now, how many miles do u get per tank, pleeze dont tell me ur gettin' also 300+ now?!!??!?! =)

loflin

Well, that's not really a question that you will get a good answer for.

Some people will call it "a tank" when the light first comes on, and only put 15 gallons in, others will drive it "past 0" and put 21 gallons in.

Some people will travel light and mostly highway, others will be hauling kids and gear and driving mostly stop and go.

Makes a big difference.

Only real compare is accurate mpg.

Having said that, I will answer your question.

Normal driving is almost 100% city, wife drives, fill up pretty soon after light comes on. So she gets about 220 to 240 "miles per tank".

Just last week I drove (with full family and luggage) a round trip of all highway (about 500 miles). I tend to drive thru the warning light. I was getting about 330 "miles per tank".

But as you see, that doesn't mean anything.

What does is:
- we get about 14 to 15 mpg in normal (city, stop and go).
- we get about 17 to 18 mpg in highway (this is at average speed of 70+).

RC1818

i do understand every criteria.......

i drive a mixture of city & highway and i say even wit the premium (93octane) change im still getting about 230-240 miles before i have to reload.....so goes to say, i still dunno how the heck some of yas gettin' over 300+ unless its pure HW driving!!

maybe i need to have my fuel injectors checked sense i often do drive on fumes b4 i fuel up?!?!?!

thx for all the input guys......

llcc1975

Just to put in my $.02 worth here. I just completed a pretty long trip (700 miles approximately). I averaged 75-85 mph about 95% of the time and the terrain was about 40% hilly and 60% flat (went from 1000 ft above sea level to 5000 ft above sea level).

Using regular gas only, my computer calculated 18.5 mpg for the whole trip (no I did not reset the avg mpg number during the fillups). But, I did fill up (and topped off) during the last leg of the trip. It was approximately 275 miles from that fillup to my final destination (actually 275.4 to be precise). The next day I topped it off again at a gas station that was 1.2 miles away (I realized this is not wholly accurate as I can't say that I topped off as much the second time as the first time). But for the sake of discussion, I was only able to squeeze in about 15 gallons into the tank. Seems like the computer was pretty accurate to me. And I'm frankly surprised by the good gas mileage that I got.