Mark P

Happy New Year! I've updated my graphs with the new Q5 TDI added now.

Hope others get some sort of "enjoyment" out of this, lol. Please don't quote the entire post in your reply to not overwhelm the follow on replies, just quote any graph of interest...

Yes, I'm "crazy" for doing this for so long, but it's something I enjoy and the maintenance has been minimal over the years. I set most of it up years ago and just make minor tweaks and add new graphs here and there along the way. Then it's just data entry with each receipt...

AndyA6

HNY! Wow, a rare sight for sure... But interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Regalflyer

Potential newbie Q5 owner here- wow, you pile on the miles! We are looking at keeping a Q5 for a long term luxury vehicle. Coming from a low maintenance high reliability brand (Toyota) how has your experience been cost wise keeping your cars running? Any big majors?
We typically get two hundred thousand miles on our Toyotas with normal maintenance. Maybe spoiled-
Thanks

plat27265

Congrats for keeping a record of a lot of data on the various cars you've owned. Very meticulous record-keeping. I am guessing you're a book keeper or accountant who just gets turned-on with graphs, spreadsheets, and the like. Keep up the good work!

idale

I wouldn't classify 5 numbers each fillup "a lot". It's just a lot of different ways to crunch the very basic numbers we've all got easy access to, but it looks like it's all just the standard stuff Mark's been tracking.

I've been keeping track of those numbers (well, only 4 on early vehicles that didn't have any computer data to jot down, and 6 now since I note average speed in addition to the car's MPG display) myself on all my vehicles. Good way to see if you have a sudden decline in mileage which could be indicative of some type of issue you might not otherwise notice. With resources like Fuelly out there now, you don't even have to keep a physical log book anymore (though I still do, just track in both places and transfer data occasionally onto my computer for processing).

I also have always marked down things like when I'm filling up somewhere unusual (different pumps can shut off at different times which can introduce some error to keep in mind) or if I've done some sort of service or changed tires as those might cause changes and it'd be nice to be able to tie it back to some known event.

Can definitely recommend keeping track of fillups, even if you just do the basics (date, odometer, volume, price). Never know when the data'll come in handy and it just takes a few seconds to write down or enter into an app/website.

Mark P

Thanks. yeah, I've pretty much been doing it since I started driving a car consistently (ie sophomore year in college). There's a chance I still have have data somewhere (it was in small spiral note pad) from '95-'99 on an '88 Mazda 323, then the summer of '99 on a '95 Ford Probe. After that, I had an '00 A4 which I captured data here before I started graphing:
Mark's A4 Quattrobonium - Gas & Mileage
And then between the A4 and S4 in the summer of 2001, I had a Saturn SL2 which I captured here, again without graphs:
Gas Mileage Stats

Maybe someday I'll go back and add those 2 cars (and maybe the other 2 if I can find that notebook) to the existing set of graphs.

With the S4, I have a gap in there when I either lost a bunch of receipts or had corrupted spreadsheet, I don't recall. Then I stopped the detailed logging after 100k and only tracked mileage after that. In those days I was driving 140 miles roundtrip to work and got about 280 miles with some to spare on a tank, so I was filling up every other day. It was a bit cumbersome then to keep entering it as often. With the Q5 TDI and a different job/house/state/commute, I am getting ~500 miles/tank and drove it on avg 45 miles/day, so I'd only fill up every 11 days which is much easier to keep up to speed on

I'm an engineer by education and association and have always liked math and numbers. I did consider switching to accounting while in college, but engineering was right for me. In the last 15 years I've enjoyed graphing a lot as you can tell. My job allows me to play with that as well, which is nice. I previously had checked and SPRDSHTZ license plate is available, however I thought it might look like "Spreads *****" and decided against it. I have OILBURNR on one Q5 TDI right now and have 2 new plates on order. I'll post them up when I get them, which is for a separate topic/interest/hobby