Posted: 1/11/2010 4:21:28 AM EDT
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What are you getting out of your vehicle?
I think my car is degrading and it's driving me nuts. My commute to school is costing me. I put in $20 Saturday morning and got to Creekside and back. Then had to put in a few bucks to get to church...then I was empty again on the way to PT this morning. Maybe I just need to buy a new/used car? Mine is rated for 17 MPG city.... 24 highway....and 19 combined. I think I'm getting like 11-15 MPG, it just empties out way too fast. I drive around with no heat on...no A/C in the summer....nothing extra that would burn up fuel. Creekside is lets say......less than 30 miles. So I paid $20 to go, sixty miles. $20 at $2.65 per gallon is 7.54 gallons. 7.54 gallons at 60 miles, is..... 7.95 MPG? Can someone check my math? That just doesn't seem right. Even if I step it up to 40 miles....that's 7.54 gallons at 80 miles which is 10.61 MPG...... Am I doing my math wrong? This just doesn't seem right at all. I put in another $20 this morning after PT when it was on empty and reset the ODO so I can calculate it out to next empty. I also hooked up my OBD-II and I keep gettin' some false-butt codes. Thanks for advice. |
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Lead foot? Try this - Reset your trip odometer when you fill up and then the next time you fill up, you can determine your mpg. If you do not completely fill up, then this will not work. Really? Why not? I don't fill up completely too often. I did it once during the summer. 18 gallon tank got 400 miles which was 22 MPG. I suppose I'll have to try it again. |
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If you want to actually calculate your mileage, you need to fill it up completely every time. The needle on your gas gauge is a rough estimate only.
Besides, driving on an empty tank means you're sucking in more crud from the bottom of the tank. Depending on the location of your fuel pump it may be damaging the pump as well - the pumps that are in the tank depend on having gas around them as coolant. Driving on empty means they are more exposed / less cooled, and will likely wear out faster. As for the gas mileage / buying a different car discussion, it will probably take a lot of driving to make up for the cost of purchasing a better car. IMHO in most instances you're better off driving what you now own until the wheels fall off. Those economic numbers can change pretty fast with the price of gas, though - the economists predict that the price of gas is staying low only because the economy sucks. When the economy recovers the price of gas will probably hit $4 again.... |
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OK, did you know that most gas contains at least 10% ethanol now? Car's burn ethanol less efficiently than traditional fuel so your MPG's will be lower. If you have an older car an ethanol fuel mix was not factored in when they calculated your MPG.
I don't know if that could be part of the problem but you might want to investigate it. TD |
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I average 17-22, usually on the lower side of the spectrum- Nearly all of the driving I do now is city driving unless I'm going to Fort Benning and then I'm on the highway-
I'm gonna drive the wheels off the Taurus and then by then hopefully I'll be commisioned and can by something decent |
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What kind of car are you driving now? What kind of condition / how much is it worth? How many miles do you drive per week? With that info I could show you the way to calculate the question of if it makes sense to buy a different car.... 97 Volvo 850 GLT. It's very sporadic.....so I can't even estimate a weekly mileage. At least 150. Current mileage is 15XXXX. I don't know how I'd gauge the condition....right now I'm in the middle of doing my ODB-II stuff and taking it down to my guy to have him look it all over for me. Worth? $2800 was the sale price. KBB says $5,450. |
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97 Volvo 850 GLT. It's very sporadic.....so I can't even estimate a weekly mileage. At least 150. Current mileage is 15XXXX. I don't know how I'd gauge the condition....right now I'm in the middle of doing my ODB-II stuff and taking it down to my guy to have him look it all over for me. Worth? $2800 was the sale price. KBB says $5,450. Just the basic numbers: Assuming you're getting 15 mpg, your spending roughly $25 / week on gas (assuming $2.50 gas) or $1300 / year. My gut says this is probably low - most Volvos do better than that. If you're getting 20 mpg, you would be spending $18.75 / week, or $980 / year. If you were to sell your Volvo, and buy an equally reliable econobox (base honda / toyota ) you'd probably have to come up with $2k - they hold their value better than volvo's in my experience. Assuming you get 30 mpg with the econobox, you'd only be spending $12.50 / week on gas, or $650 / year. However, even if you're only getting 15 mpg right now, it would still take 3 years to make up the extra $2k to purchase the more fuel-efficient car. Unless you're driving much more than 150 miles / week, or you think gas is going up soon, it makes more sense to keep what you have for a couple of years. The critical thing is to figure out exactly what kind of MPG you're actually getting. |
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97 Volvo 850 GLT. It's very sporadic.....so I can't even estimate a weekly mileage. At least 150. Current mileage is 15XXXX. I don't know how I'd gauge the condition....right now I'm in the middle of doing my ODB-II stuff and taking it down to my guy to have him look it all over for me. Worth? $2800 was the sale price. KBB says $5,450. Just the basic numbers: Assuming you're getting 15 mpg, your spending roughly $25 / week on gas (assuming $2.50 gas) or $1300 / year. My gut says this is probably low - most Volvos do better than that. If you're getting 20 mpg, you would be spending $18.75 / week, or $980 / year. If you were to sell your Volvo, and buy an equally reliable econobox (base honda / toyota ) you'd probably have to come up with $2k - they hold their value better than volvo's in my experience. Assuming you get 30 mpg with the econobox, you'd only be spending $12.50 / week on gas, or $650 / year. However, even if you're only getting 15 mpg right now, it would still take 3 years to make up the extra $2k to purchase the more fuel-efficient car. Unless you're driving much more than 150 miles / week, or you think gas is going up soon, it makes more sense to keep what you have for a couple of years. The critical thing is to figure out exactly what kind of MPG you're actually getting. I'm confident that I can sell the Volvo and find a civic without taking a $2K loss. Maybe a little less than $1K at most. I find many in the $2K to $3K price range. But eh.......maybe it's just too much trouble. I'll keep what I have. |
