This is slightly off topic but too funny not to share.

Back during the first fuel shortage in the 70's (and before locking gas caps) I had a co-worker that commuted about 100 miles round trip per day. Because of the rising cost of gas from about .36 to .65 per gallon he bought a VW bug and figured that it would pay for it self in fuel savings.

For the first three weeks that he owned the car a few of my co-workers would go out every day and top off the gas tank. As he had only driven fifty miles the gauge had not yet begun to drop, before they would top it off. He was estactic and was bragging about what a great buying decision he had made because he had not had to put gas in it since he bought it.

After the third week, my coworkers started siphoning out an amount equal to what they had put in EVERYDAY. So needless to say, the needle on the fuel gauge started dropping like the Titanic.

He took it back to the dealer ship complaining that there must be something wrong with it because of the sudden drop in fuel economy.

 

Left to right,

Column 1. "Date" entered as mm/dd/yy

Column 2. "Beginning Milage" automatically picks up amount from ending milage column.

Column 3. "Ending Milage" marked on charge card slip at time of fill up and entered manually into spreadsheet.

Column 4. "Total Milage" calculates (column 3-column 2)

Column 5. "Gallons" entered manually from charge card slip.

Column 6. "Price per gallon" entered manually from charge card slip.

Column 7. "Total Cost" calculates (column 5 x column 6). Used to check accuracy of charge card total.

Column 8. "Miles per Gallon" calculates (column 4/column5)

Column 9. "Gas Cost per Mile" calculates (column 7/column 4)

Column 10. "Days" days between fill ups. Calculates using excel function =days360(date on this row, date on previous row)

Column 11. "Vendor" name of station where gas was purchased.

Column 12. "Miles to date" total miles, equal to ending miles column 3.

Column 13. "Gallons to date" cummulative number of gallons purchased to date.

Column 14. "Average MPG to Date" most important column on sheet. This is you average mpg over time.

Column 15. "Total Cost" cummulative amount spent on gas to date.

Column 16. "Cost per Mile" average cost per mile to date.

If you'd like a copy of this spreadsheet send me a pm with your e-mail address. I'll send you a blank, working copy tomorrow.

 

My best was just a bit over 30, maybe 30.4 or .5, I filled up, and I drive one hour to school everyday, so when my trip it 300, I filled up with just a lil under 10 gallons in her (about 9.8 or 9.9 from what i can remember). I never shifted above 4 grand though.

 

Ralper, I'm dying to know--are you a CFO, a CPA or a QA Mgr?

 

CPA

 

 

Ha ha ha, yeah that's a CPA thing to do. However, I did the same for my 3 week trip just to see how much money we spent on gas. It doesn't take much to get the hang of Excel, and it makes such a huge difference.

Good to see the relatively high MPG for the S2000. I wouldn't have to take a gas hit if I changed cars.

 

I think something is wrong with my car. I have had it since july and i keep track of everything. I use the Fuellog program on my PDA and my average MPG is 19.6 and thats 90% city driving thats driving slow shifting at 4k and a few redlines.
My average MPT is 148 and my max MPT is 207. i check my tires every few weeks. What else could it be?

 

Thats about right for city driving.

I get about 18 mpg.


If you get almost 20 mpg, your average "mpt" should be about 200.

The reason I started this thread is because IMO "mpt" is meaningless.

 

I'm a network engineer with a degree in English (Creative Writing).

if you guys saw the Excel spreadsheet I've made, you'd never have guessed my educational background.

for example, I have it calculate the following:
- MPG (between tanks, and overall average since purchasing the car brand new)
- days between fill-ups, as well as average # of days between fill-ups
- total $ spent on fuel since purchase
- total gallons of fuel used since purchase
- average price of fuel since purchase

as well as overlayed charts of the following:
- MPG for each tank, as well as a 10-per moving average of my MPG
- days between fill-ups and also a 10-per moving average of same
- my odometer mileage between fill-ups (divided by 10 to fit nicely in the same chart)

- and another chart of fuel prices with a 10-per moving average of same.

oh yeah, I also meticulously keep track of the dates, and mileage of when I do my oil changes, diff fluid change, tranny fluid change, top-off my oil, etc. and that's not even mentioning the chart I've made of my car payments, calculating the running interest rate, how much $ I've saved by paying my loan down approx 1 yr ahead, etc.

what can I say... I think I'm just an anal f*cker who loves his S... and statistics.

here's the current pertient ones for this thread, just FYI:
overall MPG (mostly hwy): 23.7
total spent on fuel since 25-June-03: $1414.72
total gallons purchased: 636.16
average days between fill-ups: 7.29 (it's my weekend toy)
average fuel price: $2.26.
I almost exclusively fill-up on Chevron Supreme.