I'm now a proud owner of my used 2011 Fit (32k miles) on Feb. 1 2014 and previously owned a 2000 Civic HX till it was totaled. I test drove a few others but love how well you can see out of the Fit and that the rear seats fold down. I'm eventually planning to customize it further. I love this car already but was hoping to get a little better gas mileage out of it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also has anyone had a problem with the axillary plug? I'm going back to get it fixed, but playing music from my phone only the front driver side speaker works.

 

Auto or manual? What type of driving?

As far as the AUX are you sure it's not the cable, they will do that if they don't insert fully on either jack or there's a frayed wire in the cable. Maybe try a friends and see if the problem remains. First step of troubleshooting eliminate the easiest or most likely suspect!

 

1. Drive as if you don't have brakes. Brakes just turn expensive gasoline into heat and dust.
2. Don't stay on the gas all the time. The technique is called "pulse and glide."

Those two things, coupled with keeping your speed down, will work wonders.

 

Lightening the car will help but ill have drawbacks.

Like removing the spare tire and rear seats but then you have no spare or back seats!

The pulse and glide method does work and I did it for quite some time when I first got my Fit. In the end it was worth about 2 MPG and I would rather just drive normally and get a little less fuel economy.

 

2 mpg compared to what? I'm new to the Fit, but my first tank only got 37 mpg, and I didn't do any p&g. I'll have a solid number on Monday night, but with adding p&g this tank is just under 41. Including that snowstorm on Wednesday night.

I'm really looking forward to what this can do under good conditions, but cars always do better when you help them do well.

 

It's a automatic. I drive mostly highway and not much city driving but I'm barely getting 300 miles out of it or 30 mpg. The past few tanks have been filled up about 250-275 miles. Just not use to what I had gotten before. The axillary worked fine in my last car I haven't tried another but will do that before I go back to the dealership.

 

I'm trying to figure out how you got that much mpg...my tank is only about 10 gallons and I get barely 30...mostly 28.

 

Right now I wouldn't really need back seats but with my luck I would need that spare tire though I got roadside assistance...but don't want to wait forever for a tow. My brother would put in the STP in my last car and that helped a bit. I'll have to keep looking.

 

I have an automatic and get about 35-37 MPG depending on where im driving and if im lighter on the gas pedal. If I dont try to get better fuel economy I get about 33-35 MPG.

Another factor is the speed you drive at and watching the MPG bar as you are driving. Notice which speeds give you better eonomy and also what happens when you let off the gas a little and coast down slight grades. Try resetting the trip counter and starting your average over with each tank. Then monitor the gauge, when you can safely, and see how you can get better MPG by driving differently. Once you get it down to a science dont reset the trip counter and look at a longer term average.

The other thing that can lower that number is running the engine while you are parked. It can drop if you do that too.

 

The guy getting 37-40mpg has an easy few-stop drive averaging below 55mph. I can get 45mpg all day driving the Florida Keys (flat constant 45mph).

MPG is a function of the car's performance, where you drive, and how you drive. You could lose weight (the car!) or invest in better low-roll-resistance tires (won't recover the expense). You could change your route to include fewer stops and modify your technique

Your observed 28-30 sounds like city driving and better than federal epa ratings. I wouldn't look for a large improvement even if you start driving obsessively. Maybe 1-2mpg as mentioned above with annoying driving habits.

My daily commute used to be 34mpg. I changed tires and the same commute increased to 36mpg. This was over mostly freeway driving, 23miles one way (46 round trip). My commute changed 3 months ago to 26 miles, city driving, mostly 45mph boulevards with lots of stops. My mpg is about 30mpg now.

The other thing to remember is reported mpg stories are a lot like fish stories...

 

Surprised nobody has suggest the technique of imagining an egg between foot and pedal, only slow easy pressure. Anticipating stops maybe even timing distance to lights so that you don't have to stop if you are on the same route each day. I can see under 30 if all you do is city driving.

 

Like has been said, avoid hitting your brakes, leave distance from car in front of you, time stoplights so you don't have to stop completely, stuff like that.

I've been doing quite a bit of "spirited driving" and my weekly average is still sitting around 33-34 with performance oriented tires.

 

I have a 20 mile commute each way. 3/4 is on the freeway but much of that is stop and go. By going light on acceleration and cruising at 65-70mph I get 33-34mpg on regular unleaded. If I keep to 55mph or lower I get around 38-39mpg. Due to basic aerodynamics every little bit over about 50mph costs you. Keeping your top speed down is the single best thing you can do for your mileage.

