How to Determine Gas Mileage on Vehicle

Knowing how much your car's gas mileage is can help you budget for driving expenses. Additionally, tracking your gas mileage can give you an early indicator your car needs maintenance. Gas mileage drops in many car models when routine maintenance is overdue and a sudden drop in gas mileage can indicate a more serious problem with your car. These steps explain how to calculate your car's gas mileage at the pump.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper
• Pencil
• Calculator (optional)

1. Fill your gas tank completely. Write down your car's mileage. For example, take a car that starts with 34,500 miles on it.

2. Drive your car as normal until you are low on gas. About a quarter of a tank is fine for this.

3. Refill your gas tank. Write down how many gallons of gas you needed to fill the tank and your car's current mileage while you are at the gas pump. In this example, your car might now have 34,850 miles and have required 12.5 gallons to refill the tank.

4. Subtract your starting mileage from your mileage when you refilled. This will give you the total miles you traveled on this tank of gas. In the example, your car's gas mileage would be 34,850 (final mileage) - 34,500 (starting mileage) = 350 total miles traveled.

5. Divide the total miles traveled by the number of gallons needed to refill. The result is your car's gas mileage, in miles per gallon. To continue the example,the car's gas mileage is 350 miles traveled / 12.5 gallons used = 28 miles per gallon (mpg).

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a notebook in your car to write down mileage, gallons pumped and calculate mileage every time you refill to track your mileage over time.

Who Can Help Sponsored