What is your Mustache Mileage?

[GoStumpy]

I find it oddly fun to get the best possible mileage, currently driving a 2005 Nissan Altima 4cyl Automatic, EPA rates it at 23 combined (21 city 27 highway), and I'm currently getting 32mpg in mixed driving (mostly city actually).

Good website for EPA rated mileage of your vehicle:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/


Are you getting better than your car is rated for?

[grantmeaname]

I drive a *gulp* 2003 Town and Country with the big-ass 3.8L V6, rated for like 15/19. I get 21 combined on a good tank, which is better than the rating but still shameful. A good highway tank can approach 32mpg though, which is pretty impressive compared to the 19mpg it's rated for.

[Rural]

I'm getting 32 out of a KIA Rio rated at 25 mixed, which is the closest approximation of my rural back roads commute, I think,with no highways at all but no city stop-and-go either.

[ketchup]

1988 Chevy Sprint Metro.  Rated 44/51 on the "new" EPA rating, 54/58 on its "old" EPA rating.

Getting about 45MPG here in the winter; I averaged about 53MPG last summer, with 57MPG being my best tank.

[GuitarStv]

Haven't worked out the exact numbers, but since we do around 90 km a week driving and 40 a week on the bike running errands, I assume that averaged together our '05 Corrola is doing all right.

[Ottawa]

I own a 2003 VW Jetta 1.8T. 
The old standards were 24city/31hwy - 27Combined
The new standards are 21city/28hwy - 24 Combined

Since I bought the Mustachian must-have tech (garmin mechanic in my case) I can see that:
City - 25MPG (in the Canadian WINTER!!) Haven't measured in summer yet - it will be better.
Hwy - 35MPG (again, the Winter).

SO, I think I'll use the new standards ;-) (after all they are supposed to be more realistic!)
that means at a minimum I am almost 25% better City and 25% better Highway.  It will be interesting to see how much this changes - I think for my car it is up to 20%.   

[John74]

I drive a 2010 Toyota Camry, rated 22/32 - 26 combined. I get an average of 28 MPG (city and highway).

[BlueMR2]

- Wife's Celica lists at 24/30.  She gets around 26 mpg in her normal mixed driving.  However, we get 42 mpg on long trips when I'm driving.  I think I mentioned on here before that we did Toledo to Pittsburgh, drove around there a couple days, and back to Toledo on the same tank of gas...  :-)

- My MR2 lists at 19/26.  That's just crazy.  I've *never* gotten under 29, even in stop and go traffic.  A normal mix is around 32 mpg, and if I get lucky enough to find semis to draft during the expressway part of my commute I can do 38 mpg.

- My Eclipse lists at 21/29.  I've never gotten as bad as 21.  When the car was modded to have a speed-density conversion, it got 29mpg all around (but didn't idle well and would occasionally shut off at stop lights - that's one way to save gas I guess...).  Switched back to the factory AFM and it gets a solid 26 mpg, doesn't matter if it's in the city or on the highway, always gets 26...  :-)

[the fixer]

2005 Scion xA, highway rated for 33 MPG, best tank is 51 MPG. This winter I typically have gotten in the 40s, last tank was between 46 and 47. This is with pulse and glide with engine-off coast.

Without the extreme hypermiling techniques I used to get 37-40 MPG maximum.

I'm trying to beat MMM because he said in his hypermiling post that he could get his xA up to 52. I'm so close!!

[Jamesqf]

Interesting site.  Says the EPA rating of my 2000 Honda Insight is 49/53/61.  I've driven it about 115K miles in the nearly 10 years I've owned it, and have gotten an average 71.4 mpg.  So yeah, I'm getting quite a bit better than EPA.

Same goes for the truck ('88 Toyota 4WD).  EPA is 18/20/22, I get 26-27.

[Spork]

http://www.fuelly.com/

Fuelly is an aggregate of what people are getting/reporting in the real world.  It seems like the EPA numbers are all over the place.  Lots of them are underestimated... and there are currently some lawsuits ongoing with a few of the hybrids where the EPA numbers are overestimated.  (I think Ford, if I recall, was overestimating).

[grantmeaname]

I thought EPA produced the numbers based on road tests on a standard course. Does the agency just ask the manufacturers what numbers they want?

[Nate R]

I thought EPA produced the numbers based on road tests on a standard course. Does the agency just ask the manufacturers what numbers they want?

I believe the manufacturers run the test to an EPA standard, and report the #s. But the test standard changed in 2008 to a more severe driving cycle.

[Spork]

From what I have read about the hybrid lawsuits, it sounds like some of the hybrid manufacturers were effectively hypermiling (or doing something close to that).  While it was technically "true" it does not really reflect the real world.  I think they may have been trying to justify the extra expense of a hybrid vs traditional gas engines of the same models -- or at least that is what the lawsuits claim.

