Don't worry, fitloose. Whenever the engine is not warmed up, it's quite a gas guzzler! I can speak from experience. For a year or so, I only drove from home to the train station about 5-10 minutes from home and during winter days, it wasn't surprising to do about 10-11 L/100km. After the engine warms up, it goes down to about 7, again in winter. And during warm times of the year, it is possible to dip in 5's L/100km. So again, don't worry too much at first and let the car break in. Hope your fuel mileage settles down to a level you're comfortable with!

 

Interesting to hear your mileage experience. I've had my 2013 Fit with a MT for just over a week and roughly 530 miles. My first tank was an outstanding 37.7 MPG. This is 90% two-lane roads between 40 and 60 MPH, a few stoplights, and my commute is 14 miles each way.

I'd say it's your commute that's killing the mileage. We have a Toyota Sienna as a company vehicle at my work we use for trips between our off-site office and the main campus (about 2 miles each way). We're lucky to get over 250 miles out of a tank.

Hope it picks up for you after a few tanks.

 

I hear what many of you are saying about driving habits, and the futility of expecting decent mileage in rush-hour urban driving, and the car not being "broken-in" yet, and it all sounds like wise advice.

However, there are a couple of caveats,

First: Imperial gallons are larger (+20%?) than US liquid gallons. That indicates that my mileage is actually even worse than the 21-24 MPG might imply. Converted to US gallons that would be roughly 18-20 mpg! Like I said- abysmal (I used to drive a 2002 Dodge Caravan V6 and get around 15-16 city mpg; so not a terribly significant improvement for a much lighter 4-banger).

Second: it's pretty difficult to keep up with traffic without putting the ol' right foot *somewhat* into the gas. It's unsafe (like when people tailgate because you're a little too light on the pedal) and, ultimately, unsatisfying. Hard to enjoy the sportiness of this little car with that gauge glaring at you!

Changing my daily route is pretty much impossible as I have family to drop off at their jobs before going on to mine.

"...I suspect if you take your car back to the dealer, they are going to look like deer in the headlight..."

Indeed! Probably legally not a damn thing I can really do about it at this point but causing them some agro might be very therapeutic for me!

All in all, except for the (very) disappointing mileage, this is one sweet little econobox, one that's actually quite fun to drive. Actually more fun than any other car I've owned. At least to this point; maybe I'll rue the day I bought it if/when it starts to fall apart in a few years.

Thanks for all the insight and perspective; it really helps.

Cheers.

 

OP, keep in mind that whenever the front defroster is on, the AC compressor is on. It may not be possible to avoid use of the defroster where you are but when not needed, turn it off or use a non-defroster mode. That may help a little.

 

squeeze that lemon!!

 

just the nature of the beast. small engine and 5 speed transmission do make it hard to get good mpg's unless you really try. my NSX got similar mpg's.

 

No, 11.1L/100km is 21.2mp(us)g. do the math or let google do it for you. Still pretty bad, but not in the gutter.

Reset the trip odometer (this resets the avg fuel consumption too) and report back after a couple tanks.

 

All your calculations are off.

7.1 l/100 km = 33 US MPG.
CalculateMe.com - Convert Liters Per 100 Kilometers to Miles Per Gallon (US)

 

Remember that metric and imperial scales are opposite! With MPGs, the higher the number, the better the fuel efficiency but with liters per 100km, you are measuring the fuel consumption over a set distance so the lower the number, the better! It's confusing!

I get about 10L/100km (about 20 Mpg city) but I'm trying to change my driving style to granny to see if I can improve it. I'm about to sell my Fit and buy a Subie. If I'm gonna be using all this gas, might as well get AWD!

 

Speaking as a fellow prairie dweller, the mileage isn't great in the city. Even on our flat roads in our flat towns. I really babied the hell out of it, and got 9.4l/100km once. That got boring so I went back to beating it like a rented, redheaded mule. I've never been one to care about gas mileage, I just wanted to have some fun with my cars. The Fit being almost infinitely practical helps, too.

Some things that have been mentioned, but really do help:

1) Not idling the car. If you're anywhere near the temps we're getting up here lately, this is impossible. But try to limit how long the car idles for.
2) Turning off the heated mirrors/rear window defroster when you've sufficiently cleared both of ice and snow. This option uses a lot of fuel. It will also kill the battery in under 10 minutes if you forget to turn it off or if someone turns it on without you noticing while the engine isn't running.
3) Turning down the heat/blower once the windshield is clear of ice and snow. I usually keep mine on the second blower setting on defog and footwell once I'm going. These cars like to fog up with the blower off.
4) Use the block heater even in minor cold. Letting the engine warm up faster means the fluids are going to be at their optimal temperature sooner. Cold oils are more viscous and just make your engine and transmission work harder. Cold shifts from the 5AT are really harsh, too.

