My buddy has a 2010 Storm Silver and it is clean inside, absolutely nothing, all stock, not even a speck of lint.

I have Ala-bastard Silver, 205/50-16 tires / 16-7 wheels, mudflaps, Tanabe pipe, iVtec decals, decals on back window, floors are dirty, I don't have the inside cover on the back hatch, back is filled with work papers, steel toe boots, CB radio crap, dash rug on the front dash (really cuts down glare).

I told him that mine wants to "hump" his. He didn't know what to say.

 

I have noticed that after 10 years of watching the scangauge, mpg is directly related to intake air temperature. the warmer it gets (higher intake air temperature), the better the mpg

 

I agree but it is counter-intuitive in a way when we know that cooler air is more dense and that packs more oxygen molecules into every cubic foot of air the engine breathes in. That would mean that not as much air in piston strokes = rpms would be needed to produce the power needed to move the car in the same manner.

Must be something else going on but winter temps / gasoline blends / winter tire selection / road conditions / tendency to let car warm-up do produce lower MPG.

 

more air = more gas used

 

spike55, how did you get the data for that graph?

thanks!

 

I have a spreadsheet that I enter the odometer, gals, dash mpg, etc I get at every fill up since buying the car.



The data from the top sheet feeds back into the graph sheets: frequency distribution and the XY graph of MPG per tank and then the 15-tank running average superimposed on that to provide a better idea of trending.

It is all pretty simple stuff for a spreadsheet. I have others for multi-variant analysis, conditional formatting, power consumption calcs, sales tax calcs, and another that skims natural gas futures market pricing off of websites and brings it into a spreadsheet to estimate 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 36 month strip pricing for commodities and pipeline transportation costs. I've been messing around with spreadsheets before there was Excel and Lotus.

 

Awesome, thanks! I've been writing in a little book since forever, but never entered the data into any program.

How do you manage entering the data - I assume you don't have a computer hanging out in the car with you, or do you?

My last cars have not had the dash mpg, and I've only gassed up three times so far, so not a biggie. We enter where we buy the gasoline and the price per gallon.

VERY interesting the dash mpg being so variant from the calculated mpg.

I'm not a big spreadsheet whiz. Like at all. But I super appreciate nerdiness. Wish I had a little more nerd.

Thanks again.

 

I'm late to this party..
But I'm just going to say...
A drop of 5-6 mpg, given winter conditions and winter fuel blends, COUPLED with brand new tires...
Could easily just be normal.
New tires can cause a MPG drop, as the vehicle has better grip, but works harder to start moving. If you are coming from pretty worn tires....until the tires break in...the difference might be very noticeable.
Keep an eye on everything....engine noise...
BUT...
I'd wait until Spring/Summer and just see if things don't naturally improve.

 

If you have an Android / iPhone, learn how to run a spreadsheet in Goggle Sheets. You can transfer data back and forth between Excel & G_Sheets or just stick with G_Sheets on your phone. Then you can do some basic calcs with every fill up.

 

I have a smartphone, but the husbandman is old school with a flip phone.

I use a lot of Google (Drive or G Suite, whatever it's name is now) products already, but I don't know how to do the formula stuff.

Will ponder if it's worth the time to learn and maintain.

And thanks!

 

Yes, forgot you also run everything through Goggle Drive. My spreadsheets aren't that fancy when it comes to gas mileage sheets: Sum, Diff, Max, Avg. Not impossible to learn. It is easier to design on laptop / desktop first then use Cloud to download / use on your phone. I always like to see a graph / chart of what is happening.

Best of luck. Anything worth it takes effort.