1st Mission Accomplished!

[03NHVW]

Yay for me! I bought this VDub back in February and have been getting between 33 and 34 MPG consistently, sometimes 35, but this last half-tank (I only buy $20 worth at a time) pulled down 40.04 MPG! ...Granted, it took serious hypermiling diligence on my part, serious effort to use the brakes as little as possible, LOTS of coasting (not engine-off), and generally never exceeding the limit, mostly 5-below and a really steady right foot...but it all paid off. I also switched to synth-blend Kendall 5W-30 (over whatever sludge was in it before I bought it), keep the tires at 5psi below limit and added a K&N air filter...nothing else specal.
I am STOKED to stay the least.
...just sayin'.

[dennyt]

Congrats!

[zonker]

[pounsfos]

try a warm air intak if you want see if that gets you a few more mpg

[BHarvey]

If you only buy $20 at a time, as gas prices rise you'll be getting less fuel which would show a false improvement.

Example- 500 mile odo reading.
$1/gallon = 20 gallons= 25 mpg
$2/gallon = 10 gallons= 50 mpg
$3/gallon = 6.66 gallons= 75 mpg

[gascort]

I think his VW has an onboard computer that computes his MPG. He's not just looking at miles per $20.

[Red_Liner740]

^^ You are seriously assuming incompetence and idiocy on the OP behalf if you think that he cant work out that at higher gas price he gets less fuel for same amount of currency...

OP, what VW is it? a bit more detail is always nice...

[Arkaneinc]

congrats

[03NHVW]

Well...it goes like this:
When the "fuel low" light blinks I get gas...making note of how many miles it takes me to get to the pumps...so I can calculate those miles back out of any mileage I get from the new supply of gas.
I put in $20 worth...lets say here its $3.80/gal...for 5.3 gallons...and then calculate back out the miles it took to get to the station (lets say 1/10 gal but I have to assume my average mileage to do this)...so now lets say that "above the beep" I have 5.2 "fresh" gallons in the tank.
Drive, drive, drive...get 183.6 miles before the "beep" again.
183.6/5.2=35.3 MPG.

Does this not sound like a realistic calculation? I do this approximately 2X/week and typically get 34-35MPG in mixed driving between 30-55 mph zones, one hour each way, 2X/day.
Barring purchasing a ScanGuage,which is in the plans, how else would I compute mileage? There needs to be a baseline (I use the fuel-low beep), because I can't run the tank dry just to fill it with 14.5 gallons...that's just too impractical.
EDIT: an '03 Jetta wagon, 2.0L, 5spd. ...rated for 29mpg...I believe.

[Joenavy85]

my gas light is so inconsistant i no longer pay attention to it (i'm actually trying to find a way to disable it) i wouldn't really trust that method of calculation with more than a grain of salt