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How to Look Up EPA Gas Mileage
EPA gas mileage estimates are the same numbers you see on a window sticker when purchasing a new car at your local dealership. They are generally listed in three categories: city gas mileage, highway gas mileage, and then a third listing for combined gas mileage (the EPA does this using a 55% mix of city driving, and 45% mix of highway driving). If you’ve ever shopped for a vehicle before, chances are you’ve put thought into the vehicle’s fuel economy, and maybe even used it as a reason to get (or not to get) a particular vehicle. Thanks to the Internet, there is now a way to look up the fuel economy statistics for almost any vehicle produced in or after 1984.
The U.S. federal government and the EPA have teamed up to create the website www.fueleconomy.gov. Using their database of EPA fuel economy figures, you can do many different things. Vehicles can be looked up by model year, class, make, or miles per gallon. There’s also another section listed below that where you can even look at the cars with the best and worst fuel economy in a particular class.
To use the site, simply navigate to the web address linked above. Once you’re on the home page, in the upper left-hand corner you will see where it says “Find a Car.” Hovering over this will release a drop-down menu filled with all of the options listed above. Select Find a Car (or click the link here to the left) to begin your search. You will be directed to a page listing all of the model years from 1984 to 2011. Say for example you wanted to look up a 1996 Chevrolet Camaro. Simply click where it says 1996, read through the different manufacturers listed and then click Chevrolet. Then click on Camaro and you will see a few different models. The differences reflect different engine and transmission choices, which will affect overall fuel economy. As a side note, you may also compare different vehicles from different manufacturers, and you may also compare up to five different vehicles. However, for simplicity, let’s just take a look at two different Camaro models.
For this example, let’s say you wanted to compare a V6 manual and V8 automatic Camaro. Check the boxes next to these two models, and then click on Compare. You’ll be directed to a page with a whole host of information, including the cost to drive the vehicles 25 miles, their carbon footprint, yearly petroleum consumption, as well as a list of information about the vehicle’s engine and overall size. The yearly fuel costs listed are based on a gasoline price of $2.68 per gallon, and 15,000 miles driven per year, however you have the option to customize these figures to suit your driving needs and local gas prices.
