So, this morning I woke up extra early before my alarm because I was a little excited; I knew I had to fill up for the frist time. I had been a little anxious because of some posts about people having problems with early auto-shutoff at gas pumps, and eager to get a log started for gas / mileage. Here are my results: 391 miles 8.4 gallons 45 MPG - display 46.4 MPG - calculated I'm guessing that I put in more gas than the dealer did because from what I've read, the computer always estimates high for MPG. Mine came out lower than the calculated value. We'll see in a couple weeks if that holds up. I'm also looking forward to improving those numbers. Now I have a question for those of you who log and graph these things carefully: I based my excel sheet on one I found here that includes an average temperature input so you can graph temp against MPG. What source do you use for avg temp? Just read it off the display when you fill up? Or is there a good source for (nicely formatted, easy to read) temperature data online? I've looked a little bit, but as you might expect, typing "average temperature" into google gives a lot of information about global warming! ...probably somewhere on the NOAA site or something like that.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Jul 27 2006, 07:05 AM) [snapback]293073[/snapback]</div> There is literally nothing truly accurate. Whatever value you choose is totally arbitrary, since temperature can vary so dramatically. Heck, even the time of day you primarily drive can skew results. So basically, just keep filling in gallons & miles on the spreadsheet. Don't bother with anything else. You'll end up with enough data to after awhile anyway, like monthly averages.
Put in my first tank yesterday and had no problems filling up. 383 miles and display said I was averaging 43.8 and my actual was 43. I'll get a better read on my second tank since I'm not sure how much gas the dealer put in. Right now my display is saying I'm averaging 45.4 so we'll see.
COMPLETELY OT... Ichabod, I love your avatar! If you're fortunate enough to be able to have the octothorpe on your plate, it's even better. ThinkGeek has a geek love t-shirt that reads: "Roses are #FF0000 Violets are #0000FF All my base Are belong to you." I had to explain the whole thing to my wife - she's an accountant - but (shhhhh) she's getting one for her birthday...
