When you check a car's fuel economy you get one number. The EPA database doesn't work that way — it rates every powertrain variant separately, and a single model year can carry a lot of them.
| Model year | Versions | MPG range |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Honda Civic 4Dr | 4 | 31 – 49 |
| 2019 Jaguar XE AWD | 4 | 18 – 34 |
| 2016 Audi A8 L | 4 | 16 – 28 |
| 2024 Honda Civic 5Dr | 7 | 24 – 35 |
31 to 49 on the same badge
The 2025 Civic sedan is rated four ways. The hybrid returns 49 mpg combined; the base petrol engine returns 31. That's a 58% difference between two cars that look nearly identical parked next to each other and carry the same name in the listing.
Over 12,000 miles a year at $3.50 a gallon, that gap is about $500 annually. Over five years of ownership, $2,500 — on a decision most buyers make without knowing there was a decision.
How common is this?
Among model years since 2010, 3,046 carry two separate EPA ratings, 685 carry three, and 355 carry four or more. A handful reach thirteen.
Roughly a third of recent model years have more than one rating. So a third of the time, looking up "2019 [model] mpg" gives you a number that may not describe the car in front of you.
Where the variants come from
Engine choice. The obvious one — four-cylinder against six, turbo against naturally aspirated, hybrid against petrol.
Drivetrain. Front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive versions of the same car are rated separately and usually differ by 2–4 mpg.
Transmission. Manual and automatic versions get separate ratings, and they don't always favour the manual.
Body variant. The Civic 4-door and 5-door are rated as different vehicles entirely.
How to get the right number
The trim name in the listing isn't enough. Trim levels and engines don't map cleanly — the same trim can be offered with two powertrains, and sellers frequently list the wrong one in good faith.
The window sticker has the original figure. It's specific to the exact vehicle as built, which is why it's worth pulling — we covered how in getting the original window sticker by VIN.
The VIN encodes the engine. Positions four through eight of a VIN identify the powertrain the car left the factory with. That's the authoritative answer, and it doesn't depend on anyone remembering correctly. A VIN check decodes it in seconds.
Check before you buy, not after. On a five-year ownership the difference between the top and bottom variant of one model can exceed $2,500 in fuel, which is real money on a car you chose for its economy. We looked at how the headline figures moved over time in fuel economy went nowhere for five years.
Frequently asked questions
Why do two cars of the same model have different MPG?
The EPA rates each powertrain variant separately. Engine choice, drivetrain, transmission and body style all produce separate ratings — the 2025 Honda Civic 4-door spans 31 to 49 mpg across four versions.
How many versions can one model year have?
Among model years since 2010, 3,046 have two EPA ratings, 685 have three and 355 have four or more, with a handful reaching thirteen. Roughly a third of recent model years carry more than one figure.
How do I find the exact MPG for a specific car?
The VIN encodes the engine the vehicle was built with in positions four through eight, so decoding it gives the authoritative answer. The original window sticker also carries the figure for that exact vehicle.
How much does the MPG difference cost?
On the 2025 Civic's 31-to-49 spread, about $500 a year at 12,000 miles and $3.50 a gallon — roughly $2,500 across five years of ownership, on two cars that carry the same name in a listing.
Denis Kataev is a serial solopreneur and the founder of ForCar. With 15+ years in software engineering and 10 years in SEO, he builds data-driven products end to end — backed by a sharp eye for design. At ForCar he mines proprietary vehicle datasets, turning raw numbers into buying advice you can actually trust.
Keep reading
All articles →
Each Pair of Cylinders Adds About $900 a Year to Your Fuel Bill
Cylinder count is the one specification everyone understands and nobody prices. I ran the EPA fuel cost estimates against it, and the increments are steadier than you'd expect.
The Most Expensive Hail Insurance in America Is in the Cheapest Insurance States
South Dakota has some of the cheapest car insurance in the country and the most expensive comprehensive cover. Both facts have the same cause, and it falls out of the sky.
Montana's Used Lots Are 19% Diesel. Washington DC's Are 1.4%.
Diesel is supposed to be finished in America. It is in some places and thriving in others, and the split maps almost perfectly onto what people use their vehicles for.