Change the MPG measurement?

[mnbrennan]

Does anyone think we should change the way fuel consumption is measured?

Miles per gallon doesn't really give anyone a clue about how much that extra litre of fuel at the pump is going to cover.

So, perhaps we should change it to Litres per 100 miles or something like that? At least then we would have a clearer picture of how fuel consumption affects real money.

Obviously I realise you could convert it to work it out. But I just think this might be better.

Please give me your thoughts

 

[Kier]

Nope. If someone is that bothered they can work it out.

Had someone moaning that we need to put gallons on the pumps at work because of this...didn't like it when I said we are in the UK not the USA.

 

[Focus Owner]

70 mpg is very clear
for every gallon i put in i can move an avrage of 70 miles (i wish)

well the uk and the american gallon are diffrent

 

[SeanW]

I think half the problem is that our fuel is dispensed by the litre, but we drive by the mile.

When it was all imperial, I imagine it was much easier to see the relation (miles per gallon).

But kilometres per litre doesn't quite ring right either, because we generally don't use kilometres when driving in the UK.

Miles per litre measurements could solve this - even if it is a mix up of old and new/imperial and metric lol

 

[3140tipo]

i wouldnt want an easy way to work out what my caddy is doin mpg wise, 472ci 7.7 litres, probs about 10mpg if lucky.

 

[mnbrennan]

70 mpg is very clear
for every gallon i put in i can move an avrage of 70 miles (i wish)

well the uk and the american gallon are diffrent

yes, but there are 0.264172051242 litres to a gallon. Which is exactly my point, you can't really work it out accurately. You can only do it near e.g. 1 litre=4 gallons.

To change the measurement to kilometres would make no sense either. Our roads are measured in miles. Every sign in the UK would have to be changed. Which is why I thought it might be better as a cross over between imperial & metric. It would take a bit of getting used to but once people have it would be simpler

 

[TallTom]

yes, but there are 0.264172051242 litres to a gallon. Which is exactly my point, you can't really work it out accurately. You can only do it near e.g. 1 litre=4 gallons.

To change the measurement to kilometres would make no sense either. Our roads are measured in miles. Every sign in the UK would have to be changed. Which is why I thought it might be better as a cross over between imperial & metric. It would take a bit of getting used to but once people have it would be simpler

Try one UK Gallon = roughly 4.5 litres!

I would love to be getting 140 miles per litre in my Abarth right now!

 

[mnbrennan]

Try one UK Gallon = roughly 4.5 litres!

I would love to be getting 140 miles per litre in my Abarth right now!

Whoops! My bad, had a couple too many desperados I think!

 

[Focus Owner]

why would you need anymore than 2 dp
1 Imperial gallon = 4.54609188 litres
4.55 liters to a gallon
so if i get 50 mpg
that's equivalent to
11 miles per liter

if you want to talk in french you talk in french but im happy to speak English

that phrase describes my view

 

[mnbrennan]

Ok, I just opened the thread for a bit discussion, no need to be so harsh

 

[Focus Owner]

hardly harsh im describing the problem that if you speak french to me i wont understand a word.

even now people use inch and silly amounts like 1/64 and 1/8ths of an inch.
luckly most of england now use mm for measurments to scale

but mpg is accross the entire country it will not change for many years till the death of my generation

 

[mnbrennan]

Yes I know, it's just kind of become engrained. I'm not saying I have anything against MPG, I thought it might be better to have something which is better in the real world.

Perhaps it's because I'm young and used to other metric measurements. If it were (litres/100 miles) then you could see how much per mile a bit easier

 

[The Beard]

why would you need anymore than 2 dp
1 Imperial gallon = 4.54609188 litres
4.55 gallon to liter
so if i get 50 mpg
that's equivalent to
11 miles per liter

if you want to talk in french you talk in french but im happy to speak English

that phrase describes my view

Er, not trying to be pedantic here, but you might find that it's 4.55 litres to the gallon, not the other way round. Anyway, if you want to work out the exact, for instance to 4 or 5 decimal points you'll need a calculator. However, if not then your average common or garden mobile phone will do the job.

 

[Focus Owner]

that's the problem for yourself till its the norm you will have to convert it.
but as your trying to justify with to 100miles. mpg also makes it an easy read figure


nuts its earlyer on in the thread aswell
i could kick my self beard,

oh the reason for large text is google and not having the option of reducing it back down easy

 

[The Beard]

I don't see how litres per 100km is any more useful than mpg, or vice versa. I know my car will return an easy 58mpg on a 60 - 70mph motorway run. Most of us travel along familiar routes and know how far the journey is and how much fuel you'll use.

I often travel to Middlesbrough from Manchester, a journey of 120 miles each way. Unless I have nothing in the tank before leaving, then I know that 4 gallons wll get me there and back. Of course the fuel is metered out at the filling station in litres so I know that 20 litres will do the job simply by multiplying the nominal figure of 5 litres per gallon by the mpg figure to find out how much I will need.

In the miles/litre or km/litre way of working out fuel consumption it is probably a matter of usage and familiarity, but nonetheless, if I'm about to travel a set distance then I find it easier to work with the current mpg way of working it out.

After all, I managed to work out to the gallon how much petrol we'd need to drive to Nice and back in Mrs. Beard's 156 and that was without really knowing how much fuel it would need.

That was as accurate as it needed to be.

 

[The Beard]

oh the reason for large text is google and not having the option of reducing it back down easy

The older I get, the bigger the text needs to BE!

 

[sludgeguts]

The older I get, the bigger the text needs to BE!

The larger the text, the closer I find I am to the road sign

When my orange fuel light comes on I tend to fill up with 10 gallons of fuel - so I always add 45.46 litres.
In this way, I can keep a vigilant eye on my fuel economy as the needle on the fuel guage just reaches full and each segment of the guage gives me 32 miles travel, 1/4 tank = 128 miles, 1/2 tank = 256miles, 3/4 tank = 384 miles and at the start of the red zone I should have travelled 450 miles (give or take). I check my tyre pressures when I fill up so if I don't get the expected mileage I can check tyre pressures first & maybe adjust my driving style slightly.
I think the problem we are facing is the way everything has been mis-handled by successive Governments.
In the early 70s we had the changeover from old money to new & straight away we were losing out - 1 shilling was 12 old pennies, the 1 shilling coin became the 5pence piece, the 2 shillings coin became the 10 pence piece - from 24 pence down to 10.
Years later we then get weights and measures mucked about with.
Surely it would be far better to transfer everything over on a Bank Holiday weekend, New Year? give plenty opf notice that all shops, garages etc would be closed New Year's day and Jan 2 so when they reopen on Jan 3, we would have new money, new weights, new measures.

 

[Focus Owner]

i just put an entire tank in

 

[SeanW]

I don't see how litres per 100km is any more useful than mpg, or vice versa. I know my car will return an easy 58mpg on a 60 - 70mph motorway run. Most of us travel along familiar routes and know how far the journey is and how much fuel you'll use...

Thinking about it, I never tell people what my MPG is, it's always "Yeah, Grimsby to Crawley - about half a tank" (240 ish miles) or "Grimsby to Scunthorpe - needle barely moves" (25 ish miles) etc etc