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If you want to actually calculate your mileage, you need to fill it up completely every time. The needle on your gas gauge is a rough estimate only. Until you figure this out, IMO you're wasting your time trying to figure out your savings by a car that gets better mileage. You need to find out exactly what you're getting now. I'm not aware of any other way to accurately find out how much gas you use, unless you actually fill up your car. Fill up. Reset odometer. Drive until you get down to 1/4 tank min, closer to empty is better. Fill up. Read how many gallons you put in. divide odometer reading by gallons and that's your mpg's for THAT tank of gas. repeat for each tank b/c your driving habit's change. I avg 14.5 w/ mostly city, some highway. 16 on a good day, but doesn't happen often. In your analysis to purchase a new car, don't forget to take into account $ for repairs on the new vehicle. That's assuming your volvo is in good mechanical shape. When purchasing something new, especially if it's in the higher mileage range, you need to expect to spend $ on repairs when 1st purchasing. |
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I use 'Road trip' app on my Iphone, makes this easy. You can spot when they change the mix on the fuel, and it comes and goes quite a bit. I made a spreadhseet once to figure out what price gas would have to be for it to be worth it to sell the 240 and buy a new car. Assuming a $300 payment and a 40mpg new vehicle, gas would have to top almost $30 a gallon to make it worth it. |
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LaRue556,
You can do some basic mechanical things to improve your mileage like inflating your tires to the mfrs #, making sure your thermostat is functioning correctly, replace your spark plugs and ignition cables, etc. If you find a volvo forum there is likely more than enough info there for you to DIY unless that car is a particular pain in the ass to work on. |
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LaRue556, You can do some basic mechanical things to improve your mileage like inflating your tires to the mfrs #, making sure your thermostat is functioning correctly, replace your spark plugs and ignition cables, etc. If you find a volvo forum there is likely more than enough info there for you to DIY unless that car is a particular pain in the ass to work on. I check the tires and make sure they are good on a weekly basis. Had spark plugs changed recently. I'm young, never had too much interest in motor vehicles aside from basic maintenance so DIY is not the way for me. But thanks for the advice, I've been looking more up. |
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LaRue556, You can do some basic mechanical things to improve your mileage like inflating your tires to the mfrs #, making sure your thermostat is functioning correctly, replace your spark plugs and ignition cables, etc. If you find a volvo forum there is likely more than enough info there for you to DIY unless that car is a particular pain in the ass to work on. I check the tires and make sure they are good on a weekly basis. Had spark plugs changed recently. I'm young, never had too much interest in motor vehicles aside from basic maintenance so DIY is not the way for me. But thanks for the advice, I've been looking more up. I'm in the business, your fuel mileage sucks. make sure who ever put in your plugs that they are Bosch or NGK and the correct type for your Volvo. I get vehicles coming in that have whatever the autoparts store is pushing that day and wrong for that application and run like crap. If your check engine lite is on you may be burning too rich, thus the extra fuel usage With those miles you may have many problems with vacuum leaks and other sensors failing. .BTW your 97volvo , i think,is pre OBD2 so you scanner is not giving you correct readings and if it is giving you many codes it usually means the PCM or something connected has failed and you are in limp mode |
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LaRue556, You can do some basic mechanical things to improve your mileage like inflating your tires to the mfrs #, making sure your thermostat is functioning correctly, replace your spark plugs and ignition cables, etc. If you find a volvo forum there is likely more than enough info there for you to DIY unless that car is a particular pain in the ass to work on. I check the tires and make sure they are good on a weekly basis. Had spark plugs changed recently. I'm young, never had too much interest in motor vehicles aside from basic maintenance so DIY is not the way for me. But thanks for the advice, I've been looking more up. I'm in the business, your fuel mileage sucks. make sure who ever put in your plugs that they are Bosch or NGK and the correct type for your Volvo. I get vehicles coming in that have whatever the autoparts store is pushing that day and wrong for that application and run like crap. If your check engine lite is on you may be burning too rich, thus the extra fuel usage With those miles you may have many problems with vacuum leaks and other sensors failing. .BTW your 97volvo , i think,is pre OBD2 so you scanner is not giving you correct readings and if it is giving you many codes it usually means the PCM or something connected has failed and you are in limp mode Really? Says ODB-II on the port label...I'll check again though. Thanks for those words, I'll get my dad with me one weekend and get something going. Another thing....the check engine and service lights always seem to go on in cold weather...and after the car has been started and idling for a minute, they go off. I just thought it was because of the cold messing with things. |