Town Car Gas Millage

[HighwayStar]

Its cold here and so I have been putting off working on the Town Car for the moment. Also with gas prices the highest they have been since 2014 it seems timely to roll out this data I have been collecting.

I did a number of runs with the Town Car, recording fuel use,d miles traveled by the odometer, and the displayed MPG of the computer. In total this represents 2647 miles of driving. Here is a table with the data.

Gallons	Miles	MPG	MPG (Calc)
8.132​	185.5​	23.8​	22.81​
10.308​	240.6​	23.3​	23.34​
13.639​	297.1​	23.1​	21.78​
14.789​	290.2​	20.3​	19.62​
8.41​	197.2​	21​	23.45​
13.359​	283.6​		21.23​
14.408​	290.6​	21.4​	20.17​
11.858​	294.5​	24.4​	24.84​
15.692​	356.2​	23.4​	22.70​
9.529​	211.4​	22.3​	22.18​

This was all highway travel, over a varied set of locations. There is significant overall elevation change, and many of these are not on particularly flat ground but I have excluded the most mountainous section.
For all but one run the Town Car was pretty well loaded in the trunk but only the driver inside.
Average speed varied over the runs, with some being mostly cruising at 84 with others having a mix of 70-80 with much lower speed through small towns.
Overall the computer claimed a mileage of 22.5, with one missing value I forgot to record. The calculated millage without that value was 22.3 so on the whole the computer is fairly accurate it seems.
The actual average was 22.2, which given that mine is an L wheel base and only rated for 23 seems reasonable. I am sure if I had knocked 5 mph off the 84 cruising sections that would have put us to 23. Not bad for having 120k miles on it.

 

[jkeaton]

I was surprised at the mileage of my 04. Pleasantly surprised. Consistently around the 22 MPG range in my combined city/highway. I did manage to get it up to 26 on a 6 hour trip to Kentucky. Pretty darn good for such a big car. My 2013 MKS (3.7L) gets about 2 mpg less in the combined catagory and about the same on trips.

 

[oktowncar]

I took a trip down to Texas from Oklahoma for a family funeral back in December.
I averaged 24mpg for the 980-mile round trip

 

[wolf_walker]

I get about the same on my 04 with almost 250K on it now. Ain't bad all things considered. Ain't good, but it ain't bad lol..
Fairly light footed city driving in more like 18, and I bet with a more youthful right foot one could push that down into the 15-16
range. Annoyingly I do a lot of city driving anymore, of what little driving I actually do.


Now cue the one guy that always gets 28mpg out of his Town Car while towing a trailer up a mountain somehow.
There's always a few...

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[HighwayStar]

I think to really nail this down I need to collect some GPS data as well which will give a much better speed and altitude profile of each trip. One thing I have noticed though is running the tank to near empty boots millage some, since you have less weight with less fuel.

 

[Towncarlimoguy]

Ok and after doing all that you found out your car gets about the same as every other Town Car driven on the highway in existence .lol Good to have it in print and real world!! lol

 

[HighwayStar]

Ok and after doing all that you found out your car gets about the same as every other Town Car driven on the highway in existence .lol Good to have it in print and real world!! lol

That is not the inherent outcome. Some people find that they are getting worse millage, which is an indicator of a problem. Mine so far seems to be getting what it should, but its nevertheless worth a good check.

Also for the purposes of trip planning I would like to know what I can expect to get and under what conditions. It affects both cost and where to stop for gasoline.

 

[wolf_walker]

You might look up www.fuelly.com, I've used it for a few years and handwritten notebooks for decades prior. The digital stuff is handy.

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[Towncarlimoguy]

That is not the inherent outcome. Some people find that they are getting worse millage, which is an indicator of a problem. Mine so far seems to be getting what it should, but its nevertheless worth a good check.

Also for the purposes of trip planning I would like to know what I can expect to get and under what conditions. It affects both cost and where to stop for gasoline.