Hope these things help you out.

 

Over 4 + yrs my use is 7.8l/100km. It varys a bit but for most part this is what I get tank in and out. A mix of city/hwy.

But just last Sat I used a whole tank. 95% hwy at 100 - 115kph for a lot of it on cruise. I got 44 mpg or 6.4l/100km.

In the city i like to drive my auto in 3rd gear a lot or at least downshift for those fun ramps -). While it hurts mileage it is fun. Gas still cheaper than all those Timmy's you idle in line for.

 

Except there's no about, about it.

10L/100KM = 23.52 mpg (us)
10L/100KM = 28.24 mpg (imp)

 

44mpg (imperial) sure. 36.7 mpg (us). Helps to clarify units.

 

OK, here's some stuff I've figured out over the last few days.

We've driven this '13 Fit automatic for about a week and a half while the weather has got steadily colder (now down to daytime highs of around -7C) in rush-hour, bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Latest average is 12.1L/100km, which, using the formula "mi./gal.=282.48 divided by L/100 km" (found on a Canadian Federal Government website) means we're getting around 23.5 mpg (imperial gallon).

So that would be roughly 23.5 x .83 (1 imperial gallon = 1.2 U.S. gallons) = 19 to 20 mpg US!

Not terrific, but at least that easily beats the 14 x .83 = 11.5 mpg US I was getting with the Caravan!

That means I am getting close to twice the mileage, so relatively speaking, I'm ahead. I just wish it was closer to what a lot of you guys get.

Anyway, I just did my first fill-up last Wednesday (not quite empty- don't like to run it completely dry because I don't want condensation getting into my fuel line/pump). It was around $36 instead of the near $80 the van would have cost for about the same period of time. I'm okay with that for now.

 

Car is plugged in even though it's not really all that cold yet.

Idle after initial cold start for only maybe a minute; just enough time to adjust mirrors, seatbelts, etc.

Haven't really had to use the defrost equipment up to now: park in a garage overnight.

Definitely have noticed the fogging tendency when cold, and the abrupt tranny shifts first thing though.

One thing more: we tend to have the car stuffed with 3 adults for part of the daily commute and then with 2 more (grandkids from school/daycare) for the last few minutes. So do you think this extra ~500 lbs of payload might be affecting my mileage?

 

All this poor mileage is nonsense. You have been talking about what the dash shows for the first part tank. Keep track of how much you put in for say 3-4 tanks and how from you drove over those 3 -4 tanks then calculate. You will find you will get low to high 7L/100kms

Mileage will go down a bit with a car full of people and now we are likely on winter gas which lowers mileage a bit.

 

With more people in the car will increase weight, it definitely increases gas consumption. When your car fogs up (in cold weather + more people in car), chances are that you leave the dial to blow air to partially defrost/foot area or full defrost mode. You may or may not know, those two settings cause the compressor (air conditioning) to turn on without any indication. That also uses more fuel. With snow on the ground = slower traffic, more waiting at the lights = more fuel again. Every little bit counts.

 

Hmm. Well, yes I knew about the A/C kicking in on defog and that the most accurate way of calculating mileage is measuring fill up to fill up divided by trip, but I've only just done my first tankfull and will have to wait 'till the next one to get that kind of data.

In the meantime I truly doubt that the Fit running mileage gauge is THAT inaccurate; it would have to be out by a big percentage to account for the discrepancies I'm kvetching about here.

Anyway, time will tell.

Thanks for the tips and insights. Apart from the mileage thing, this car is the funnest car I've driven (well, maybe apart from my '77 Jeep)!

 

Again, it's a week old! The engine is STILL breaking in. And with the shortness and type of commute you have, it would be well advised to take in on a decent highway run every so often especially during the break in period. That alone will guarantee to see you mileage increase and help break in the engine properly, otherwise with your consistently short and heavy commute, your usage under the Owner's Manual guidelines qualifies as an extreme use condition.

 

I've been getting around 20 MPGs city in my 2007 Fit sport with Yokohama S drives on stock sport rims. I got it to go up to 28 with some highway driving but in city stop and go that's what I get. Next up, I'm gonna try and change the engine air filter to see if that helps (even if it looks clean upon a visual inspection). I suspect it might have to do with coil packs, but I'm gonna try and do one thing at a time to see if can get better mileage.