LOW MPG thread

[roenyc]

just think those of us with poor mpgs should post in a single thread so we can compare a few things. like below:

agerage : 20 mpg
location: nyc (staten island) stop and go traffic.
car type: base automatic
gas used: costco/hess


if you can think about anything else we could match up would be great. my dealer says nothing is wrong. but this is nuts. going back this AM.

maybe a sticky thread?

[trowpa]

Good idea... just hope the mods are ok with muliple mpg threads. If so, I hope we can also start a "high mpg" thread. Good to see what everyone has in common on both extremes - might give us a clue.....

[4dr4life!]

Maybe a seperate MPG for Manual & Auto, so there won't be mix MPG & confussion...

But yeah my worst MPG was 24 Auto Sports...

[Dojo]

Guys,
I think this is a good idea. We have some members that rave about mileage and others that happen to get low mileage.

Maybe if members identify where they are located, transmission and their normal type of driving we can see a pattern that may be causing the good and bad results.

D

[VelociRacer]

Also mention whether you've done the idle learn procedure or not.

[Wave]

Originally Posted by VelociRacer

Also mention whether you've done the idle learn procedure or not.

Idle learn procedure? Whats that?

Lot's of things affect gas efficency:

- Please mention the PSI in your tires
- any engine mods or aftermarket tires/wheels?
- brief description of your driving style
- AC on/off?
- just you in the car or loaded with cargo too?

[jits14]

In Milwaukee with Base M/T-fujita intake and 16x7 wheels, lower psi up front and 32 in back, a/c never, and lots of highway with spirited/aggressive driving...and 33-35mpg all day

[DewaltDakota]

I would also state whether or not your gas contains ethanol, and the percentage of ethanol in the gas.

[sLiVeRwOrM]

I use 87mix.

Wheels: 17inch Falkens 7wide
Style : Curise about 5mph above limits avg 70mph
Tramsission : MT
Curise Control : ON
Average : 30mpg

[MizMamie]

Good idea, Roenyc! Here are my stats:

Average: 25 mpg
Location: Lower Westchester/NYC, all city driving
Car type: base automatic
Gas: Mobil regular

I got my car in late May and have always had the A/C on when driving. Occasionally there has been 1 other adult passenger in the car. The most cargo has been about 6 bags of groceries.

[milano sol]

Best: 41mpg (Road trip from LA to Vegas)
Worst: 26mpg (First Tank)
Average: 32mpg Stop/Go to and from work
Car: Sports Auto
Gas: Chevron ONLY have yet to use anythign else (kept my miatas and del Sol running strong with great mpg)
Load: 2 adults
PSI: 34 F/R

car is completely stock with about 3,010 miles on it.....over time i have noticed it improve overall in terms of mpg and throttle response. up until now i ran the AC on about 80% of the time. so maybe the AC off might show better mpg.

[trowpa]

perhaps we should define "Low MPG" (some of the posts above are mentioning 30-something mpg averages, which I consider pretty middle of the road).

IMO -
"unusually low mileage" = less than 30 mpg average
"typical" = 31-36 average
"unusually high mileage" = greater than 37 mpg average

Just my impressions after reading through everyone's experiences....

[tershel]

Mine is the LX model, automatic.
i use to get 450kms on a full tank
since i put on 205/40/17 wheels...i get 365kms on full tank.
mix of city and hwy driving and no passengers ...im out in in vancouver, B.C. so weather is fairly cool for most of the time.
also can someone post my actual mpg with the numbers i posted.(everything up here in canada is kms...sorry)

[dacalac]

People should only post in this thread if they are getting sub 30mpg ratings or have something technical to contribute. I can already see the thread being infested with people saying "ZOMG I'm the same way and I get 2408956mpg!!!"

So lets try to keep the thread useful. =)

[crimsona]

Originally Posted by tershel

Mine is the LX model, automatic.
i use to get 450kms on a full tank
since i put on 205/40/17 wheels...i get 365kms on full tank.
mix of city and hwy driving and no passengers ...im out in in vancouver, B.C. so weather is fairly cool for most of the time.
also can someone post my actual mpg with the numbers i posted.(everything up here in canada is kms...sorry)

How many liters are you filling up? Just looking at the needle doesn't work - after the halfway mark (empty side), it's horribly inaccurate. In any case, you didn't say at what point you fueled up. Even when the low light indicator comes on , you still have 6.3 litres to play with. As such, I won't bother trying to calculate your mileage.

But how to: Take the km travelled, then divide it by the # of litres you filled up.

My last tank up to Whistler (and around 80km in town) was 377 km. I filled up 30.7 l, giving me 12.2 km/L

Using http://www.1728.com/convmlge.htm because I'm lazy, it works out to 28.8 MPG (US Gallons)

[Kalash]

I dunno... I think I might just barely be squeezing my way out of this thread....

Copy pasting from http://fueleconomy.gov ....(actually... saving the graph and uploading it... it's prettier than the long vertical string of text...)



Once I hit 5000 miles - on a LONG trip (up a mountain... with camping gear, and another person in the car... through a few river beds....) I finally broke the 30mpg mark.

I'm still going with the theory that Fit's are sporty little outdoors types that just want to get out of the city (even if it means climbing a mountain and getting a little dirty...)

Most of my driving is freeway drivng - or freeway speed driving anyway...
And I'd had only freeway tanks before that one that were at 26mpg or lower...


The ABSOLUTE worst tank (23.24mpg) I've had was when I filled up with Shell Premium. I've only had 3 tanks under 24 MPG.
The best tanks have been generic off brand gas (Arco, or that one down the street... it's Freedom or something...) using regular. (top one being 32.24 two fill ups ago... last one was 30.41)

Tires are at 36 all the way around...
Sport AT - been driving more in S and less in D - using the paddle shifters, and have been accelerating faster than I was before (I quit babying the car...) and have gotten about a 5 mpg improvement since starting to do this.
It could be the hills down here (it doesn't like shifting to a gear and staying there... doing this makes it...) but other than that I don't have an explination for why driving harder is getting me better gas mileage.

And... I'm still looking for a cheap MPG calculator that'll plug into the OBD2 port and show me what I'm getting at the moment...

[Kalash]

You know... I don't like that graph...

I put the first 10 fill ups at once... and they get the first dot...
The next 3 or 4 dots were 4-5 fill ups each... only the last 5 dots were only 1 fill up...

My over all average is 26.78MPG

[Fray Adjacent]

Yes y'all, please post the information requested IF and only IF you're getting sub 30mpg averages.

maybe we can come up with a database to take to Honda with specific Fits that are not getting close to EPA estimated fuel economy numbers.

Heck, if any one local with an AT was getting poor mileage (after I get my MT Fit), I'd offer to swap cars with them for a week or two to see how our economy compares with the only difference being the transmission. It just appears to me here that most of you guys getting poor economy have the AT.

[roenyc]

I agreee heck i was thinking that.

i drive with kids. a car seat with baby and 3 skinny boys. not all the time but a good amount of the time

i drive stop and go. and some highway

just filled up - my last tank 23 mpg. did two days highway. wow!! best yet.

my dealer doesnt want to deal with this issue but when i told him i was ready to trade this car in for a hummer he said he would test drive or milage drive it? when they paint the hood next week.

not what i signed up for.

[kkim]

Originally Posted by Wave

Idle learn procedure? Whats that?

ECM/PCM Idle Learn Procedure