Edmund's has a Long Term '09 5MT Fit. Their fuel economy has ranged from 24 to 39 with an average of 31. That's a 56% difference in mileage in the same exact car, with the only variables being driving conditions and drivers. There's your answer for why the big discrepancy.

 

You may be kidding but I knew a girl back in HS who drove her VW Bug (the classic bug back in the 1970s) an hour and a half to the beach in third gear the WHOLE way. We're talking 70+ mph highway miles here.

 

As usual, experiences all over the place. The EPA estimates for the Sport AT are pretty close to my experience. In metro Atlanta city traffic in winter, it's hard to stay above 28 mpg, 27 if I get stuck in a lot of traffic. On the highway, 33-35 is reasonable; up to 38-39 in ideal conditions (flat and straight, no wind, no hills, steady speed, no more than 70 mph). MT should do a little better, but keep in mind that the MT is geared much shorter: ~3500 rpms at 70 vs 2500 with the AT, which is much quieter at speed.

 

First off, I'd be very wary of any outstanding MPG reports from people about their mileage, unless you've got the raw data or you took the readings yourself. Most guys inflate every figure they can: appendage size, fish size, income, house size, etc. Why wouldn't you think they'd do the same thing with gas mileage?

That said, I'm going to be as accurate as I can with figures for my '09 Fit Sport Auto (had it over a year). Urban driving (mixed city streets and some freeway): 28 to 29 MPG. Hilly freeway trip driving (based on a 70 mph avg., 350 mile, round-trip route to my house in Flagstaff and back, 6000' elevation difference): 35 mpg. Flat freeway trip driving (Phoenix - Tucson round-trip, 70 mph avg., nearly dead flat): 41 mpg. No hypermiling techniques used other than cruise control. All figures based on manual calculation from trip mileage and fuel consumption, not on that ridiculous MPG meter.

 

This comes up so often, perhaps it's worth sharing the nitty gritty of driving techniques with the Fit- hearing from both AT and MT drivers.

In my experience, driving my A-T Fit took more adjustment for me than any other car I've owned. It took a while for my foot to adjust to the gas pedal. Took a while to learn the gear range. It just took a little time to learn how to get the most out of the Fit in every condition. One thing I learned along the way is that you can easily lug the tranny by being too conservative when accelerating. It's one thing to not jack rabbit when taking off, but particularly in the Fit, it's also not good to go slowly through the lower gears when accelerating either. Their range will be very short and driving too slowly will lug the tranny in my experience- which will eat into fuel economy in a hurry. Better to wind the gears out appropriately at a normal, reasonable acceleration speed. You'll notice you get your best gas mileage when you get to the LAST gear and up to speed- not noodling around trying to drive slowly in lower gears. This attention to driving technique in city/suburb driving helps improve my gas mileage.

My highway driving techinique is pretty simple- keep the gas pedal and consequently your speed, CONSISTANT. I can't believe how many people in my life actually use the gas pedal as though they're driving CITY on the damn HIGHWAY!! Don't press the gas pedal to get to speed, let your foot off of it, and then press it again to get back up to speed. THAT IS NOT MAINTAINING SPEED PROPERLY. Keep CONSISTANT pressue on the gas pedal. Use cruise when you can. My experience has been that even at speeds of 75 mph, as long as you hold that speed consistant and steady, you can get great gas mileage even at that speed.

Generally, I find most of my mileage is directly related to what my damn foot is doing and how it's doing it. Getting better gas mileage does not mean babying the Fit when you drive it. Just drive normally, avoiding extremes, keep consistant foot pressure on the gas, and the car will deliver for you. Of course we know the Fit is a complete pisser to drive [even the automatic], so have some safe fun now and then. That's part of the Fit experience too. But know that you'll dip into fuel economy as payment for the fun. I think we can all agree...it's worth it once in a while!

I also don't haul non essential crap around either. Weight adds up quick. Clean your junk out and and feel how heavy the box is! Lose the junk.

That's my experience as an automatic Fit owner and driver. And that delivers an average of 28-34 mixed, suburb/highway.

Dan

 

I have 10k on my Fit now. I see 31-38 around town, 35-40 on rural 2 lanes, and 25-35 on the interstate. Fit hates high speeds, wind, and possibly cold temperature blowing into the engine compartment.

 

Here's my numbers.


One thing to make sure is that people aren't averaging their AVG mpg's but that they divide the total miles traveled by the total amount of fuel. you can get very different numbers. Driving 100 miles getting 40mpg on one tank and 300 miles getting 30mpg on another tank does not average out to 35mpg for those two tanks (it's 32.5mpg) but many people will run the numbers that way.

My latest numbers are in my sig. and my current average is 37.09mpg.

~SB

 

Amen. Even if you have had the reflash, averaging the mileage meter numbers is meaningless.

 

So if this is true (same actual car; different drivers), then I can accept that it is indeed driver behavior, weather conditions, etc. Thanks for the post, makes sense. This makes me less worried about the possibility of buying a "lemon" fit. It's just when i read many posts here that say such things (that may well be true) as "i drive it like a crazy person - jackrabbit starts and stops - and i still can't get less than 37.xx mpg," and ... "i drive it as easy as i can and have never done better than 34mpg..." it makes me think that there are two models for sale, but that we don't know which one we're getting. But again, thanks for this info about the Edmunds.com test fit. it puts it in a better perspective for me....

