New to the forums,

My dad has a 2002 Ford Explorer 4WD with a 6 cyl, 4 L, Automatic 5-spd, Regular engine.

I'm interested in buying a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe 1500 4WD with a 8 cyl, 5.3 L, Automatic 4-spd, Regular engine.

According to Fueleconomy.gov, the Explorer gets 13 city mpg and 18 highway mpg and the Tahoe gets 13 city mpg and 16 highway mpg. I'm basing all this information off the government website. My dad is convinced that there is no possible way the Tahoe gets that much gas mileage with a v8 engine while his Explorer gets barely even more then that with a v6 engine and he averages about 15mpg combined city and highway. I'm curious to see what other Tahoe owners average so I can get an idea of how much ill be spending on gas. Or if someone can explain to me why the car gets almost the same gas mileage as an explorer when its so much larger?

 

there are MANY factors when it comes to MPG...

the Gov't tests are mostly for show, asking owners is where you get real numbers.

My 5.7L 150HP 4 speed 1995 Tahoe would at BEST, and babying it get 13 MPG...

My 5.3L 320 HP 6 speed 09 Tahoe averages 17.7 MPG with 2x more HP and 2x the size, as my '95 was a 2 door...

I'm sure someone here with a '02 Tahoe could get you real world MPGs.

I also thought the '02 was a 5.4L?

 

SabrToothSqr is pretty much correct, thou uncle Sam is getting the auto manufactures to put more real world MPG ratings on vehicles now.
And every situation is going to be different, take into account:

your driving habits
rear gear ratio
tire size and width, more rubber on the road is more friction less MPG

my 2007 with 5.3L and the 3.42 rear end, driving about 18 miles one way back and forth to work, I get about 16-17mpg and have gotten as high as about 21 on the highway, but it takes a lot of driving skills.

Staying off your brakes will get you max MPG, that means predicting your environment, costing, surge acceleration, letting your speed drop up a hill, keeping a larger space between you and the car in front of you in traffic which will most likely be filled by some ***...

 

Yeah, I remember the old safety rule to leave one car length for each 10 mph you were going. I tried it and sure enuf each space filled up w/ a car.