How fuel efficient is your vehicle? Do you ever get the suspicion, as I do, that your car's gas mileage is getting worse? Have you ever wondered how your mileage compares to other drivers? And what about the estimated mileage touted by the car companies? Does a Mini Cooper really get 37 miles per gallon?
Matt Haughey and Paul Bausch have launched a new site called Fuelly, which allows users to track their vehicles' fuel economy and to compare data with other drivers. As you enter data for each fuel up, Fuelly tracks your average number of miles per tank, your average cost per tank, your fuel efficiency, and more.
If you'd like to compare information with other users, you may:
- Browse cars (there are currently 1369 vehicles being tracked at Fuelly)
- Pick up some tips on fuel economy
- Participate in the discussion forum
- Add other users as friends (I'm jdroth, as always)
Fuelly is brand new, so data is scarce. Over the next few weeks, however, users will fill their tanks, and then people will then be able to compare mileage and track their own vehicles' performance. (For a preview of extended data, check out dredpyrate's 2004 Mini Cooper, which has data all the way back to the first of the year! It gets 32.8 miles per gallon.)
I think this is a great idea. Fuelly taps the power of the masses to compile real fuel efficiency data so that users can find ways to save money. Brilliant. Because Fuelly is new, it is not without bugs. Haughey and Bausch promise to squelch these soon, and to add new features, such as metric units and support for additional vehicles (like scooters and uncommon cars).
Author: J.D. Roth
In 2006, J.D. founded Get Rich Slowly to document his quest to get out of debt. Over time, he learned how to save and how to invest. Today, he's managed to reach early retirement! He wants to help you master your money — and your life. No scams. No gimmicks. Just smart money advice to help you reach your goals.
Awesome! My husband and I have gotten into hypermiling recently, and I think we’ll love this.
Mine is very efficient. I get about 60-70mpg out of it. That’s not using any special techniques, either. It’s the fruits of a 602cc engine. 😀
For personal tracking (without the comparing) there’s http://www.fuelfrog.com
A similar, government-created site has been around for years: http://www.fueleconomy.gov
Looks useful, but without metric support it’s just too much bother. We’ll see if they come out with that before someone else puts up a better site… 🙂
A similar website is My Mile Marker: http://mymilemarker.com/
I use FuelFrog… it integrates with Twitter, which I like, but doesn’t have the social information that Fuelly looks to provide…
I get about 22mpg in my 1998 Subaru Forester. Every time I fill up, I write down the date, total mileage, mileage since last fill-up and gallons of gas used. Then I calculate my mileage to see how I did on that tank. It would be great to compare to owners of the same car.
Fun!
You all should get rid of your car! I don’t OWN one, it’s implied that I’m smarter than you, therefore, do the same.
Or, couldn’t you just rent one when you need it. It’s more frugal!
I have obsessively tracked the mileage of my ’99 Civic since I got it 9 years ago. I think I’ve accidentally missed writing down the mileage/mpg about half a dozen times in its 112,000 miles. I just opened a Fuelly account — I’ll see how far back I can go before getting tired of inputting data.
Try http://spritmonitor.de
lots of data already present, metric/imperial/us conversion, comparison, easy search engine
How much does what the manufacturer say vary from what people are actually getting with their car?
It allows me to put in the engine info, but I cant see that info for the other trucks.
I’m not sure of the estimated mpg it gives.
My Ranger initially was 29mpg highway when I bought it. But if you look at http://www.fueleconomy.gov with the revision on how they figure mpg, my Ranger is now 27mpg. When I picked the engine type in Fuelly it shows the old EPA MPG estimates of 29mpg.
What a great idea! I have been wondering about how to find true-to-life mileage for specific vehicles since we averaged 51 mpg in a Kia Spectra that we rented on vacation.
I am participating in a local pollution-reduction effort, Driving Change, in Denver, Colo. I input fuel usage, and the site tracks my speed, hard braking, fast starts, etc., along with car model, to determine how much I’m polluting and whether I waste gas. Voluntary Big Brotherism.
@Another Personal Finance Blog, we average very close to what you do in our 2004 Forester (ranging from about 19 to 25, usually 22ish).
@average reader, some of us would have to rent daily, which isn’t frugal at all! 🙂 But you are fortunate & admirable to get by without a car.
We are about to move to Europe and will be going without a car for the next few years, but I like this site and the others like it… it will be nice not to have to worry about mileage for the immediate future (or insurance, etc.), but I will probably use the site for comparisons when we come back and are looking for a high-MPG vehicle (hopefully they are selling even more of them then!)…
Jerry
Amy @ 1:08, a woman after my own heart. But, I don’t see you on there yet, unless you got tired of putting in data at 4 fill ups. See my 2000 Subaru Outback with 185K on there averaging 27mpg. My next vehicle will be a Civic. I hope I get better mileage than some on the site, and suspect I will.
cleanmpg.com has a mileage database and lots of info about hypermiling for hybrid and traditional car drivers.
About like comparing apples to oranges, without knowing the rest of the story engine,transmission,two wheel or four wheel drive etc.
Someone I know just got rid of their Mini Cooper because they didn’t get the mileage they believed they would. I have a 10 year old Geo Metro which has been reliably used for commuting daily – average 45mpg. It’s about to go into the paint shop for a sprucing up.
Very interesting — I’ll have to keep an eye on this. I’ve tracked my own mileage for a while now in Microsoft Excel — I think it is a good idea as it not only allows me to monitor the financial health of my car, but also to keep an eye out for any changes in MPG that might signal a problem with the car. I like the idea of aggregating the data in a social sense, so I’ll have to give this a go. Nice!
I just bought a 2007 Subaru Forester (my kid needed a new car so she got my 2002 Jeep) so far averaging about 26 mpg, unless I drive on the freeway then it drops (really) to 24 mpg. Wish giving up the car was an option but I live in the boonies and my employer won’t consider telecommuting.
I run a similar service at http://mymiler.com. It’s still in a fledgling state, and doesn’t have nearly the userbase as Fuelly, but I’m hoping to work on that.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I’ve been using Fuelfrog and love being able to update it from my phone. Here’s my review -> http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/fuelfrog-lets-you-track-gas-mileage-through-twitter/
Pretty basic though lacks the comparison features of Fuelly.
A new website just launched: http://www.digitcar.com.
In addition to tracking fuel spending and fuel economy, it lets you select the group of cars to compare your MPG with. You can select by Model Year and Location. It is much meaningful than comparing a car in Alska vs a car in Florida (weather factor).
I’ve been using http://www.fuelclinic.com for almost a year – it’s so easy to use that even my father started doing it, after I told him how I was saving money. There’s a good blog there too.