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The only time your lie-o-meter will be off is when you don't drive exactly as the programming assumes that you'll drive. That's where the error really lies, we don't have all the assumptions necessarily built into our driving habits, which is why the differences vary not so much from vehicle to vehicle, but from driver to driver. Exactly how robust the vehicle's programming is will influence this issue to some degree.
Mine is usually 1.0 to 1.5 mpg high against hand-calc'd. I reset it whenever the urge hits. On a long trip, I'll set cruise at just shy of 2000 rpm and reset. Lie-o-meter will read 20+ until I have to hit the throttle, makes me feel better!.. Reality is about 15mpg hwy/city mixed.
My '03 Excursion is the one that has the lie-o-meter, my truck does not. The only part of the lie-o-meter I even glance at is the compass direction when traveling in new or unknown territory. I am **** about my hand calcs, and don't even compare the two on my vehicle. I guess I should just to get a feel for what kind of difference I see with my Ex. (Uh-oh.... I can see another column being created in my spreadsheet now - titled LOM).
Mine tells me I'm getting about 1.5 mpg or so less than when I hand calculate.....for example, the meter tells me I almost always am getting like 13.7 mpg, when the last hand-calculation I did was 15.26.
Ive noticed with many short trips and "cold starts" when the engines been sitting a long time and take a couple minutes to get into "closed loop" it will guzzle gas and read very low on the lie-o-meter. 03 X V10