Fuelly revisited

About three months ago, I mentioned I'd signed up for the gas-consumption tracking site Fuelly.com. Since then I've been meticulously tracking every one of Elvis One's fillups to get a sense of just how good (or bad) my gas mileage was.

I've done 10 fillups since the start -- I missed one somewhere along the way when I lost the receipt of my gas purchase. The interstate MPG is about what I supposed, 29.9, and the in-town MPG is about a mile-per-gallon worse than I thought, 26.4.

What I find interesting is what has an effect on my car's mileage and what doesn't. Oddly enough, having a bad tire didn't seem to faze the car too much, and since I got all four tires replaced, I've actually gotten slightly worse mileage. The tank with the worst mileage came when I turned the heater on for the first time this season, and unsurprisingly my best mileage came on an interstate drive from Asheville to Knoxville (ie, a roll down the mountains rather than up).

(I'm also paying $2 fewer per gallon since I started keeping track. Ridiculous.)

Anyway, I'm re-recommending the site to you now because of all the value I've found in it. Even if you already keep track of your mileage without the help of a website, you can compare how well your car is doing to how well other cars of the same make/model/year are doing. (Just don't compare your non-hybrid car to the Prius; it will make you cry.)

Or, if you're researching cars to purchase, you can get a good idea of what you're getting into since EPA fuel economy estimates done before this year hardly mean squat.