General Questions
Why do I care about my vehicle's MPG?

That's a good one, good job! :)

There are couple of reasons/questions that come to mind:

  1. Do you have all the money you need or can adjust to saving few bucks every time you fill-up? In this case saving is as good as earning.
  2. How do you track your vehicle performance if you don't know what MPG you are getting out of it?
  3. Is it time for minor tune-up to increase engine performance and stop wasting money at the pump?
  4. Do you know that small changes in driving habbits can save you money at gas station?

How do I check my vehicle's MPG?

We make tracking your vehicle MPG as easy as 1-2-3, and best of all - its totally free!

All you need to do is:

  1. Create an account at MPGTune.com.
  2. Add your vehicle information.
  3. Every type you fill up - write down current vehicle mileage on the receipt. Then next time you are online - login into MPGTune.com and type in fill up information.

 

We will show you what is your average MPG from the time of last fill-up till this time right away!

How it works?

This really is a rocket science, so if you don't have PhD in Math you may not understand, but we'll try to explain it:

Well, joking aside, all you really need to know to calculate MPG is vehicle mileage at the time of last fill-up, and vehicle mileage and number of gallons you got this fill up (assuming you got full tank of gas both last and this time).

Then you just need to subtract last vehicle mileage from this mileage to get number of miles driven between fill ups and divide it by number of gallons.

It's as simple as that! The result will give you average number of miles driven on one gallon which is Miles Per Gallon (MPG). 

How do I improve my vehicle's MPG?

There are couple of easy steps you can take to improve MPG.

  1. First of all, know your current MPG! If you don't - there is no way to find out if any tune-up or change in driving style helped or not.
  2. Keep your vehilce maintenance up to date.
  3. If you notice unexpected drop in MPG - have your vehicle checked by your mechanic right away since this may indicate small problems that can grow into big troubles if not addressed right away.
  4. Do you know that even small changes in driving habbits like combining your grossery shopping trip with fill-up trip, leaving your lead foot at home can really save you money at the pump?

What if I do not buy full tank of gas every fill up?

Unfortunately, we cannot calculate your vehicle avarege MPG with acceptable degree of accuracy if you just get $20 (or $5 or $10 or ...) worth of gas every fill up.

There are couple reasons you may reconsider your fill up strategy and get full tank next time you fill up.

  1. If you get full tank every fill up - you will need to make less trips to gas station and save yourself some time if your favorite gas station is off your daily route.
  2. Also you will save some gas too - your vehicle burns gas when you drive to gas station, right?
  3. And main reason - you will be able to track your vehicle MPG on MPGTune.com :) This alone should be a good reason to get full tank on next fill up!

You say average MPG, what does that mean?

Well, let's just review one situation:

You filled up your vehicle on Saturday, drove 100 miles on highway to neighboring town to see your ancle (grandma, dad, you got the idea), drove back and commute to work for a week. Your work commute is city driving without highways. 

Most vehicles get better mileage on the highways than during city stop and go driving.

So if you would fill up when you return to home town after your short visit - you would see "pure highway" mileage you vehicle gets. And after the trip you would see "pure city" mileage.

But since you did not fill up at the time of return and drove to work and back for a week - you see average mileage that is neither "pure highway" nor "pure city" mileage.

 We put pure in quotes since there are other factors that affect mileage like traffic congestion, some idle cycles you may experience that affect MPG but we omit them here for simplicity reasons. 

What are the ways to record my fill-up?

There are 3 easy ways to record your fill-up

1. Write down your vehicle's mileage on the gas station receipt and when you are home - login to mpgtune.com and record it. If this sounds like too much work - read on

2. If your cell/pda phone has Internet access - you can record your fill-up right from your phone by logging to mpgtune.com while you still in your car at a gas station.

3. If your phone does not have Internet access - you can still record your fill-up from your cell phone right from gas station.

Just send us SMS to number 32075(*) with following message: Mpg 12345 3.299 12.599 - where 12345 is miles on vehicle at the time of fill-up, 12.599 is number of gallons and 3.299 is a price per gallon you paid.

To easily input all the numbers you can use # instead of space and * instead of period (.). In the case of the message above instead of Mpg 12345 3.299 12.599 your may type Mpg 12345#3*299#12*599

Please make sure you put space after word Mpg. Also letter case does not matter for word Mpg itself, you can type Mpg or mpg or MpG or mPg, and any other way you can come up with...

We recommend you add number 32075 as MPG Tune contact to your cell phone contact list to make it easier. You already have plenty of numbers to remember, you don’t need one more, do you?

(*) We do not charge you for sending us SMS, but your wireless carrier may charge you a fee per each SMS sent or received based on your plan, be sure to check your plan first.

What if I lost my receipt?

Think you cannot get it back?
Think again! All you need is to go to your local WalMart and get yourself one of those time machines they have on sale this week, then get back to the pump the second that other you left and pick up the receipt!
Just make sure that other you does not see you or ....
Well, even if they are all sold out on time machines - you still have a shot if you remember price of a gallon of gas you paid and can find out total amount paid from your online credit card account. And if you just let us know total amount paid and price per gallon we can calculate number of gallons you bought and calculate averate MPG between last fill-up and next fill-up. Unfortunatelly we cannot calculate MPG for this fill-up unless you remember mileage on the vehicle at the time of fill-up.