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Fuel mileage.

Just got back from a 2 week road trip. 2002 Ford Taurus 24 valve. Total trip was 2633 miles, or 4237km. Total fuel consumption was 94.7 imp gallons, 113.73 US Gallons, or 430.55 Litres. That comes out to 27.8mpg imperial, 23.15mpg US or 10.16 l/100km.

Now for the interesting part.

Years ago, driving a Toyota Tercel, I found I got almost 20% better fuel mileage running US gas than running Canadian gas. No explanation why. Then on a trip to the east coast a few years ago with my 2002 PT cruiser, I got as much as 37MPG (imp) on US gas running through the mountains of vermont and across the finger lakes district, while I could not get 28MPG running from toronto to prince edward island.

On THIS trip, the forst 2501km or 1554 miles were in the US - the first 588km on my initial canadian fillup - and the average fuel economy was 31.048mpg (imperial). The last 1079 miles, or 1736km, was in Canada where my mileage was only a paultry 24.162 mpg (imperial).

My driving did not change significantly - if anything slightly slower in Canada.

Trip was Kitchener Ont to Sturgis Michigan, some short trips between sturgis, Shipshewana Ind and South Bend Ind,then on through Chicago and Millwaukee to Cascade Wisconsin, 2 round trips to OshKosh, then on through Wisconsin Dells to Michigan UP and Sault St Marie with an excursion to Sault St Marie Ont and back, then up to Sault St Marie Ontario, to Pancake Bay and WAWA, then up to Hearst Ontario, down to North Bay, and then back to Kitchener. Average highway speed in the USA was about 65 mph+, and in Canada closer to 60 .

Not only do we pay SIGNIFICANTLY more for our gas in Canada, but it appears we are buying an inferiour product as well.

Reply to
clare
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On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 14:17:24 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in Re Fuel mileage.:

I'm not familiar with the topography of the trip you describe. Any significant elevation changes or differences there?

Reply to
CRNG

Mileage is always better when driving towards the equator than when driving away from it (it's downhill towards it :-) ). I know it's true on my trips from SC to FL; I get 3 or 4MPG better on the way to FL than on the way home, and it's the same route, no bypasses or detours. Go figure!

Reply to
SC Tom

Not significant. running the rim of lake Michigan and Superior - mostly flatland, No significant hills on either leg. On the east coast trip with the PT, the American leg was by far the most severe - and I manually shortshifted the automatic on th hills - which everyone says should have made it burn MORE fuel. On that trip I thought it was the short-shifting (forced downshifts on inclines) that made the difference - but now I'm leaning toward a fuel difference.

Reply to
clare

Thing is, I ran more north on my american leg, and more south on the Canadian - so that blows THAT theory!!!. I'm about 43.45 N at home, went as far south as 42.96 N in Ontario (sarnia) then down to about

41.68 N at South Bend, then up to about 46.51 at the Soo. Then I went up to about 49.68 at Hearst Ont, and back to Kitchener. So, my net Southerly in Canada was3.75 degrees South, while my net Northerly in the US was 6.11 degrees north.

There - I "went and figured" !!!!!!!!

Reply to
clare

When were these trips taken? Was temperature a factor? Not sure about the Mid-west USA, but the North East USA uses a summer mix gas that has additives for pollution reasons. That should be the only difference in the gas. Most gas around the US / Canada border comes from the same refineries....You guys are just paying more in taxes for it and that silly metric system. ....lol

Reply to
IYM

The last one, all 4200Km plus, was over the last 3 weeks (been home a week, on the road for 2) Temp in the mid eighties to mid nineties in Yank degrees. Yankee gas even smells different.

Reply to
clare

Yankee gas even smells different.

Well, according to my wife after going into the bathroom after me, she'd swear that I wasn't even human, but the cuisine...oh sorry - THAT kind of gas. :)

Don't have an answer for you other than if there's some difference in the summer blend, or additives that are either regulated my the "Yank" or the "Canuck" governments...Would be interesting if you did your study in the winter and see what you get.

Reply to
IYM

Up here in the winter we don't get squat for mileage. My PT does good to get 300Km on a tank.

Reply to
clare

Here's an EPA document that describes the fuels and where they're sold...

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Reply to
Derek Gee

If anything I drove faster in the USA - and you think your gas is EXPENSIVE???? I'm paying about $4.90 a US gallopn for 87 octane E10 up here right now - and that's a good ten cents a gallon less than it was last week.

Reply to
clare

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