Woo hoo. Not using AC yet.

This is the best number I’ve gotten since owning the car. I didn’t do anything different, though — mostly I used for commuting to and from work. Not a lot of highway miles, even. Strange… BTW the dashboard gauge said 41.1 mpg for this trip. I guess you can’t argue with the computer — but the gauge seems to give me a slightly lower number every time.

Date: 5/31
Days since last fill-up: 16
Miles driven: 404.6
Gallons purchased: 10.214
MPG: 39.61

Doing two fill-ups on one post. This time, I was driving a lot with heavy boxes in the trunk, so that might be the reason for the lower mileage.

A bit lower than what I had been getting for the past few rounds — probably due to being stuck in traffic a couple of times. Because I pretty much drive to and from the same places (work, home, soccer) week to week, this is getting pretty boring. But I’d still like to keep it going for at least 6 months, maybe for a year to just to see. What about effects of using AC? Can the efficiency be maintained throughout the year?

Date: 5/6
Days since last fill-up: 15
Miles driven: 415.6
Gallons purchased: 10.337
MPG: 40.21

About 140 miles of this tank was on highway. I’m definitely getting the hang of the new driving habits to increase efficiency. But with all the hills in Seattle, I think it’s difficult to get a better mileage than this. It’ll be interesting to see how things will change once I start using more AC, as the weather is getting nicer everyday!

I didn’t drive the car for a week because I was in NY, but then I drove for 2 hours to Leavenworth on Friday. I got gas just when I started to head back to Seattle. I was hoping for a better mileage because of the long highway driving, but turned out it was so-so because it was mostly uphill.

Nice! I’m starting to figure out how to get better mileage by adjusting my driving behavior. The two gauges I mentioned before really help with this.

I discovered that there are two ways to check your mpg as you’re driving the car. One is a meter showing you a running average, which should be between 35 and 40 most of the time. Another is a gauge that constantly goes up and down based on how I’m driving. If I’m coasting, the gauge goes up close to 100 mpg, telling me that if I keep this up my running average will go up. If I accelerate or go up a hill, the gauge goes down considerably. It’s a bit distracting, but I’m using these two meters to check my mpg and pay close attention to how I drive. It’s amazing how much difference it makes when you try to avoid stepping on the gas and let the car coast on its own momentum. I think the higher mpg this time around can be attributed to these meters, and the fact that I’m always adjusting my driving style because of them.

The reading according to the built-in gauge on the car was 34.9 mpg, so now I know that’s pretty accurate. The lower mileage compared to the last update is probably due to more in-city driving I did this time around. I’m still pleased with the fact that a tank of gas lasted me two weeks!

Date: 2/25
Days since last fill-up: 8
Miles driven: 379.8
Gallons purchased: 9.526
MPG: 39.87

This is better than what I expected! Everything I had read before told me that I won’t even get close to the sticker mpg, so I was expecting something like 30-35. This is still less than what the sticker says (49/51), but it’s not bad. 8 days between fill-up is a bit short, and it’s probably due to two semi-long trips we made, one to Tulalip and another to Lynnwood. Other than that it’s been driven for my normal commute.