 

Yes, Dan...Exactly! I totally agree with you. That's why cruise control is not nearly as good as foot control (in areas that are not totally flat). maintaining speed is not the same as maintaining the amount of gas being used... Excellent, excellent post! couldn't agree more. I want the Fit! I want the sport auto in either grey or tidewater. with knobby-ass tires, maybe even paddle tires for the dunes (j/k about the tires - haha)

 

Having bought my Fit during Cash for Clunkers and enjoying the driving experience, looking back now I would have spent a couple thousand more bucks for a Civic.

I'm not completely impressed with the mileage, especially this winter. (In case you did not know, if you click on the Fuelly banner at the bottom of a post, it will take you to the owners figures).

It did well the first few weeks that I had some highway travel in the mix (33 to 37 MPG). The next couple months it was in the 26 to 28 range with mostly city driving, but when the outside temperature really dropped the figures dipped to the 20 to 22 range. There were even a couple of no ethanol fill-ups in there that proved no significant difference.

I drive very conservatively, 99% of the time by myself with no cargo. Having read some of the other threads as to how other drivers oil change meters are reading, I think mine shows the amount of city driving I do..........at 3300 miles it is down to 20%. Am I thinking right that is really a fast drop in the oil indicator? I thought I read posts where others were dropping by 10% every 800 to 1000 miles and people had concerns that was way too long to wait. Perhaps I was expecting too much of the car.

Anyhow, for the little mileage difference there would have been, I would have looked at the Civic more, getting a little larger and more comfortable car. Yes, it's right at the EPA city average overall after 10 fills, but these winter figures are depressing me.

 

well, if a four door hatchback/wagon version of the civic was available here in the US, i wouldn't be looking at the Fit. There's no reason why they can't put the magic seats in a four door hatch back civic. that would be perfect for me but there isn't. yet. i know there is in europe, though.

 

Just chiming in here although I have a 2008/GD3:

Before I was boosted, my personal best for MPG in my A/T GD3 was 31 mpg. That was 90% highway from LA to San Diego and back. This was also using a Scangauge2 for meticulous review of throttle position, instantaneous MPG, etc.

My average MPG for 50/50 city highway was 26-28 mpg, 28 being if I absolutely featherfooted it as well as I could.

There's something definitely wrong with the A/T transmissions in these Fits, apparently even in the 2009 L15 motor.

Currently I get 22-23mpg supercharged, 23 if I'm making sure to use boost as little as possible. Other people who live around where I do get 30+ mpg easily. My friend hits 300 miles per tank easily - My average before boosting was 250-260 with meticulous scanguage2 usage. I'm pissed off that my Fit gets and got such low mileage, and to this day I haven't found a cause for it. As a last resort I've just bought a new O2/AFratio sensor for $160 and will be testing to see if there is an improvement.

 

no. as i said, i *actually* know my friend.
so, the "easiest explanation" is, unfortunately, not correct. understandable, but nonetheless, incorrect. He knew how to drive for high mpg. and was super bummed with the results. and his averages on his accord, again, are the same as his old 08 fit. I think some of it may have had to do with the idle learn procedure. I was not aware of that until i found this awesome site. He was not aware of it either. It could be that the fit needed that to be done to it. but now we'll never know...

 

EPA on an 09 Accord 2.4 5spd manual is 22/31/25. The highest of all the Accords that year.

What did he buy? This doesn't seem like it.

 

I would have liked to see a Civic hatch myself but the Fit is a different car…taller (therefor more head room and cargo capacity), shorter in length, crisper handling and different (better, IMO) driving dynamics. So it's not necessarily a given that if they offered a Civic hatch with magic seats I'd be on board for it. It would be interesting to compare test drives though.

 

Probably would have considered the Civic hatches offered outside of the US were they available here.

In any case, I agree with the previous posters. Urban, stoplights every city block, freezing temps, I get in the high 20s. Mixed suburban driving, 33-34 mpg. 75 mph interstate, 36-37 mpg. Steady 55-60 mp, flat two-lane road, 40+. Driving style and conditions vary. Still better than EPA estimates.

 

I am on my 3rd tank of gas, and getting pretty cruddy mileage on my 2010 fit base automatic. These are my calculated numbers. The MPG indicator seems to read about .75 mpg higher than my calculated mpg.

first tank: 29.7
second tank: 27.5
third tank: 26.5

My commute is unfortunately a total of 5 miles, with a hill thrown in, and only about 1.5 miles of it is coasting on the freeway.

 

shift into neutral for the back side of that hill in your commute, and you should see a noticeable difference in your mpg. you might be able to coast the rest of the way to work. ? try it. but it would be nice to not have to do such stunts in order to reap the supposed mpg of these little nimble Fits! See, this is why i wonder about if it has something to do with what factory it was assembled in, or do some of them lack a proper programming code....

 

Yeah, this must be the same kind of Fit that my friend had. He also had the 08 auto sport... all i can say is that i'd really be disappointed if that's all i could get out of it as far mpg goes. What was your driving style like?