Your actual gas efficiency, measured in mileage (mpg or kpg), may vary from stated estimates. Vehicle condition and style of driving, among other factors, can influence mileage.

It's a good idea to get an actual mileage reading for your car. This provides a baseline for your understanding and improving the gas mileage of your car. For more information, visit Eartheasy's page on Fuel-Efficient Driving.

Calculating Your Car's Miles Per Gallon (MPG)

1. Fill up your car's gas tank all the way.
2. If your car has a trip odometer, reset it, or record the master odometer mileage.
3. Drive your car as you normally would, and let your gas tank deplete to at least a half of a tank of gas.
4. Get to the gas station and fill your tank again.
5. Record the amount of gas it took to refill the tank.
6. Record the elapsed trip miles or new odometer mileage.

Calculate
Get the miles traveled from the trip odometer, or subtract the original odometer reading from the new one.

Divide the miles traveled by the amount of gallons it took to refill the tank. The result will be your car's average Miles Per Gallon yield for that driving period.

e.g. 312miles ÷ 16gallons = 19.5mpg

You can repeat this procedure every time you refill your tank to continue to monitor, and attempt to improve, your gas mileage.

Related page: Fuel-Efficient Driving