Your mileage may vary
Your mileage may vary is a truism, frequently abbreviated in e-mails and newsgroup postings as
YMMV:
- It may work differently in your situation.
- It may work differently on your computer.
- This is just my opinion/taste, your opinion/taste may be different. "It's a very popular name. For that reason alone I wouldn't choose it. It's 'trendy'. YMMV, of course."
The origin of the phrase dates from the early 1970s when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to rate passenger automobiles on their fuel economy. The first ratings were based on measurements of tailpipe emissions in laboratories, not on road testing, and consumers often observed significant differences between the EPA mileage figures and their actual experience. Automakers whose products had favorable EPA numbers bragged of them in their television commercials, but an announcer would usually disclaim, "Your mileage may vary," perhaps so that the automakers could avoid possible claims of false advertising.
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