Pop Quiz -- Horrible MPG

I guess you were driving up I-84 (the Columbia Gorge) into a strong head wind where you usually have a strong tail wind. What puzzles me, though is that you still had a 40.2 mpg average allowing for the poor 30 minute average.

 

Wow Bill,

That looks about as bad as our family trip up to Breckenridge, CO. 2.5 hours of stop and go traffic. We covered about 10 miles during that time. I've never seen such a pathetic consumption screen. Most of the bars were below 15 MPG. The OAT was 19 deg F. So I'm guessing you were caught up in a traffic snarl.

 

hmmm.

Lots of petrol used, or a short distance traversed.

I opt for the latter: you were caught in traffic, but had the heater going strong enough to turn the ICE on.

 

Well, let's see. Since you normally get 100MPG on this stretch, that suggests to me it is downhill. I'd guess that on this occasion, it was particularly cold (indeed, your display shows 34 degrees). How about this: On this occasion, you were going very slow due to road work or an accident; there was a cold and strong head wind; you had your heater on high; and you inadvertently were driving in "B". How's that?

 

25km/gal = 45m/gal? Imperial Gallons? Liters?

You somehow got the MFD in some kind of demo mode?

Someone pasted that picture on your MFD?

 

Left the emergency brake on?

=)

Tried to use Mystery Squid's mouth as a supplemental power source, and he shut up for a few minutes?

=)

 

Okay, assuming you got 45 mpg everywhere but this one stretch, it looks like you averaged about 11 miles per hour there.

If the total number of miles driven is 93, and the overall mpg is 40.2, then the number of gallons burned on this tank is 93/40.2.

If the number of miles driven in that one bad half hour is x, and you got 15 mpg going those x miles, then you burned x/15 gallons of gas during that time. If you got 45mpg otherwise, then you burned (93-x)/45 gallons of gas the rest of the time. Those two numbers have to add up to the total amount burned, 93/40.2. If you solve for x, you get about 5.5 miles in that half-hour period.

So I'm guessing that you were stuck in really bad traffic. There might even have been a nice 100-mpg bar at the very beginning.

 

You normally get close to 100MPG on this strech of road... but this time you were going uphill instead of downhill on the same strech of road.

 

I am guessing a blizzard, combined with road construction caused a severe backup.

 

One more thing that kind of suggests that the car was going really slowly is the lack of little regeneration cars in the display.

And I agree the heat was probably on. Or at least, it would have been if I'd been driving.

 

You normally drive very slowly and draft a slow moving semi.

That day, there was a 2 for 1 sale at taco bell, but only for the first 100 guests.

So, you were driving at about 100mph into a headwind.

Loaded with passengers also?

 

This makes sense - add jackrabbiting and/or a really loaded car and/or a really steep hill and there you go!

 

It was moving day and your were towing a trailer, or your boat, or a horse.

 

I like the parking brake theory, or how about you had it in "B"?

 

AAAHHHH!!! I would go insane if I got a screen like that!

It's obvious... You were towing a broken down Hummer! :lol: Albeit very slowly.

 

Looks pretty clear... it wasn't.

Slight downhill in a 35MPH zone for the normal 100mpg.

Bumper to bumper with the defroster going full blast should do the job. Aren't you glad you weren't Mystery Squid riding a bike in that weather

 

or a hummer