So last week I had a thousand miles road trip.

2009 manual base model with 75k and just switched from 5w20 to 0w20 (always mobile1).

for the trip the car reported 43.6mpg. Calculated was almost 42mpg. I was carrying 350#s of supplies and had a 13' kayak on the roof rack. Most of the trip was done with the front windows down.

Considering the kayak and that most of the trip was done at 75mph, I thought this was incredible. The first 200 miles, the car reported 48mpg and I believe that to be close to accurate. The difference was I sat behind a truck at 55mph.

Just had to share.

 

Thanks for sharing. Have you really driven 200 miles at 55 mph behind a truck. That means you were doing it for 4 hours...

 

ya, I certainly did. For 1, it was the first time I have hauled my kayak long distances so I wasn't in a rush and wanted to get comfortable with it. 2nd, I let my insurance company strap a vehicle tracker to my car for a few months in exchange for (hopefully) reduced rates. (90% of the time, I'm stuck in gridlock traffic and not anywhere close to speed limits, figured it wouldn't be a huge inconvenience)

 

Wow, amazing. An insurance company actually wants to track the driver. Hope it's not called NSA FARM or something such thing

I believe your fit achieved that mileage. Mine is the sport model and I've recently gotten 49 mpg according to the meter. Base models have narrower tires and probably more aerodynamic front bumper, enhancing overall efficiency.

Thanks for posting. Any pictures?

 

long story but my interest was piqued on the vehicle monitoring because I use to write GPS monitoring software (to obnoxiously track a national sales force that they were doing and were at the store they said they were at). Yes, it is incredibly invasive and creepy accurate (getting dinged for rolling through stop signs). I also have access the the data that is being reported (subhandedly) and its fun to review and compare with my software.

I use to be heavily involved in solar vehicle racing, so there is a certain amount of me that is really into efficiency/drag-coefficients/weight-reduction. Tail-gating Semi's is the best way of learning efficient driving behaviors, there is little-to-no drafting effect to be gained (2mpg at best and thats off moving trucks with very low beds). I've known for a long time that the weight inside the vehicle has almost negligible impact on economy at steady state speeds, but I was expecting a significant knock for the drag of kayak itself and it also appears to be negligible below 65 (significant knocks above that).

I'm still planning a few aero improvements but having some numbers and variables, I'm not expecting measurable returns; even with reducing rotational weight.

here's a pic of the car with kayak. like I said, its pretty stock base model (+ window visors)



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My understanding of GPS insurance tracking is they don't really care about speed, but they care a lot about deceleration. Especially sudden deceleration. Lotsa sudden decelerations mean you're driving way too fast for conditions and are hopping on the brakes constantly to avoid rear-ending someone or something.

 

Thanks for the picture. The Kayak looks pretty aerodynamic on its own, so that probably helps to explain minimal effect on your gas mileage.
How much these kayaks coast and where do you usually paddle it? I was thinking about getting one.

 

just a random update. I've been sitting between 45 and 46mpg since the change to 0w20, Now I also added a K&N shortram intake and yes, that did boost mileage, rather noticeably. I had 75K on the car when I first posted that and now am at 81k so I have a few miles under my belt and its definitely no longer "butt dyno" speculation.
(once again my driving habits are being logged by 3rd parties so I can guarantee my driving habits are incredibly consistent)

I have a few upgrades coming to the car and I'm going to do my best to space out putting them on so I can give anaylsis of how each change effected/didn't-effect mileage. There will be some fun things most people don't get into like removing the coolant lines that run through the trottlebody, removing EVAP lines, removing EGR. Some throttlebody optimizations I haven't seen anyone do yet. I'll be doing some light work to the intake manifold. Most will/should be pretty negligible but I can't resist myself.

sorry I responded about the kayak a long time ago but it appears my internet was flaky. Good kayaks run about 1200. I was lucky to grab something at the right time when a mfg did a bankruptcy liquidation and grabbed something wildly under market at 400 something. My (now) ex had a lake house so it was a no brainer. paddles are like 50 and you'll spend another hundred on "necessities". You'll want a tow dolly which is another 80 because they are a b*tch to carry especially solo. Then when you no longer have said lakehouse and have to worry about safely transporting it distance, I think simple solutions are like 300 for racks, mine (which caters to solo operation) was 700. And even at that point, there is more to spend. It ended up being much more costly of a hobby than I really budgeted for.

I almost exclusively take it out on forest preserve lakes (rivers pretty much require a group convoy because your departor point is different than your destination point). And I don't do it for the scenery, I do it as a manic paddling workout. Rowing/paddling is the best way of building "beach muscles". I've put on so much bulk and dropped so much bad weight. I'm down to the same belt notch I was in high school for the first time (and I'm 34). Best thing I've ever done. I look back on the fit decision and realize, most of the other cars I probably would have went with wouldn't have allowed me the flexibility of safely transporting something like this.