How to Calculate Gas Mileage Easily

So you'd like to know how to calculate your gas mileage? Car owners hear about gas mileage and MPG (miles per gallon) ratings all the time. The Cash for Clunkers program required cars below a certain MPG to be traded in for a vehicle that got a certain, better gas mileage. You could look up the values online, but how does those gas mileage numbers compare to what you actually get while driving? Checking your gas mileage is easy. And the calculation is simple. Read below to find out exactly how to go about calculating gas mileage easily.

Things You'll Need

• Car
• Trip odometer reading
• Calculator
• Paper
• Pen

Instructions

1. 

   Reset your trip odometer the next time you fill up on gas. Your trip odometer is located directly below your regular odometer and in between the numbers of your speedometer. You will find a button below your trip odometer that you can press in. Pressing this button in resets your trip odometer. You will need to do this in order to make an accurate gas mileage calculation.

2. 

   Drive normally without pressing the trip odometer reset button again. You will notice that your trip odometer is recording only the mileage since last filling up your car with gas. Knowing your mileage since your last gas trip is an important part of calculating gas mileage.

3. 

   Save your gas receipt the next time you fill up your car with gas. You absolutely need this receipt because it tells you the amount of gas that you put in your gas tank. And you need that value to calculate your gas mileage easily.

4. 

   Record the mileage on your trip odometer. This represents the mileage you went since last filling up. Using the receipt as a reference, record the amount of gas you put in your tank. This represents the amount of gas you used since last filling up.

5. 

   Divide your trip odometer mileage by the amount of gas you put in your tank. This will give you your miles per gallon or MPG gas mileage.

6. 

   Record your MPG gas mileage each time you fill up on gas. This will allow you to track your gas mileage easily. It will also allow you to see whether or not efforts to improve gas mileage are working.

Tips & Warnings

• When you fill up on gas, make sure you fill up completely. Otherwise, when you go to fill up next time, you won't know how much gas was actually used.

Resources

• Marilyn Brodeur
• How to Get GEICO Car Insurance Discounts