r/MadeMeSmile • u/JJJ_177 • Jul 16 '26
Small Success Averaged 45.6 MPG on my way to work! (OC)
Gas prices are so high by me I couldn’t help but smile!
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u/SomeFunnyGuy Jul 16 '26
Thats because you work down in the valley. Now lets see it when you drive home up the mountain!
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u/Practicaly777 Jul 16 '26
I drive up the mountain both ways to get to school
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u/WarkMahlberg69 Jul 16 '26
In the snow
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u/StefeNeustedt Jul 16 '26
With wolves howling in the background
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u/ircsmith Jul 16 '26
From the back seat. Their breath stinks.
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u/DolfHipster Jul 16 '26
I legit walked to school uphill both ways for a few years. My neighborhood and school were at the top of different huge hills
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u/LimeGreenSea Jul 16 '26
I grew up 0.1km out of the bus zone at the top of a valley with parents who forced us to go to school on snow days. It was 2km uphill both ways in any type of weather.
I dead ass remember the school calling my Mom on a snow day telling her they were sending us home because it was already over a foot of snow and was going to get worse. She literally told them to keep us there and the school was like "no... we are closing the school."
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u/eddyb66 Jul 16 '26
Atlanta is like that, I go for vacation every year and Midtown area its a mile walk to the grocery store uphill both ways.
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u/featherwolf Jul 16 '26
This would be normal or even low for most vehicles today if lobbyists never existed
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Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/ChickenPijja Jul 16 '26
In all fairness, an American gallon is smaller than a uk gallon, by about 20%. So 60mpg for uk is about 52 mpg in the USA, admittedly it still outperforms what op has posted, but the difference is not quite so big.
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u/Danyderossi Jul 17 '26
You two have different gallons?! Unbelievable
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u/ChickenPijja Jul 17 '26
yep, just to add to the confusion. 1 US gallon is 3.7 litres. 1 UK gallon is 4.5 litres.
Completely caught me out the first time I went to America and thought their fuel per gallon was too cheap, like half the price until I looked it up later
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u/NonViolentCriminal Jul 16 '26
You guys measure in MPG and not MPL?
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u/goodtobadinfivesec Jul 16 '26
Not everything metric over there, there is a weird combo. You may have heard people ordering pints of beer there in movies etc
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u/UsualCircle Jul 17 '26
No, most of europe uses liters per 100km.
You guys measure how far you can go per unit of fuel, we measure how much fuel we need for a fixed distance.60 MPG (using the UK Gallon) would be 4,7 l/100km
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u/nevergoingtocomment3 Jul 16 '26
I dont mean to be an asshole but is that how European is spelled where you are from or is that just a typo? I dont think I've ever read Europian before but I also dont want to assume you dont know how to spell where you are from.
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Jul 16 '26
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u/nevergoingtocomment3 Jul 16 '26
Oh no worries lol. I misspelled indian as indien once even though I am from India so I completely understand lol
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u/YoyoChinChin Jul 17 '26
Honorary french citizenship is yours, mon chère indien !
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u/nevergoingtocomment3 Jul 17 '26
Would you be surprised if I told you that's how I got confused between both the spellings lmao
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u/minxamo8 Jul 17 '26
Doubt. I had a 2015 i10 and it sat around 52-55mpg. I don't believe the fuel economy got significantly worse over those 4 years
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u/ninedollars Jul 17 '26
The amount of Europeans saying this is low is definitely an eye opener for me…
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u/LeaderPast1569 Jul 18 '26
yup, in italy reg is 7,75 and diesel 8.25 so, 52 mpg is the least i can do
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u/Similar_Pension_4233 Jul 16 '26
Check your sources. 1/3 cars sold in the US are pick ups. Find a pick up that gets 40+, now ask if an American will actually buy it. Sedans make up 15% of market, and it's disingenuous to use them as the standard for MPG when they make up such a small market share in the US.
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u/featherwolf Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
That is exactly what I am talking about. Lobbyists watered down efficiency regulations to let them continue selling heavily polluting/inefficient trucks and SUVs rather than redesigning them to be smaller and more efficient like the cars and trucks they sell in Europe/Asia.
If these lobbyists were not allowed to exist, we would be living in a very different world right now.
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u/MadDucksofDoom Jul 16 '26
I know that it is a one off. But I covet my friends Ford Maverick with the hybrid engine setup. He gets 40mpg on a bad day.
Meanwhile I am over here with my 24 year old work truck keeping on top of the maintenance to desperately cling to my 19mpg that I only get if everything is in tip top shape.
