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I don't know if this would apply outside of California but here is something I noticed tonight. For the last two fill-ups my wife was asking me what is wrong with her car because she was getting about 50 miles less per tankful in the Sable. Told her I has no idea because her engine was running well.
Well I needed to fill up the two cars I use on a regular basis. The 2004 Focus is used to drive 14 highway miles to work and back 18 times a month. The 1991 626 is used to drive the 30 miles to the old Alameda NAS 6 times a month. So my driving style is very consistent compared to my wife going here and there. To my surprise the Mazda dropped from 34 mpg to 29.5 mpg, while the Focus dropped from 33 mpg to 29.2 mpg. My wife went from 23 mpg to just under 20 mpg.
Those are some pretty large drops across the board which tells me it isn't our cars but what is going into them this winter. Now it makes me wonder if the recent fill up of the Polara after 7.9 mpg was the car or the gas. I can't tell in regards to the Cougar, Mustang and Park Lane as it takes 3-4 months to use a tank. If this is unique to California then it is alarming to me. Winter gas, ethanol gas or whatever it is means that I need to use about 7 gallons more a month to go the same distance I did last fall 2011. Certainly not cheaper for me and certainly not helping me to be "Less" gas dependent on foreign suppliers of oil. Anyway just an observation and maybe a little rant as I hate losing gas mileage through no fault of my own...
Well I needed to fill up the two cars I use on a regular basis. The 2004 Focus is used to drive 14 highway miles to work and back 18 times a month. The 1991 626 is used to drive the 30 miles to the old Alameda NAS 6 times a month. So my driving style is very consistent compared to my wife going here and there. To my surprise the Mazda dropped from 34 mpg to 29.5 mpg, while the Focus dropped from 33 mpg to 29.2 mpg. My wife went from 23 mpg to just under 20 mpg.
Those are some pretty large drops across the board which tells me it isn't our cars but what is going into them this winter. Now it makes me wonder if the recent fill up of the Polara after 7.9 mpg was the car or the gas. I can't tell in regards to the Cougar, Mustang and Park Lane as it takes 3-4 months to use a tank. If this is unique to California then it is alarming to me. Winter gas, ethanol gas or whatever it is means that I need to use about 7 gallons more a month to go the same distance I did last fall 2011. Certainly not cheaper for me and certainly not helping me to be "Less" gas dependent on foreign suppliers of oil. Anyway just an observation and maybe a little rant as I hate losing gas mileage through no fault of my own...