Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Is this correct way to gauge gas mileage?

Because iam suprised i getting this good of mileage..

last week, 37 dollars tank is full, i change the mileage thingy to ZERO... today, 347 on mileage thingy, i put 12.2 gallons of gas into my car...

so 347 divided by 12.2 = 28.4

am i doing this right? that seems pretty damn good for a 99 2.5 mtx with 118k on it without a tuneup yet..?

Yes that is correct.
You'll get better(more accurate) results if you do it over a longer period of time though.
I.e. Fill the tank completly at the first of the month, and record the odometer reading. Keep all your recipts for the month and add them up and then devide by miles driven, making sure to have filled the tank full on the last fill up.

These engines can be efficient when driven properly. When I first got my '95 I had some tanks I got as good as 32MPG. The Mystique just before we retired it was getting 28.

Fill the tank and drive normally. When the tank is low again (~250+ miles later) refill to full as before. Divide miles driven by the number of gallons of fuel (~10.2 galllons) you put into said tank the second time to calculate fuel mileage.

cool, thanks guys.. normally i will get in the summer around 320-330 per fill up, i normally go fill as soon as the light comes on, which equates to about 12-13 gallons of gas.. funny thing is, during summer i get less, maybe 300 flat or so.. car is a lifer i think, i have been running it with broken 3rd gear syncs for 3 years...

gonna keep it, looking for SVT now...

No way aliasjerk.

I got 26mpg in my zetec dogging the living crap outta it (that was only time I ever really measured it). I know on the highway at high speed, it was great. Probably around 35mpg. The automatic actually helped that as it keeps the rpm's lower at high speed.

My duratec kills me. I actually get on it less when I drive it than my other cars and it drinks a lot more gas. I don't really care to measure, but I'd expect to be around 20mpg city (though it's got miles, precats seem to be bit clogged, and even though I get on it less than my other cars, I still romp on it here and there). It would be OK on the highway except with the mtx it is revving so darn high at the speeds I drive.

The way I drive, I get better with the SVT.

I like to drive my cars the same speed, no matter if it's a 4 cylinder or a V8. So being the Zetec powering a heavy car, it had to be floored everywhere, unlike the SVT.

That's the thing. I still get better flooring the zetec than driving the svt calmly.

well i drive 50 miles round trip to work each day at around 75-80mph... so iam making it go... but, i just remembered, my last fill up was at speedway and using the 89 octane gas.. interesting, i just filled up today with 87 octane from same station, see what happens.