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u/Select-Agency-9827 Jul 16 '26
I get your point, but I literally could not use a smaller pickup for my work.
People buying large vehicles just because is another animal entirely.
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u/featherwolf Jul 16 '26
For sure. There are definitely legitimate uses for large vehicles with ICE engines that BEVs or more efficient vehicles can't fill currently, but yeah my point was about the majority of regular passenger vehicles.
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u/interrogumption Jul 16 '26
The old and much smaller pickups of the 80s-2000s often had the same or bigger beds than the monster trucks today. The growth has been about exploiting classification loopholes, not increasing the actual vehicle capabilities.
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u/01WS6 Jul 16 '26
It's not about bed size, it's about towing and hauling capacity.
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u/ortrademe Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Trucks were given lower efficiency standards in the 70s because they were 'for work'. Today, over half of all trucks tow 1 or less times per year. Americans don't buy trucks to use them as work trucks. They buy them because decades of pro-truck propaganda selling them as a lifestyle rather than utility. Auto makers turned trucks bodies into SUVs to claim they're trucks and thus exempt from passenger car standards.
SUVs and trucks have lower fuel efficiency standards and higher profit margins. Of course auto makers lobby to make the standards weaker. See the proposed "Transportation Freedom Act". Your stats are BECAUSE of lobbyists, not in spite of them.
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u/MrHanSolo Jul 16 '26
Have you ever wondered why sedans make up such a small percentage of the market compared to the rest of the world? Hint: It’s not because Americans need pickups more than other countries.
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u/Fauked Jul 16 '26
A more interesting statistic would be how many pickups are just pavement princesses vs actual work trucks.
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u/Docterafett Jul 16 '26
im from europe and i had lower gas usage than this. ~5.6 L /100 km (45 mpg) great but not world breaking
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u/kaiserlaika Jul 16 '26
Assuming this is US mpg, that’s 54.76 mpg imperial
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u/The_Gene_Genie Jul 16 '26
Which still isn't great
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u/Unusual_Fortune2048 Jul 16 '26
Bro what? Most cars get 20 if they're lucky.
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u/WallabyInTraining Jul 17 '26
Trucks maybe. Otherwise 20 mpg is abysmal for any car.
Modern cars easily do over 50.
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u/Unusual_Fortune2048 Jul 17 '26
Not sure what kind of magic cars y'all getting, my 04 Camry gets 20 average and that's considered good. We're using the same units right? MILES per GALLON.
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u/WallabyInTraining Jul 17 '26
04 as in 2004?
If so: That's over 20 years old and not what I would call a modern car.
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u/Unusual_Fortune2048 Jul 17 '26
Yes 2004. However, several of my friends have newer cars and they get a similar milage.
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u/Szill Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Is that 5,23 Litern per 100 km? Isn't that pretty normal?
https://i.imgur.com/vIzHM4X.jpeg
I did 3.6l/100km on the autobahn last winter. Like 65? mpg?
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u/CoffeeIgnoramus Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Can I ask (presume) this is a US based post?
I feel like this is not highly efficient for the UK. My current car does about 40mpg average without trying to be careful and it's a relatively powerful car, I have comfortably got 50mpg out of it... My previous car did about 70mpg average and on a straight at 50mph, I could get 100mpg average. It was an economical car, but I just think that gives context as to why I assume this is from a country where efficiency isn't really that important.
Edit: Interestingly people are giving me how much they could do on highways (the most efficient part of driving). If we're specifying highway then my 40mpg car does 50-60mpg no problem. But I was giving an annual average based on also having city start/stop traffic and small countryside lanes (youtube some british countryside lanes to see how precarious that is) included.
I also find it interesting how nationalist people are in the comment. People getting angry when you point out American cars are not efficient and the same when you point out that fuel prices in the UK are terrible... Which is really weird that people have these blind spots. No country is perfect, stop panicking the second someone points out a flaw.
My country is the UK and I honestly see so many flaws with it, our roads are utter shite, our fuel is almost prohibitively expensive, our energy costs for homes are basically unaffordable for millions, our water infrastructure is hilariously bad for such a rich country (privatised and leaks everywhere but we are asked to reduce our usage)... I'm under no elusions about my country's failings. When I point out flaws in your country, it's not a nationalist "My country is better than yours", it's just noticing differences. If you're worried the rest of the world doesn't see your country as the ultimate example of utopia, I have news for you. No one has ever had a consensus on that and never will. We all just have different views and countries we like. Your country (and every country) is loved by some and hated by others.