Slowing down well ahead of stoplights so they turn green before you get there is a big help. Starting from a complete stop is wasteful. Any time you can take your foot off the gas, like downhills or approching stops, is basically free miles.

 

Yeah, reported mpg stories are like fish stories: if you've never caught a fish, the reporter is obviously a liar.

Driving style is where mpg comes from. Terrain and traffic conditions have a lot to say, but it's the driver that makes it happen: an inefficient driver will get bad numbers on a flatbed.

Efficiency is performance. When I drove for time, I got good times. When I found out about hypermiling, all of my skills transferred over. I leave home at the same time and work starts at the same time, but instead of struggling to get to work a few minutes sooner I'm struggling to use a little less gas. If you can focus on your driving enough to do the one, then you can focus enough to do the other. Before I found out about hypermiling, I was blasting down the road in a turbo rated 23 highway. I was getting 22 combined because I was gentle with the gas when not WOT. My first tank using p&g got 28. It works, if you let it.

 

you can drive with an OBDII scanner/wifi mod (iphone/android) and determine when does your fit use the least fuel.

strangely for mine, it goes into 'lean burn' whenever I take my foot off the accelerator. this somewhat suggests that I should drive with my foot on and off repeatedly. that is to say, accelerate and let go. when im accelerating to 2500rpm my scanner says it's at about 9km/l and whenever i let go it immediately goes to about 20km/l. kinda have to time it. for instance, accelerate at the top of the hill and let go midway and let it cruise without stepping at all. accelerate halfway up the next hill.

you can also lighten your car, if it makes you feel better. savings are probably negligible but hey, nothing travels for free.

these are what i removed.
-the plastic battery 'holder' so my battery sits on the metal.
-my 'Fit' badge
-the 4 metal anchors in the boot (to hold the cargo net/tray). i've caulked the holes with silicone because i realized sand/dirt can come in.
-rear suspension access covers in the boot
-replaced exhaust rubber mounts with 2 thick and trimmed zip ties
-seat belt and clip for the rear middle seat since i carry a max of 4 anyway
-plastic shields underneath the driver AND front passenger dash
-spare jack crank - you can actually jack up your car with the provided wrench. takes longer but it's manageable.
-boot tonneau cover
-use N45 car battery (smaller than regular cars and lighter of course)
-the flexible rubber intake pipe going to the air filter

i feel these are the small things that you can eliminate and yet keep the functionality. (as compared to removing seats or having no spare tyre)

also, pump up to 90% max sidewall. that alone should give you extra 1-2km/l

 

After 111k on my ’09 Sport MT I’d say that it all depends on what you want from your car. If you want a highway cruiser then sell your Fit and buy something else--the Fit is not an aerodynamic car. But if you want something that carries a lot, is lightweight, and is fun to drive around the city, then stick with the Fit and take the advice above about trying to time lights, etc. The Fit gets surprisingly good mileage around town if you drive smartly, and surprisingly bad mileage on the highway regardless of how you drive.

 

Interesting. What kind of mileages have you been getting around town and on the highway? You seem to be opposite of what I experience.

 

The basis for comparison for me is my old ’91 Accord. I never calculated mpgs, but I do remember that if my driving was mostly highway I’d get well over 400 miles from a tank of gas, but if my driving was mostly city I’d be pushing it to get 200 miles, so less than half in terms of mpgs, whatever they were. With the Fit driving on the highway at 75-78 mph I’m lucky to get 35-36 mpg (although I get 38-39 mpg on those rare occasions on which I can drive on a rural highway for long periods of time at 55mph or so, with no headwind), and driving exclusively in the city I get around 32-33 mpg. So with the Accord the difference between city and highway mileage was huge, but with the Fit the difference is minor. What figures do you get?

 

When I bought my Fit in Jan of '12, JD Powers or somebody? Had a list of the 20 Best Cars for Mpg or something like that and the Fit was #20 on the list, there where 19 cars that got better Mpg than the fit...just drive it and enjoy

 

That's the way to go: pulse & glide. It's not lean burn (they don't do that any more, for emissions reasons), it's DFCO- deceleration fuel cutoff. When the engine will spin on its own without having to burn gas, the car shuts off the injectors. If you're coming up to a stop, engine braking is great- 0 gph the whole way! If you're going to keep driving, the 0.18 or so gph the engine burns at idle is worth it to avoid having the engine slowing you down.

It's bad until you remember that it's rated 33 highway. Then "only" 40 doesn't seem so bad. The aero and gearing hurt, but you can still get the job done.