Big oil already has jacked the price of fuel up, so they're set.

Most family sedans and minivans would be nicely served by a 4 cylinder motor that puts out between 170-190 hp. Pretty much what you get standard in most mid sized sedans like the Accord and Impala.

This big motors for running around town are silly and waste fuel.

Completely agree...I don't see the point of having a minivan that will go 0-60 in 6 or 7 seconds. Hauling might be the only excuse for having a larger engine, but a lot of their weight capacities are capped around 2500-3500lbs.

How does everyone figure out thier fuel milage per gallon?
i see lots of claims but no proof to back it up.
The europeans use liters of fuel used per 100kilometers.
still i would like to know how the results are achieved.

one of the easiest ways i know of is putting the tripmeter to zero and going for a ride of at least thirty miles or more and then going for a drive,making sure to fill up until you see the fuel before you depart and then fill up again.Devide that number of gallons it takes to fill up from the amount of miles traveled inbetween fillups and voila there is your REAL world milage.

i have never used this method on a benz.However I got about 19.9mpg from my twelve valve cummins turbo diesel combined milage using this method.Wich seems to be about average for the vehicle with about a 60/40 highway/city adventure.

I think i was getting about thirty miles per gallon on the highway but i was only going 55mph.that is just a guess.

I am going to try the fill up method soon with my 123 turbo though.

How does everyone figure out thier fuel milage per gallon?or kilometers?

I agree on the horsepower. My 240d gets around fine makes you a more patient driver also.

Problem with the new diesel pickups is all the emissions B.S. theyre adding soon you'll get better mileage from the gassers .

THe new trucks,at least the domestic ones,burn more fuel at times to reduce the emission from the exhaust.there is some kind of trap that catches the particles and then burns them up when more heat is added by adding more fuel.at least,that is what i have read.i dont think
.they recycle the sooty exhaust gas back into the intake nor do they vent the crankcase oily vapors back into the engine in front of the turbo like my 123 tubo does...hmmmmmmmmmmm not sure about the new MB diesels though..i think the new ones add some kind of chemical to the exhaust to make it meet emmision standards.

The best way is to go all the way down to the reserve light, and fill up at the same pump of the same station. Otherwise, things can get skewed pretty quickly.

For example, I always go to the Citgo by my house, and as soon as the reserve light goes on, I fill up nearly dead on 16 gallons (give or take .2 gal)
The other day I decided to get BP, right when the light went off, and somehow I filled up 16.5. How did I fit an extra half gallon? Who knows.

Anyway, most people nowadays use their "mpg calculator" that is onboard, which is usually WRONG. On a roadtrip with my friend in his Altima, it said we were getting 41 mpg...no way. By the end of the trip it was down to like 32. And since he doesn't calculate how much fuel he used, who knows if that was even right.

And as far as minivans, tow capacity, etc..they can't haul anything because they don't have any torque!!! Most modern gas cars are all dyno queens if you ask me, even if they can go 0-60 really fast. 190 hp is worthless if you need to go up to 6500 rpm to get it. How many mpgs do you think these new "suvs" get once you add 4 adults to the weight?

mileage over a few tankfuls
 

The best way I have found is to keep a gas log in the car ( along with other maintenance done). Say you have a 10 gallon tank, the gas shutoff shuts the fill off a gallon early, you're calculated amount will be off by 10%. My preference is to fill up, and then start tracking the fuel and miles over several tanks. That way you only have the potential fill error 1 time over say 40-50 gallons, a 1-2 % error. I also use this to look for longer term trends like mileage going down pointing to the need for a tuneup or other maintenance.

You are right about the onboard mileage counters. The one in my infiniti is consistently 10% high. It says I am getting 29mpg, and by fillup tracking I am getting about 26.

If you have a GPS tracker, turn it on whenever you get in the car. It will tell you how many miles you've traveled +/- a few feet. Then you can tell if your odometer is off at all as well. Fill all the way up to the lip of the tank, measure away, then on your next fill up make sure it gets all the way up there again--then distance traveled divided by the gallons reading on the pump.

I found my odometer started to go way off...what I thought was a drop from 30mpg to 12mpg turned out to be an odometer issue, the GPS verified I'm still getting between 25-30mpg.

I keep a tally in a little log book. Real world estimates I get around 23-24 since it's winter.

In the summer I pushed a steady 25. If I was conservative on the 55mph highway stretch of i90 near my home I could push 26 :D

MPG figures are such a farce. I managed to push my ratings down by driving around Cornell. 16.9, but that was just one fill up.