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iBoaterer[_3_] iBoaterer[_3_] is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Mar 2013
Posts: 3,069
Default What am I doing wrong?

In article ,
says...

"F.O.A.D." wrote in message ...

"Eisboch" wrote:
This is pretty simple but I can't figure out what I am doing wrong:

Bought a 2002 Saturn for a kick around town car. It's a Canadian
car,
so the odometer reads in kilometers instead of miles. It's a very
basic
car and you can't set it to read in miles.

So, the day I picked it up it had a quarter of a tank of gas. I
stopped at the gas station and put in $20 worth. At $3.68/gal that
amounts to about 5.4 gallons. It brought the gauge up to about 3/4
full.

Drove the car around for over a week until the gauge read a quarter
tank
again. According to the odometer, I had travelled 700 kilometers.

1 kilometer equals 0.62 miles. So, 700 kilometers time 0.62 equals
434 miles.

Divide 434 miles by the 5.4 gallons I had burned and it says the car
is
getting about 80 miles per gallon !!!

I was just trying to get a rough idea of what kind of mileage it
gets,
but this can't be right. What am I doing wrong? I feel like an
idiot.


Your gas gauge is kaput. ?

----------------------------------------------

I considered that but it responded appropriately when I put gas in it.
Went from a reading of 1/4 tank to 3/4 with 5.4 gallons.
Today I filled it up from a quarter tank reading and it took 8.3
gallons. Gauge reads full. Car has a 12.2 gallon gas tank. So, I
think the gauge is ok.

The only thing I can think of is that the odometer doesn't read
correctly, meaning it's showing *way* more more kilometers than is
actually driven.
I used it everyday for over a week but the driving was just local.
The more I think about it, it's hard to believe I traveled 700 km or
434 miles in that timeframe.

I'll drive a known, measured mile and see what the odometer registers.
It should be 1.6 kilometers.


Don't pay attention to the gauge at all. Fill it up, drive a certain
amount of distance, and fill up again. Divide distance by gallons.