How Do I Calculate Gas Mileage for a Road Trip?

By Alice Nichols

Are you planning a road trip and wondering how much gas you’ll need? Calculating your gas mileage can help you estimate the amount of fuel you’ll need to complete your journey. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Fill up your tank

Before hitting the road, fill up your gas tank. Record the odometer reading at this point as well as the number of gallons of gas you added to the tank.

Step 2: Drive and record

Drive until your tank is almost empty, but not completely out of gas. Record the odometer reading again and the amount of gas that you refill when at that point.

Note:

If possible, try to drive in similar conditions as what you’ll encounter on your road trip. This means driving at similar speeds with similar loads in your car (passengers, luggage, etc.) and using similar roads (highway vs. city streets).

Step 3: Calculate

Now that you have two sets of data, it’s time to do some math. Subtract the first odometer reading from the second one to get the total number of miles driven during this trip. Then divide this number by the amount of gas used during this time period (in gallons) to get your car’s miles-per-gallon (MPG) rating for that trip.

MPG = Total Miles Driven / Total Gallons Used

Note:

Repeat steps 1-3 multiple times if possible for more accurate results.

Step 4: Estimate Your Trip’s Gas Mileage

With an average MPG rating calculated from Step 3, you can now estimate how much gasoline will be needed for a particular journey by dividing total miles by average MPG rating.

Total Gallons Needed = Total Miles Driven / Average MPG

Note:

Make sure to add some extra gas for unexpected situations like traffic jams, detours or off-road driving.

Conclusion

Calculating your gas mileage can be a useful tool in planning for your road trip. With a little bit of math and some careful tracking, you can estimate the amount of fuel you’ll need and budget accordingly. Safe travels!