MPG Experiment

My car (Honda CR-V) has an indicator that lists real time miles per gallon. Normally it gets in the low 24's (24.2 to 24.4 or so). For the last tank, I decided that I wanted to maximize the MPG. I was able to get 26.0, but I found I had to change my driving. The most significant change was getting up to speed after at a stop light/stop sign. I had to take things really slowly getting up to the speed limit in order to not hurt my MPG.

I did some calculations on this tank of gas. I drove 301.7 miles on this tank of gas. At 26 MPG, that meant I used 11.604 gallons of gas. If I had driven my normal way and gotten 24.2 MPG, then I would have used 12.467 gallons of gas. I saved 0.863 gallons of gas. At $2.519 per gallon (I love the 9/10 of a cent to cheat you out of money), I saved $2.17 on this fill up.

Was the way I had to drive to get this better mileage worth $2.17? Not really. It was a very significant change in driving, and I'm sure there were times when I reached my destination later than I normally would have.

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