MPG Question?????????????

Question

When people talk about mpg in city and highway, what does that mean?? What's the difference?
And if a car gets 24 mpg, does that mean if I put just a gallon of gas, that I could drive 24 miles????

Answer 1

City vs Highway.

Your car gets the best milage when it's in it's top gear cruising at a constant speed, like you do when you are on the highway. Your engine is going relativly slowly and you are moving along at say 65 mph. That is the highway rating for your car.

In the city you do more stop and go driving, you spend more time in lower gears going slower, accelerating and stopping. THis sort of driving uses alot more fuel so they give you a city rating for MPG. In the really real world, your will probably get milage that is somewhere in between the two ratings, depending on how you drive.

and yes, 24 mpg means you can go 24 miles on one gallon of gas.

Answer 2

City mpg is always higher, because you use a lot more gas when starting up at the lights. Since it assumes a lot of stop-and-go driving, the mpg isn't as good. Highway mpg is the opposite. This assumes that you are cruising at around 60 mph, and never have to slow down or speed up.

Thus the manufacturer is estimating that the car's fuel usage will be between these 2 numbers.

And yes, IN THEORY, you should be able to drive 24 miles for every gallon of fuel the car burns. Remember that these figures are estimates only. This is not particularly good. My Ford Focus ('01, stick shift) gets over 32 mpg on the expressway - I decided to measure it over a 1500 mile trip to Kentucky and back. And that was doing between 70 and 85 mph (and maybe a little over) all the way.

Answer 3

MPG is just that: miles per gallon, meaning you can drive (like the example above) 24 miles per gallon.
city mpg is rated during stop and go type traffic. It is usually lower than the highway mpg because the stops and accelerations are using up extra fuel, thus bringing your mpg's down. The only exception to this rule is a hybrid car. They use electric energy mostly when in the city, when the car does not need too much energy to go...
The highway mpg is rated at constant highway speeds. If you were to stay on the interstate just about the whole time, you would get a higher mpg rating. Once again, the hybrids are the exception, because they have to use the 100% fuel option to get going that fast.
A way to calculate just exactly how much your MPG rating is, fill up your car, reset your trip meter to read 0.0 miles. Drive until your next fill-up, and get the receipt for your fill-up. Take the amount of miles you driven, and divide by the amount of gallons you used to fill up...viola...you have your average mpg for your car. Mine is usually 500 miles per every 25 gallons. 500/25=20 mpg...
Have fun!!!

Answer 4

the number of miles you get per gallon of gasoline (MPG) varies according to driving conditions. Driving at a steady highway speed--between 45 and 55 mph will get the best mileage in most cars. Stop and go, accelerating quickly, driving over 70 and other things will decrease your mileage.

City mileage is usually quite a bit less than highway mileage.

Yes, theoretically you should be able to drive 24 miles on a gallon of gas if your car gets 24mpg. But bear in mind the number on the window sticker of the car is just an estimate.

Answer 5

No not at all. MPG is an estimate as to how many mile you can get. You could get more or less then what it says

Answer 6

mpg in city will be lower than on the highway because of stop and go situations. mileage is better going down the highway with cruise on because computer feeds the right amount of fuel as it is needed. you can't feed gas as smoot as the computer with your pedal.

Answer 7

you got it buddy