Though the MPG efficiency-measure sits crowning in our visions, perceptions and naming of my website, its not the merit it is cropped up to be. Underneath and hidden, as is often the case, lies the truth. When I first started to track my car's mileage about a year ago I first realized that I would need to figure out that magical surface and environment that causes the 20/29 mpg figures to materialize. My trips were averaging out between 16/22 mpg. But the good thing was that it wasn't that important. I could chalk up an attractive MPG number while pillaging the earth by burning through 16 gallons of petrol in 6 hours. So I knew that I needed something else as a measure. Something that showed me how good or bad a boy I'd really been. And, as luck would have it, I came up with DGS (Daily Gallons Spent). Simply, the volume of fuel you spend in between trips to the pump divided by the number of days in between the trips to the pump. After adding another couple of columns to the Excel spreadsheet I was able to see the actual levels of fuel I was consuming.
And it is with deep pride that I announce that I clocked my best DGS to date on 11/30/06 coming out to 0.97. Under one gallon of fuel per day. DGS measures opposite to MPG. Less is more. I was compelled to do it as I shamefully had been spending 3 - 4 gallons per day previously. Some tailwinds were there no doubt but I had to force my attention to regiments like car pooling when I could, consolidating trips and keeping a light foot on the pedal. While many cars now can report trip MPGs and total overall MPG this doesn't carry much meaning to it and while its probable that these do help the cause its hardly the crux of the matter. Overall, we have to look at MPG because its the only way to measure on a large scale. A car manufacturer has no idea of your driving appetite or habits.
I have now started posting my spreadsheet to my website so you can see how my trips are coming out and also how far removed the official MPG stats are from what we are able to manage in our cities and freeways. Here's a link to the sheet.....
www.americasmpg.com/My_FST.xls
And it is with deep pride that I announce that I clocked my best DGS to date on 11/30/06 coming out to 0.97. Under one gallon of fuel per day. DGS measures opposite to MPG. Less is more. I was compelled to do it as I shamefully had been spending 3 - 4 gallons per day previously. Some tailwinds were there no doubt but I had to force my attention to regiments like car pooling when I could, consolidating trips and keeping a light foot on the pedal. While many cars now can report trip MPGs and total overall MPG this doesn't carry much meaning to it and while its probable that these do help the cause its hardly the crux of the matter. Overall, we have to look at MPG because its the only way to measure on a large scale. A car manufacturer has no idea of your driving appetite or habits.
I have now started posting my spreadsheet to my website so you can see how my trips are coming out and also how far removed the official MPG stats are from what we are able to manage in our cities and freeways. Here's a link to the sheet.....
www.americasmpg.com/My_FST.xls
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