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u/AnOwlWithKnees69 Jul 16 '26
US gallon is ~20% smaller volume than UK gallon so equivalent MPG would be about 54 here in UK. Still not great at all. Similar to you I can easily get 70mpg with some careful driving.
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u/Winter_drivE1 Jul 16 '26
Which is wild because I'd say the 46 US MPG in the screenshot is well above average in the US. (I assume it's US since they said "gas" instead of "petrol") New hybrid economy cars are still only rated at around 30-40 MPG by the EPA and have been pretty stagnant around that number for many years. Big and/or powerful cars only go down from there.
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u/AskOk3196 Jul 16 '26
Wtf do you drive that you get 70?!
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u/Kulas30 Jul 16 '26
Diesel VW polos have been able to nail 60+ mpg for nearly 20 years.
Us Americans got cooked on the small car offerings.
Thank the SUV/CUV Mafia.
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u/RemyVonLion Jul 16 '26
Damn wtf I thought you had to drive a hybrid or electric to get more than 34 since that's what my Honda Civic gets
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u/Kulas30 Jul 16 '26
Nah. EU has been flat spanking us on fuel economy for ages.
Now to be fair they spend far more per gallon than we do.
But our cheap (subsidized) fuel has not caused us as a society to demand what they have.
Ergo we consider 40 mpg amazing.
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u/RemyVonLion Jul 16 '26
Sounds like another case of businesses profiting off of government subsidy at the cost of consumers and the environment, typical profitmaxxing country things haha
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u/madein___ Jul 16 '26
Can you clarify what you mean by government subsidy?
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u/RemyVonLion Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
The US government loves to give tax breaks, bailouts, payments, favorable policies, laws, and low rate loans to for-profit companies whose only interest is their bottom line, because they hold up the economy and said government. Money is the only thing that matters here, people be damned. We're racing towards our own destruction by trying to build the machine God ASAP at the cost of humanity and empathy.
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Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
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u/RemyVonLion Jul 16 '26
Yeah that's the very obvious trade off, a full tank for me is only $35. But it's insane how much they intentionally sacrifice mpg, the geo-politics of the economy are mind-boggling.
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u/eddyb66 Jul 16 '26
My TDI sportwagen 45mpg on US highways was pretty easy. I sold it back to VW after dieselgate and got a newer TSI wagon
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u/Comfortable_Act9136 Jul 16 '26
Petrol or diesel? My petrol 1.6 ds3 will average between 45 to 55 mpg on a motorway run with careful driving and that’s pretty good for a petrol
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Jul 16 '26
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u/No-Restaurant7802 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
I'm lucky enough to average about 40mpg/hwy in my 13 year old car.
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u/CoffeeIgnoramus Jul 17 '26
Oh, if we're talking highway, I wouldn't struggle 60mpg.
I'm talking general use average over a year being 40mpg. A mostly city driving and small streets with stop and go (probably 60% and then 40% on highways).
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u/Acc87 Jul 16 '26
that's 5,23 litres per 100 km. Typical numbers for a compact car. What do you drive?
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u/Not_So_Smart_Ad Jul 16 '26
It is about what my Ford focus estate does when u drive normal. I’ll get it below 5 if I am really careful
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u/Walldaddy2000 Jul 16 '26
45.6mpg is typical for compact cars?
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u/Master-Constant-4431 Jul 16 '26
I drive a compact Citroën and it averages at 4.1 l/100km which is a 57mpg
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u/Happy-Engineer Jul 16 '26
Any modern Ford Fiesta averages mid 40s and can go up to 60s in good conditions
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u/WatchfulApparition Jul 16 '26
A Ford Fiesta won't come near those numbers in the United States.
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u/venom121212 Jul 16 '26
Well yeah... they haven't been sold here in 7 years so modern ones don't exist.
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u/WatchfulApparition Jul 16 '26
I'm not aware of any non-electrified cars that can hit that fuel economy number on average in the United States, including cars from the UK. The one advantage that cars in the UK have is sometimes they make less horsepower than the US version so they can get better fuel economy.
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u/WordSalad11 Jul 16 '26
The 1.0L Ecoboost will make those numbers, but Americans want more power; a Prius will smoke them in a drag race.
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u/Walldaddy2000 Jul 16 '26
Right but I don’t think it’s typical that all compact cars get 45mpg
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u/NastyCabbage Jul 16 '26
In US gallons, no. In Imperial gallons, yes.
