US mile V's UK mile?

[Magooligum]

Not sure if this the right place to ask but.....

I was playing with my Passat's MDF the other day and notice that it could track the distance the car has travelled in Kilometers, or either UK or US miles.

Can anyone tell me the difference between between a UK and a US mile? I thought a mile was equal to 1.609344Km weather you were in the UK or the US?

does anyone know what the story is?

[Rocket36]

http://tinyurl.com/28r72ly

[Magooligum]

Thanks Rocket36, Google's a great thing hey?

Although that does not answer my question.

I've done some further research since my posting and thought my results may be of interest to others.

[Pana]

the graph explains why in the UK cars always seem to have quite good average consumption figures....

[Highlander]

Thanks Rocket36, Google's a great thing hey?

Although that does not answer my question.

I've done some further research since my posting and thought my results may be of interest to others.

Distances are the same.

Mile is 1760 yards wherever you are.

US Quarter mile is 440 yards so its the same mile there as in US and we still have quarter mile drag races in Australia and not 400 metres as far as I know even though we have had metric measurement officially since 1974.

Difference is that the US gallon is less than the UK or Imperial gallon

So US/UK setting may have something to do with how the computer calculates fuel consumption using US gallons and not UK gallons

[passatpout]

Ah yes, I loved it in the UK, where economy is quoted in mpg, but fuel is sold in litres...

[Magooligum]

Ah yes, I loved it in the UK, where economy is quoted in mpg, but fuel is sold in litres...

The other interesting thing they do in the UK seemingly without realising it, is changing from listing weather temperatures as Fahrenheit when above about 45F and then they swap to Celcius when the teperature goes below this point, maybe single figures in Celcius sell more newspapers?.....weird.

[passatpout]

The other interesting thing they do in the UK seemingly without realising it, is changing from listing weather temperatures as Fahrenheit when above about 45F and then they swap to Celcius when the teperature goes below this point, maybe single figures in Celcius sell more newspapers?.....weird.

Not that I ever noticed, although my standard comment to people whenever travelling to/from UK/Australia was that the temperature had gone from 30 degrees to 30 degrees.. just Fahrenheit to Celsius (or vice versa, depending on the direction I travelled).

Anyhow, a US gallon is about 3.785l or 231 cubic inches, and a UK gallon is about 4.546l or 277 cubic inches. Goes back a couple of hundred years, when there was an ale gallon and a wine gallon, and the US went one way and the UK went the other.