Yes I’m glad you have the patience and knowledge to be able to do that. I’d be pulling my hair out if I tried to do that. Lol

 

[All2kool]

When I traded my 1996 Cartier in for the 2004 Signature Series, it was a 95 mile drive to the dealer via I-5. The drive was flat, a spring day, and I set the Cruise Control at 62mph after resetting the trip meter. I snapped a picture of the MPG in the lot before saying goodbye to that beautiful Cartier Edition.

I wish my 2002 BMW Cabriolet's mileage was this good.

 

[wolf_walker]

Fun fact, OKC to Wichita a few days apart, my 04 got the same highway MPG as my 1990 did, ac on, cruise on 73, four people in the car.
AC was better in the 90 too.
I sure miss that one.

 

[Norms1stTC]

On my commute to work, which is mostly highway, but quite mountainous , I'm averaging about the same mileage on my 02 Signature Series at 21.2mpg.

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[etinpa]

The only time I check mpg is on my annual 2000 mile round trip to visit the grand kids (23 mpg on the last trip).

I used to tell people "If my primary concern was fuel economy I wouldn't drive a Town Car."

Now that my other "car" is a 5.4L E-250 I tell them "This is my economy car."

 

[Allenz]

Mine is a 2001 Town Car. Don't know if it makes any difference but it has the 16" wheels & single exhaust. I am the original owner with only 38,000 miles on it. So it is a garage queen. Mixed driving 60% city 40% highway I average 18 MPG. Last 300 mile all highway trip averaging 70 MPH I could not believe I got 26.5 MPG.

 

[rancourt]

My numbers are pretty close to yours, @Allenz, in my '07 Town Car Signature Limited. Around town -- 25-40mph shady country lanes and regular stop signs and stop lights, little 5-10 mile hops -- I average 17.6 - 19.1mpg, but when I take a longer trip on the interstate and stretch its legs a bit, I've seen up to 26-27mpg. The car really takes on a dramatically different character around 50mph, suddenly seems to wake up and want to play. It's lovely and very well-mannered at town speeds, but this car definitely acquires a different personality in its upper gears, and it's a thing of absolute beauty.

This said, it's an expensive car indeed to take to the drive-in and idle for four hours through a double feature!

 

[04TC]

On flat highways mine can hold 25mpg at 65 mph and 29.5mpg at 60 mph. No V8 car built in the last decade is as thrifty on gas as these Cars

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[wolf_walker]

LT1 6spd Camaros were known for being in the mid to upper 20's on the highway(and a whole lot less in town). Lots of low end torque and a tall overdrive, and aerodynamics I assume. Corvette was pretty good too along then, pretty unheard of for a v8 performance car back then.

 

[HighwayStar]

I used to tell people "If my primary concern was fuel economy I wouldn't drive a Town Car."

I definitely agree with this statement, and I knew that when I bought it.

That said, when I consider what millage the Corolla can pull on the highway (at my speed, and loaded down) the Town Car is not that bad by comparison. 22 in the Town Car, perhaps 32 in the Corolla? Sounds like a lot but remembering that MPG is not a linear scale that 10 MPG is not a massive difference. At $3 a gallon, 1000 miles in the Town Car is $136, the Corolla is $94. For the highway the Town Car is pretty competitive.

I don't drive my Town Car in the city much at all though, just when I am bringing other people places usually. I will have to do a test sometime, but I am expecting about 14 MPG.

 

[Norms1stTC]

I definitely agree with this statement, and I knew that when I bought it.

That said, when I consider what millage the Corolla can pull on the highway (at my speed, and loaded down) the Town Car is not that bad by comparison. 22 in the Town Car, perhaps 32 in the Corolla? Sounds like a lot but remembering that MPG is not a linear scale that 10 MPG is not a massive difference. At $3 a gallon, 1000 miles in the Town Car is $136, the Corolla is $94. For the highway the Town Car is pretty competitive.

I don't drive my Town Car in the city much at all though, just when I am bringing other people places usually. I will have to do a test sometime, but I am expecting about 14 MPG.

Where you getting gas for $3 a gallon? No where in America has that price, no where.

 

[oktowncar]

Where you getting gas for $3 a gallon? No where in America has that price, no where.

Our gas right now is $3.89 for reg. unleaded. was 3.39 last week....