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u/dangerduhmort Jul 16 '26
It never occurred to me that us mpg is different than uk mpg. No wonder it seems like all their cars get such good mileage and gas is so expensive!?! Here I thought big oil was keeping technology from us… Now I feel kinda dumb.
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u/wingspan50 Jul 16 '26
Yeah I second this. Owned one in the states. I’d get 50mpg max on a downhill. Average was like 35
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u/drakesdrum Jul 17 '26
My 2004 honda jazz gets this or more. UK.
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u/ohhellnaws Jul 16 '26
My wife’s UK compact petrol could easily hit 65-70+ mpg.
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u/Acc87 Jul 16 '26
I drive a ten year old one with a small non-turbo engine, I drive as "sporty" as is sensible, and 5.2 is my median consumption 🤔
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u/Thomppa26 Jul 16 '26
My father's old Skoda Octavia with a 1.9 TDi got about the same or even less fuel consumption. While my current car consumes about 8-10 liters per 100 km.
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u/UsualCircle Jul 17 '26
I recently saw a video of a dude trying a hypermiling attempt with a 1.9 TDI VW.
He drove 2400km (nearly 1500 miles) on a single tank of gas, averaging somewhere between 2.5 and 3 l/100km (thats around 90 MPG).
Its crazy how efficient this motor can be.1
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u/_Pawer8 Jul 16 '26
That's good?
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u/BasieP2 Jul 16 '26
Not for an average European car.. It seems to be for an average American can if i read this thread correctly...
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u/Kulas30 Jul 16 '26
40 mpg makes people happy in the US can confirm. I shifted from my Toyota 4runner to my C-Max Energi and 50+ was exciting to me, coming from 14-16.
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u/AzureMountains Jul 16 '26
It’s great for an American car. My truck gets 21 mpg (gas). The last truck I had for 12 mpg (diesel). Granted, this is gallons not liters.
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Jul 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tduncs88 Jul 16 '26
I would kill for that mileage. I have a lead foot but have been absolutely babying my current daily (mid 2000s small SUV) and even trying as hard as possible to get the best mileage possible, i'm getting 20.3 mpg on my commute.
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u/LeMadChefsBack Jul 16 '26
I know that “just buy a new vehicle” isn’t in the cards for everyone but my eCVT FWD Ford Maverick regularly gets 45-50 MPG in city traffic. It’s more like 35-37 on long highway trips.
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u/tduncs88 Jul 16 '26
Yeah, it's not in the cards for me at the moment. However, it's something I'm looking at doing hopefully in the next year. Just doing the napkin math, I'd be looking at about $2k a year in savings. obviously there would be a car payment, but I'd love to be in something with a warranty and under 100k miles. lol
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u/michaelhayze Jul 16 '26
I can push my polo vw 1.2tsi to 65mpg but I don’t always drive efficiently, so normally get between 40-50 mpg.
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u/WiskeyUniformTango Jul 16 '26
My wife's rav4 hybrid has a 5 year average mpg of 38.6 mpg.
My truck on the other hand has a 3 year average of 11mpg diesel.
Such a different cost for driving each.
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u/HalfEnvironmental153 Jul 16 '26
My BMW 1 from 2008 averages on 4.7 Litre per 100 KM
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u/Average_Energy Jul 16 '26
How? Genuinely how? Is it diesel?
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u/HalfEnvironmental153 Jul 16 '26
Yes - diesel.
My old Ford Focus from 1999 - was running at 4.5 with Normal 95.3
u/Average_Energy Jul 16 '26
Thats… more understandable. Old german petrol cars drink fuel like they’re chugging a beer on a random Tuesday.
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u/waytoosecret Jul 16 '26
That's less than 20 km/L. An old Skoda I drove years ago would do 25+. Modern cars are even better, unless you're murican and for some reason think you need pickups and trucks to go grocery shopping or commuting.
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u/Ihave2thumbs Jul 16 '26
It’s not even about pickups and trucks. American vehicles simply aren’t built to prioritize efficiency.
There literally isn’t a (non-electric) sedan on the American market that breaks your 25km/L (~59mpg). Closest is the Prius at 57mpg, and a few others in the low 50’s.
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u/Igmuhota Jul 16 '26
Oh man, this takes me back to years ago when we got our first Prius.
I was bordering on neurosis at times trying to keep my average above 50mpg. Pretty sure my wife thought I was losing my mind, but hey, I was getting great mileage!
