How to Measure Gas Mileage
Gas mileage, or fuel economy, is the distance a car can travel on a certain amount of gas. The better a car's gas mileage, the less money you will spend to get around. While EPA estimates for specific makes and models' gas mileage can be found easily online, your actual gas mileage when driving on the road can vary significantly based on factors like driving habits and road conditions. Even if your car does not have a built-in fuel economy gauge, you can measure your gas mileage based on a few fill-ups.
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Instructions
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1
Go to a gas station and fill your gas tank until the pump stops on its own, indicating that the tank is full.
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2
Reset your car's trip odometer. There should be a button somewhere on the dashboard display, near the odometer readout, that resets the trip odometer. If you can't find it, simply write down the current mileage on your odometer.
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3
Drive your car normally until you need to get fuel again.
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4
Fill up your tank until the pump stops and record the amount of fuel you put in the car. The pump should display an exact amount in gallons.
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Check your trip odometer and divide the amount of miles traveled by the number of gallons you recorded from the pump. If you wrote down your full mileage rather than setting your trip odometer at zero, first subtract the new odometer reading from the original reading, then divide the result by the number of gallons you pumped into the car.
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Tips & Warnings
Driving more than 60 miles per hour tends to decrease gas mileage, since most cars reach peak engine efficiency between 45 and 60 mph. Avoiding fast acceleration will increase gas mileage.