[Jamesqf]

While it was technically "true" it does not really reflect the real world.

Depends entirely on whose version of the real world you're living in.  See how many of us are doing much better than EPA?

[Spork]

While it was technically "true" it does not really reflect the real world.

Depends entirely on whose version of the real world you're living in.  See how many of us are doing much better than EPA?

...which is again common on gasoline engines.

[BlueMR2]

While it was technically "true" it does not really reflect the real world.

Depends entirely on whose version of the real world you're living in.  See how many of us are doing much better than EPA?

It depends on living conditions too.  A friend of mine is only getting 37 mpg out of his Prius.  It's because it's so cold up here.  The battery doesn't want to hold a charge in the cold and the engine runs all the time anyway in order to provide heat.

[Mrs WW]

I got 42 mpg in my 1997 Nissan Sentra. I dont know what it was estimated for, but over the course of a full year I never went over 40 mpg. Mixed driving hwy and city streets.

[Jamesqf]

It depends on living conditions too.  A friend of mine is only getting 37 mpg out of his Prius.  It's because it's so cold up here.

It averages out over the year, though.  Back in December/January, we had a cold spell, and I was only getting low 60s mpg.  Get a hot stretch in the summer, and I'll be getting in the high 70s.

[Jack]

In my 1998 Volkswagen Beetle TDI (Diesel), I get ~40-45 MPG in normal driving, ~60+ MPG hypermiling, and ~10 MPG autocrossing. : )

(All measured with a ScanGauge... I haven't been hypermiling long enough to calculate a tank average yet.)

[GoStumpy]

I drove my 2005 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 as gingerly as possible, turning it off at long red lights, driving like a grandma...

Still didn't break 20mpg :@

[crazy jane]

The 2010 Ford Focus with stick gets 45 on the highway 32 in the city.

The Fuji Crosstown 2.0 gets unlimited miles.

[Jack]

I drove my 2005 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 as gingerly as possible, turning it off at long red lights, driving like a grandma...

Don't do that. Instead, go find a Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) chart for your engine and then drive so as to stay as close to the optimum RPM & load as possible. (On my TDI, for example, the optimum is at low RPM but high load, so the most efficient way for me to drive is to floor the accelerator but shift really early.)

[adam]

https://www.fuelly.com/driver/adjamc/silverado-1500

Lifetime avg: 15.6MPG.  I tow/haul a lot with it.  Around the city if I don't tow at all I'll get 16-17.  Highway at highway speeds (75+) I get ~18-19.  Towing, even taking the boat to the ramp once on a tank, will dump me into the 14s.

I got 22mpg once on a highway trip with a bed full of stuff while sticking to back roads and 60mph.  In this truck the normal hypermiling tricks to not apply, the number one thing that affects the mpg is speed.

EPA is 14 city, 20 highway.

[Spork]

I just ditched my bigass gas-sucking truck.  (Ok, not ditched yet, but parked and going on Craigslist this weekend.)  I've only got one full tank through my new (to me) Matrix, but the first tank of mostly city driving: 30.8mpg.  At today's fuel prices that is about a $2000/year raise.  Woot.

[ketchup]

I drove my 2005 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 as gingerly as possible, turning it off at long red lights, driving like a grandma...

Don't do that. Instead, go find a Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) chart for your engine and then drive so as to stay as close to the optimum RPM & load as possible. (On my TDI, for example, the optimum is at low RPM but high load, so the most efficient way for me to drive is to floor the accelerator but shift really early.)

Thanks for this.  I looked up the BSFC chart for my engine (well, one very similar to it) and was able to get somewhere between 53 and 64 MPG (based on two top-ups of questionable accuracy; my car is carbureted so I have no way to tell real-time MPG) over 200 miles this weekend driving on the highway burning and gliding averaging about 60mph.  Now I get to see what my new mileage will be for my daily commute.  Before this, in the winter I'd been getting about 45MPG (53 or so in the summer).  I'll be sure to post when I finish this tank.

[lauren_knows]

I drive a 2009 MINI Cooper S, manual 6-speed.  EPA says it gets 26/34.  The lifetime average is 32, according to my digital readout, and I once got 40.3 on an 8hr roadtrip (Set the cruise to 55-60 and forgot about it).

For a turbo, I greatly enjoy the mileage I get with that little guy.

[ivyhedge]

2011 Honda CR-Z
- 38,400 miles
- 47.0 mpg (median)
- H @ 52.6 mpg
- L @ 42.1 mpg
No hypermiling: 70% highway.

[mc6]

Not good:

14 city and 19 hwy

[tuyop]

Could be a lot better. I get about 32mpg on my commute in my 2010 Mazda 3 (6 speed, 2.5l), which is like 90km/h rural roads.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26374

That's only like 7% better than advertised for "highway". I have too much fun sometimes.