Miles Per Gallon

Miles per gallon measures how far a vehicle can travel for each gallon of fuel it uses. The formula works by dividing the total distance driven by the number of gallons consumed, so the result tells you the average distance covered per unit of fuel. A higher MPG means the vehicle is more fuel-efficient because it goes farther on the same amount of fuel.

Use this when you want to compare fuel economy for a car, truck, or motorcycle, or to estimate how efficiently a trip used fuel. It is also useful for checking whether one vehicle is more economical than another.

• Dividing gallons by miles instead of miles by gallons
• Using the wrong units, such as kilometers without converting to miles
• Forgetting that MPG is an average over a trip, not necessarily the fuel use at every moment