Trip Odometer
May 10, 2008 - 6:56pm — JYork
With the Internet “mapping sites” like MapQuest, the distance from here to there is just a click away. It seems that trip odometers serve little purpose and are seldom used. Then the $4.00 a gallon gas threat became a reality. Suddenly people are interested in using those little gadgets to figure out how far they have traveled on a tank of gas.
My wife and I made a 1000 mile round-trip to Tennessee, so we reset our trip odometer when we left home with a full tank of gas and checked our mileage with each fill-up. The figures were really good for our 2002 four-cylinder Honda Accord that has carried us a total of 224,000 miles so far. We got 31 miles per gallon! We were traveling the Interstate highways for nearly 85 percent of the time, but the numbers still were a pleasant surprise.
Tracking gas mileage can be painful if you are driving a “gas hog”, but it is a good way to keep track of your vehicle’s performance. When a usually good gas-mileage car starts to get less than good gas mileage, it can indicate a problem that the driver should address.
My friend was towing a trailer and thought that pulling the load was causing his lousy gas mileage. When the low gas mileage continued without the trailer connected to his truck, he discovered that his “dusty trip” to Utah had clogged his air cleaner. A quick replacement of an air filter corrected the problem, and his mileage per gallon was back to what he expected to get.
So you can use your trip odometer to keep track of engine performance, and you can keep track of your dwindling disposable income!
Just think! At today’s prices those 224,000 miles on my Honda at a conservative 25 miles per gallon and $4.00 a gallon, fuel would cost me $35,840.
See if you can write a good caption for this cartoon. The winning entry was, "And this little piggy goes to EXXON"!
Comments
I look, but not study
I glance at the Odometer, but not to scrutinize it. Maybe I'll start.
I only fill the tank anymore. I used to fill up every payday (my car is literally an around the town traveler) But now I fill up when the light comes on. The last fill up was 4/25...then today I had to fill up again. On 4/25 the fillup was $68.01. Today was $62.78...but I had 40cents off the 3.69 pricetag from my Giant Eagle points.
I was physically ill friday when I saw 3.75 at the BP near my home.....I cannot get over it. I can recall being a kid and scraping together, then BUYING $1.25 worth of gas for the minivan my parents let me drive. I sound ancient, but that gave me about a gallon of gas, enough to get my friends and I home for sure!
Fuel Wars