Fuel - Cost per Mile

Max_Marley

I've never been able to calculate MPG to work out how efficient my cars have been and the return I get on fuel, so I apply a rudimentary approach which is simply:

1. Fill the tank from empty (or as close as possible to empty) and record cost
2. Reset the odometer
3. Run the tank to empty again and record the miles

Using this approach, I have calculated that my current car costs approx 10 pence per mile to run in fuel terms. To fill up is £42 and I get around 420 miles out of a full tank. Of course this will fluctuate depending on the type of driving but for a regular couple of weeks of commuting and normal social time, this is fairly typical.

I think this is a pretty good return.

Max

davidjwest

It's good indeed, I get 9.5p per mile but that's mainly tootling along the motorway at about 60mph.

I fill mine to the brim, run it until nearly empty (that's the trick, don't actually run out of fuel as it can be a pain) and then brim it again using the mileage covered between filling divided by the cost to work out the pence per mile return.

HappyMJ

Max_Marley wrote: »

I've never been able to calculate MPG to work out how efficient my cars have been and the return I get on fuel, so I apply a rudimentary approach which is simply:

1. Fill the tank from empty (or as close as possible to empty) and record cost
2. Reset the odometer
3. Run the tank to empty again and record the miles

Using this approach, I have calculated that my current car costs approx 10 pence per mile to run in fuel terms. To fill up is £42 and I get around 420 miles out of a full tank. Of course this will fluctuate depending on the type of driving but for a regular couple of weeks of commuting and normal social time, this is fairly typical.

I think this is a pretty good return.

Max

Your method isn't quite right. You need to do this

1. Fill the tank to full...No need to record anything here.
2. Reset the ODO
3. Drive car for X miles write this down fill up write down the number of litres/cost and divide each.

So for me 300 miles (500km) costs me £33 about 28 litres from this I can work out that each mile costs 11 pence and the MPG is about 42 MPG. That's for my 1.9 Diesel. 1997 Peugeot 306.

BenL

Might be useful to list the car details and engine you have as well.

I have worked mine out over quite a long time as I prepped for having LPG conversion done.

2006 Astra Sporthatch 1.6 Petrol.

Day to day on petrol it does 44mpg and at £1.14 a litre for petrol it works out at £0.12 a mile. (If petrol drops to £1.12 again this changes to £0.11) (This was recorded in August & Sept 2009)

On LPG it does 35mpg and at £0.63 a litre for LPG is works out at £0.08 a mile. (Recorded from 01 October 2009 to present)



Side note: (LPG Payback of £1600 at 4p a mile is 40,000 miles. I save about £100 a month so 16 months but due to lots of personal miles recently this has come downwards a little.)


Ben

Kilty_2

Does the 1.6 engine run well on LPG?

BenL

Kilty wrote: »

Does the 1.6 engine run well on LPG?

Yes it runs like a dream, better on gas than petrol. Its smoother, quieter and more refined. Not sure if there is any power increase/decrease, it doesn't feel it. LPG holds 80% of the "energy" of petrol hence the reduction in mpg. I haven't gone into the depths of a rolling road test to see about performance changes.

The car runs for about 1 mile in a morning on LPG to get a bit of heat going so the LPG system can start to vaporise the gas, it is plumbed into the cooling system. It usually switches over at the same point every morning, sat at some traffic lights on my way out of town. The engine is then smoother and quieter, the rpm drops a little as well on switch over.

It is meant to burn cleaner and more efficiently so this maybe why the engine runs smoother.

I spoke to a guy with a Subaru Impreza and a conversion who had done a rolling road and his has more power on LPG than super unleaded.

Ben

forgotmyname

Why do people think it makes a big difference from checking empty rather than full? When you fill you wont get the same amoutn of fuel in the tank
either, Depends on the pumps nozzle shape & size and pressure at which it cuts off.

1 tank full is not really going to say much anyway. After a few miles it will average out.

I have kept a fuel record for my current car, If i add an extra 60 litres to the figures it only changes the average mpg by 0.5

Its remembering to keep writing it down.

Max_Marley

Thanks for your responses and contributions. My method isn't scientific and I know this doesn't provide the full running costs of a car, but it's a simple ready reckoner. I'm sure everyone has their own ways of doing such things. Life's rich tapestry and all that...

My car is a humble Nissan Micra 1.2. Indeed a deal cheaper to run than my previous A6 2.0.

Max

GRM

BMW 2.2 petrol auto

19p/mile usually. I can get it down to around 16p driving like a nun and up to 23p if I drive like I stole it.

kriss_boy

My 2 litre BMW petrol Auto is similar. £65 of fuel gets me approx 350 miles therefore 20p a mile.

Thats the problem with Autos.

I've began to seriously consider buying another car based on its mpg, road tax, cost of tyres etc. The problem is I only do small journeys and Im rarely on the motorway.

jeferey

9.6p / mile on average, 52.4mpg, hypermiling
2.2 diesel Honda FR-V - 6 seater bus
Seems pretty amazing I'm spending less per mile (albeit fuel costs only) than a Micra - do you drive it like you stole it.....