How To Estimate Car's Fuel Economy

"What is my car's mileage?" is a question that every car owner has on the brain, regardless of financial status or number of cars owned. When it comes to a car's mileage, the owner is curious. Estimating your car's mileage/fuel economy is simple if you know how to go about it. Even if you really don't care about your car's mileage, we suggest you estimate your car's mileage once in a while; it is a good indicator of your car's health. If your car's fuel consumption is considerably higher than normal, you can safely assume that all is not right with the engine and it might spell trouble for you in the near future. Another point of consideration is the environment - cars with bad fuel efficiency tend to pollute the environment more, and while we aren't exactly tree-huggers, we believe that you shouldn't harm the environment willfully. Here is a simple way of estimating a car's mileage.

Full-to-Full

Go to the filling station and fill the fuel tank completely. Completely means up to the brim!

As soon as you enter your car, note the odometer reading (kilometers done) before starting the engine. This reading is the starting point. If you have a tripmeter or two, you can reset it to read 'zero.'

Use your car as you usually do.

Once your fuel gauge indicates a half- or quarter-full tank, visit a nearby filling station, preferably the same one you tanked up at the last time. This will help reduce the error.

Note down the quantity of fuel it takes to fill the tank up to the brim.

Note odometer reading once again. This is the end point.

Now calculate average/mileage/fuel economy of your car as the difference between the starting and end points in km divided by the amount of fuel required to fill the tank up at the end point, in litres, OR average fuel consumption = (end point - starting point) / Fuel quantity

Alternatively, divide the tripmeter's reading by the number of litres of fuel required to top up the second time.

Note: You can carry out the same procedure once with the air-con on and a second time with it off,to calculate the effect the air-conditioner has on your car's fuel consumption.