Calculating your car's mileage

Rising fuel prices have made car owners, particularly in the price sensitive segment, more aware of the number of kilometers their car runs in a litre of fuel. And with the 'kitna deti hain' factor always in the head of prospective buyers and owners, it is always the central topic to talk about in a car, irrespective of other specifications.

While buying a car, the first thought to come to your mind would be the kilometers to a liter of fuel the car runs, or in short, the kmpl. With more and more technology out into cars which makes them more intelligent so as to keep the fuel budget figures as low as possible, car buyers and owners are also conscious of whether their car is a fuel guzzler or won’t put a hole in their wallet. 

There are many ways to keep your car in a shape where it gives the maximum mileage and how to calculate it as well. 

1. The full tank method:

At any point of time, fill up your tank up to full and use the car on your regular route. Once the reserve fuel starts, go back to the fuel station and fill up the fuel to full again. Make sure on the previous filling, you have reset the trip meter. Divide the number of kilometers on the trip meter to the number of liters that have been filled the second time. This will show you the actual mileage of the car over your routine driving. 

2. The “one liter of fuel” theory:

In this method, run your tank run out of fuel and keep in stock four liters of fuel. One in a one liter bottle and the other in a three liter container. Once the car comes to a halt due to lack of fuel, put the one liter fuel in the car. Make sure to take the measurement as precise as possible. Once done, wait for the fuel to reach the filter and then start and go. Set your tripmeter to zero as you start off. Once the tank runs out of fuel, the mileage on the trip is your car’s actual mileage. After this, ise the three liters of reserve fuel to get to the nearest gas station. This is actually not the best way as there can be an air lock that happens in the tank which may not allow the car to start at all, but, is the most accurate.

3. The half tank theory:

Fill your car’s tank to full. Once done, use your car on your regular route till the tank reached half. Don’t forget to zero the tripmeter while fill the tank up. Once the tank reaches half, get a full tank done again. Divide the number of kilometers on the trip to the number of liters filled at the second fill up. This will tell show your car’s actual mileage. 

A few points to take care of while doing this exercise are:

1. Use your car on a routine basis. Don’t waste unnecessary fuel by taking rounds of the city.

2. Make to get your fills from the same filling station as the auto fuel cut would not be the same on every station. 

3. Don’t shake your car to get more fuel into it. This will give an inaccurate figure since you would not know how much extra fuel has gone in your car. 

4. If your car does not have a tripmeter, note the mileage on the odometer and the difference would be the number of kilometers run from full tank to half tank or out of one liter of fuel.

5. Get your car serviced regularly. A stitch in time, saves nine.

With these few things kept in mind, you would get the actual milage figures your car gives on your actual route. Driving at high speeds or revving high consumes more fuel and reduces mileage greatly. Drive at the usual speed band that you do.