Whats with these low fuel mileage reports

[Doc Holliday]

I don't buy it one bit that some people are getting 25mpg and less in these little cars. These folks have got to be incredible lead foots or miscalculating their mpg.

[LizardKing]

I don't have a lead foot (anymore), and I am calculating my mileage correctly: I take the number of miles on the tripodometer and divide by the nnumber of gallons I just filled up with, then I reset the trip. I'm getting 23-26 mpg, about 190-210 miles per tank.

My commute isn't very conducive to high MPG unless I had a hybrid. I go through 34 traffic lights on a 10 mile commute which takes 40 minutes. Even doing just 20 miles on the highway will raise my mpg to the 26-27 end. Using the air conditioner drops me to the 23 end.

[Doc Holliday]

Still not buying it, I got 40 mpg on my first tank of gas with probably about 40% in-town driving. I'd like to drive your car for a week just to see, maybe seeing is believing but still just don't buy it now.

[LizardKing]

My complete mileage log (excluding the last tank of 206.3 mi in 8.656 gal, or 23.83 mpg) can be found at http://www.geocities.com/halpernmichael/FitMPG.xls

[jtallen123]

First tank of gas for me with 90% city driving I got 27 mpg, 240 miles on 9 gallons of gas. Although there were several times with it on and just sitting there and an hour lesson for my wife on how to use a clutch.

[Doc Holliday]

So how do you explain why i got 40mpg with combined driving? You only got 3 gears?

[pgreene]

Here is a record of all of my fillups since I've owned my car (Sport AT):



Believe what you want. City driving KILLS my car. It's a little better when I use S mode to shift myself, but it's still pretty bad. I usually do 75-85 on the interstate, so I'm happy as far as the highway mileage goes, but the city mileage is terrible.

[Gil554]

Many of the poor mileage reports seem to come from City driving an AT.

[Doc Holliday]

Originally Posted by Gil554

Many of the poor mileage reports seem to come from City driving an AT.

Well I guess if its stop and go NYC type driving then nobody should be complaining with 25mpg.

[pgreene]

Originally Posted by Doc Holliday

Well I guess if its stop and go NYC type driving then nobody should be complaining with 25mpg.

Mine is more small-scale college town city driving. It's bad, but not nearly as bad as NYC driving. I've had my city mileage be as low as 16MPG, but I think that was probably due to me not filling up enough or something as that tank was just ridiculous. I usually average around 22MPG city and around 32 - 33 on the highway.

[gloryhound]

im one of those low mileage avergers

i do 95% city driving with a stoplight every couple hundred feet and traveling about 7 miles to work. im on my 3rd tank and average around 25 mpg (mixed conditions ~ zero my trip odometer and divide that number by gallons filled).

*its los angeles which uses ethanol blend and i weigh 270 the car is a manual fit sport. at first i was bitching then i realized im essentially driving 2 people through stop and go traffic while learning how to drive stick... so my foot is lead.

what do you guys think?

[arsonall]

i have a scangauge and i've definately noticed that any type of low speed driving (pretty much not in 5th gear) yields low MPG numbers. i get 8 MPG while accelerating while staying under 2500 RPMs, if i dont get to crusing speed, my MPG never gets above 25 MPG. traffic on So Cal freeways where you are rarely able to stay in cruise control (or a sustainable MPH) yeilds <30MPG on my car.

every tank my MPG has improved, i'm now at 30.2ish

[Doc Holliday]

I think all you guys should just buy Suburbans

[NMG]

Definitely bizarre. Granted I've only used two tanks thusfar, but I'm averaging 35 MPG with roughly a 50/50 mix of city and highway driving. The city driving is not crazy stop and go, but it's still lots of traffic lights, speeding up, stopping, merging, lots of time in 3rd, etc.

Is there any chance that the people with bad mileage are consistently getting really crappy fuel?

[WickedWeasel]

From my experience, most honda's get better and better gas mileage as the motor breaks in. I think the mpg will be at its peak or peaking around 10,000 miles.

[scottjef]

There are many factors to be considered, not the least of which is that just about every state has its own laws concerning what "gasoline" consists of - different mixtures, additives, etc. This means that the same car driven by the same driver the same way will get different mileage based on what formula gasoline is used.

Just from a casual observation (non-scientific, based on posts I've read on the forums), NC seems to have a higher-than-average mileage formula for gas, NJ seems to have a lower-than-average formula.

I weigh 300 lbs (I'm 6'-6" tall) and get ~30 mpg from mixed city/hwy driving. On my last tank I drove 85 miles pure highway and my mileage went up to 32. I generally get just under 300 miles/tankful and it takes right at (or just under) 9 gallons to fill it when the light has been on for about 15 miles. [Edit] A/C is on all the time.

TW Sport AT

[JessW1982]

Originally Posted by Doc Holliday

I don't buy it one bit that some people are getting 25mpg and less in these little cars. These folks have got to be incredible lead foots or miscalculating their mpg.

Psssh.

If you're driving in a big city with lots of traffic, stoplights every few 100 feet, and have even a bit of a lead foot, it's believable.

I've gotten everywhere from the low 20s to the mid 30s in MPG after having my Fit for over a year. I average probably in the upper 20s (27 to 29, I'd reckon. I stopped keeping track after I realized that it doesn't really matter, lol). I could probably get in the upper 30s if I was more of a conservative driver, but I'm only going to be so conservative, lol. Plus I drive in traffic that makes higher MPG impossible most of the time. Unless I stagger my commute to beat traffic, which I do sometimes (and get higher MPG, lol), I'll still have numbers on the low end of the scale.

Not everyone drives the same way or has the same commute. Just because you don't buy it doesn't make it untrue.

I know my mileage would be worse in a larger car, so I'm good.

[djk949]

I'm In Houston With The A/c Temp At 10 O'clock And Fan Speed On 1. I Have A Sport A/t. I Drive 10 Miles Each Way To Work, 2 Of Which Is Highway. My Fuel Light Consistently Comes On After I've Used 9.8 Gallons. My Trip Odo Reads Consistently 263 Miles. So, I Average 26.8 Mpg - I Can't Complain!

[gloryhound]

Originally Posted by gloryhound

im one of those low mileage avergers

i do 95% city driving with a stoplight every couple hundred feet and traveling about 7 miles to work. im on my 3rd tank and average around 25 mpg (mixed conditions ~ zero my trip odometer and divide that number by gallons filled).

*its los angeles which uses ethanol blend and i weigh 270 the car is a manual fit sport. at first i was bitching then i realized im essentially driving 2 people through stop and go traffic while learning how to drive stick... so my foot is lead.

what do you guys think?

btw i would also like to add that i have had the a/c on 2 consistently (due to the warm front that has swept through the last few weeks

[LizardKing]

I too am using both an ethanol blend ("up to 10%", I can't find any gas without it around here) and the air conditioner a lot (it's been in the upper 80s to upper 90s for the past several weeks). I know both will limit my mileage.