This has been a strange weekend. The Mrs. and I ditched the kids with other unsuspecting families and drove from Cincinnati to Detroit to hang with my best man and his wife. We saw the Wings beat the Blues and did Hard Rock Cafe. But the weather and mileage was awful!

The wind out of the West and sometimes Southwest was incredible and temperatures in the single and very low double digits. Driving back today we had to fight a very strong (40+) West wind. Man, the TCH did not like it at all.

The last fill up after we got back is the craziest part:

Miles: 480
Gallons: 17.785
Mileage: 26.99 MPG

First of all, I have averaged 32 MPG since I bought the car in late December, which I am happy with. However, it looks depressing compared to those of you in mild climates.

For those of you in colder climates, is 32 MPG good during the winter? I suspect that it is okay based on my Prius experience, but my small mileage needs some positive reinforcement!!

And for the rest of you, has anyone EVER put 17.8 gallons in their TCH without it spilling out of the filler and running down the fender??

A couple of things to check maybe: Was the brake on? Doors/trunk open? Boat/trailer hitched? Bodies caught under the car?

Seriously, I would be at a loss!

Maybe the place you gassed up at had some major malfunctions on the pump info. It's happened before. Metering and dispensing info can be greatly skewed if the station is not in compliance with the "codes". I mean, the tank holds 17.2 according to info.

Dude - that's strange. Did you happen to go thru Bermuda on the way back? I'm in Northern Virginia and the recent cold here (although not bitter) has yielded me still about 35-36mpg (and I don't know what I'm doing either).

I sure hope that someone comes up to you soon and yells "surprise - you're on Candid Camera" since I too would be confused by this. Maybe a cross between the wind and the pump mystery is the only thing I can think of (but, its early Sunday morning anyway...)

What did your consumption screen display for your MPG? Was is close or the same?

I seems awfully suspicious that you were able to put 17.8 gallons into the car when it supposedly doesn't hold that much. We had a local gas station get shut down because they were over charging customers. As soon as you would press the lever to dispense gas the cost and number of gallons would immediately shoot up. I think as soon as you pressed the lever it already showed that it dispensed 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon. Maybe you fell victim to a scam? With it being cold outside I think most people aren't paying attention to what the gas pump says or is doing...

i live in Indianapolis and recently drove to Detroit under similar circumstances in my 07 civic hybrid.

I was averaging 46mpg in 15-20 degree weather.
my trip to Detroit was 42mpg.

i think the very cold weather is very hard on the mileage. It requires a lot more fuel to keep the air/ fuel mix correct when the air is so dense.

I am in Michigan (on the west side) and have been averaging about 33 mpg in this cold weather. I am trying to avoid going out at all if I can avoid it. The weather over here is really bad.

Did you run the car well past the point that it tells you that you have zero miles of cruising range left? If not, I would strongly doubt the 17.7 gallon value. You would have to run the tank bone dry and then fill the entire filler neck to be able to put that much fuel in.

The display was right at 30.3 (both of them). Having said that though, there are a couple of things to take into account.

I filled up at the same Shell station that I get 80% of my gas from. However, I did not have my "usual" pump. The pump I went to allowed me to put much more fuel in the car than I ever have before. In fact, I caught it just before it ran out of the pipe.

On the return trip from Detroit to Cincy, I was running 72 miles per hour with a 40 MPH (gusts higher) side wind. I had the wheel 10 - 20 degrees turned right just to stay on the road! The mileage of the tank is not what concerns me.

What concerns me is putting 17.8 gallons in. I would have expected if the car were bone dry to be able to do the 17.2 in the tank and another 0.3 - 0.4 in the filler pipe. Because of condensation and sediment, the pickup is not on the exact bottom of the tank and the car was running when I got there, so there had to be at least 0.2 - 0.3 in the tank.

The filler pipe must be huge!

THOSE OF YOU IN COLD CLIMATES.... please chime in on this: How is your mileage when the temp is under 40F and you are going over 60 miles per hour?

Your computer read 12% high. Mine is always within 5%, usually 3% high. If that pump did "overfill", then you should have above average milage with the next tank. If the pump overcharged you, then the next tank should be normal.

-- Alan

Also, do the pumps there adjust for ambient temperature? In Canada, gas pumps have a sticker that says something to the effect of "volume corrected to 15 C". When it's as bitterly cold as it has been the last few days, the gas can become denser, so 10 L in the tank may actually be 10.3 L on the pump (because if that gasoline started at -15 C and warmed up to 15 C, that's the volume it would expand to).

I live in Wisconsin and just finished a trip between Lacrosse to GreenBay. Outside temperature was -8F (....) I was driving from 4:30pm - 7:30pm. I filled up my car in Lacrosse and started with a full tank.

My tank average is 33.5MPG, with
Hwy 90 - 70mph
Hwy 21 - 63mph (when I was passing through town, the speed is limited to 25 and i was using electric motor only, but it is only less 10% of the trip)
Hwy 41 - 70mph

Usually i can get up to 43MPG when the temperature is over 32F

I have no doubt that I was able to overfill as I could see the fuel sitting just above the small hole, but not yet out of the outer housing. I never came close to that before.

Also, I was 30 - 40 miles past 0, so I have no doubt the tank was nearly empty. I just would not have expected to put more than 17 gallons in, unless I had to push the car to the pump!