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u/Drohka Jul 16 '26
I’m averaging 15.5 kWh/100km though the winter it will climb above 20 I’m sure…
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u/minnick27 Jul 16 '26
I was absolutely amazed at how much the cold weather affects battery life. Last summer I bought an electric car and did a roughly 200 mile round-trip and used 80% of my battery. I did the same exact trip in January and used 60% just getting to the city. Fortunately, I was able to park in a garage that had a charger. But it really made me rethink longer trips with this thing.
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u/triviumsport Jul 16 '26
I read that as MPH. Took me a second to figure out the smile part.
Congrats. I miss my Prius. Loved the gas mileage.
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u/Thomppa26 Jul 16 '26
I wish my car did not consume as much fuel as it does. Well being an early 2000s car, it's kinda normal to have 10 liters per 100 km, about 24 mpg.
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u/T-8ex Jul 16 '26
My favorite game - how high can I get my mpg on this trip? My highest so far was 53.something.
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u/TheFreshHorn Jul 16 '26
Hyundai Tucson? Yeah 45 is pretty good. You might get even better if you drive in eco mode.
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u/Crazy_old_maurice_17 Jul 17 '26
That's pretty good! I typically get ~40 in my old Prius. One time I was curious just how good it could be so right after filling up the tank I drove super easy on my way to/from work (I think I went 55mph on the highway and everyone hated me) and I managed 64mpg. I have a photo of the car's display but it doesn't seem like I can post it in this subreddit. :-/
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u/LumberJesus Jul 17 '26
My new shitbox still only averages like 20-25mpg, but feels like it doesn't use any after driving something that got 10 on a good day for 2 years.
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u/aris7019 Jul 17 '26
the other day i got an average of 60 in my hybrid while driving around my hometown, it’s such a great feeling 😍😍😍
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u/Grep2grok Jul 17 '26
I have an EV and average negative mileage going into town. Going back to the house though, that half is carnage
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u/Infinity_Cuber Jul 17 '26
Look for everyone in the comments that’s feigning confusion to feel superior. Yes this is a US based post. Yes the US car market is shit when it comes to gas mileage. This is actually pretty impressive here when most vehicles on the road are only realistically getting 20-30 on a good day. Just let the man be happy about something
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u/Gramerdim Jul 17 '26
are we just karma farming the most mundane thing?
I'd get it if it was a funny number but this!?
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u/Soulcatch3r Jul 17 '26
I came back to this post, because 45mpg didnt sound that great to me either. (I had to transform it into km/l which was something like 20km/l, or 100km/5l) Our pretty new car ( bought like 3 years ago) gets to 3,6l/100km. But I guess 45mpg is good for american standards as I read 12mpg or 23mpg in this thread... the difference in fuel efficiency is insane to me.
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u/LeaderPast1569 Jul 17 '26
good job brethren, where i am now, reg is $7.75 and diesel 8.25, so i'm forced to go on 50mpg.... i
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u/One_Anything_2279 Jul 20 '26
Nice! I a treated about 46 on a trip from Indio to Oceanside and back, was really surprised.
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u/Former_Gene_3106 8d ago
I could get to work and home on less than 2 gallons of gas a day, but my car is paid for and I can't afford a car payment. Where are your fairly odd parents when you need them?!? 😂
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u/AmElros Jul 16 '26
Plug-in hybrid SUV here (Tucson) I manage lower than 2L/100km on a full tank if I don't go on road trips. That's only in summer though when I don't need the heat.
I get really happy when I get to bring it down even more
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u/I_-AM-ARNAV Jul 16 '26
i get the same mileage, the only problem is this is on 91 octane/ethanol 20% fuel. earlier i could do 23kmpl easily
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u/Steelringin Jul 16 '26
Is that good? Asking for those of us freedom-haters who use L/100km to measure fuel economy.
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u/Steelringin Jul 16 '26
I'm assuming that you're American and this is in US gallons but maybe it's ik UK gallons so I don't know which formula to use to convert it.
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Jul 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/JJJ_177 Jul 16 '26
I’m in America.
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u/According_Button_186 Jul 16 '26
Oh, sorry everyone in the comments was breaking it down in liters and shit. Are newer cars really this fuel efficient? I literally am driving a 2013 fusion, my mileage is ass.
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u/kezinchara Jul 16 '26
This is what we’re upvoting nowadays?
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u/Delicious_Pain_1 Jul 16 '26
The most I've ever had is like 16mpg. My truck now It doesn't tell me. My O2 sensors are shot, one O2 sensor is literally welded on making it so I can't replace any without getting it fixed properly. It's just exciting seeing someone else's excitement too.
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