2012 Sport, AT

Bought this car about 40 days ago. I live in the city, so I was expecting gas mileage to be poor – but from what I see others getting I'm starting to think something might be wrong. 25mpg is the highest I've gotten around town with the occasional highway jaunt. Over the holiday weekend I drove to a friend's cabin and tried to get the highest mileage I could (cruise control, not accelerating hard, etc), only to barely crack 31. It's a whole lot better than my 2000 Legacy was, but I've read about people getting over 40mpg – is there anything I'm doing wrong that would cause such a low mpg? Car was empty except for my 200lb ass.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I have had my 2013 A/T Sport for 18 months. I have only gotten better than 31 mpg once. I live on Long Island and drive in mostly traffic with zillions of traffic lights. I usually average about 27 in the winter cold weather and 27 in the summer because of the air conditioner. I am convinced the only way you can get mid to high 30s is if you drive 50 mph on a flat road with no lights with the windows closed and the A/C off. And I drive conservatively.....I am always trying to maximize mpg by not racing to stop lights and slamming on the breaks. I accelerate slowly unless I really have to. Seems normal to me.

 

I live in Montreal. Lots of stop and go and short trips. Every tank I get 20MPG on the nose +/- 1 mpg. I drive a GD3. See my sig.

 

I also usually get around 20mpg +/- 2-3mpg. those stop and go lights are a killer on mpg.

 

Straight from the Honda website (for the 2013+ Fit), Choose the Honda Fit or Honda Fit EV - Official Site: "27 city/33 highway mpg rating for Fit and Fit Sport with manual transmission. 28 city/35 highway mpg rating for Fit with automatic transmission. 27 city/33 highway mpg rating for Fit Sport with automatic transmission. Based on 2013 EPA mileage ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle." Note especially the last three sentences. If your vehicle does not achieve the EPA estimates your gripe should be with the EPA and/or the way that they do their testing which is most certainly not out in the real world. See the Department of Energy's website dealing with the topic here: Frequently Asked Questions for frequently asked questions relating to fuel economy estimates.

 

I'm guessing by your driving profile and prior car you're on track with mpg. The more city driving your mpg heads for 25 - way better than the subie. And if you're in hills 31 is OK too, my guess a lot better again than the subie. there are techniques for getting better mpg but they are moving traffic pylons then.

 

I found cold weather knocks about 4-5 mpg off. It's June so I imagine the ice should be out of the MN lakes by now after our wonderful winter.
Our crappy "boutique blend" gas costs me an additional 3-4 mpg. Been at 25-29 in suburban driving and 35-39 on highway trips. Got around 40-41 on good gas in Wisconsin.

 

I drive my Fit like a bat out of hell, I'm talking 10 or 15 over on the freeway all the time. I live right off the freeway so I take it everywhere, and then I speed in town too and I've never gotten less than 33 mpg average on a tank....

 

Do you try to drive conservatively? I consciously watch the mpg meter and try to keep it over 40 mpg when possible and the first 3 tanks I've averaged 36 mpg. A lot of my driving is highway though.

 

Forget what other say about their MPG. Most tend to post their “highest” (one time or not) attain value and post that as gospel. YOUR condition and driving habit dictates everything and the Fit may or may not be the right the car based on these conditions. I find the best measuring stick is your own. What mpg did you get with the Legacy vs what was rated? Convert the difference into a % and do the same for the Fit. Note that some cars (higher displacement and better gearing) may be better suited for your driving needs.

Try this for giggles. In case you don’t know, resetting your trip odometer resets the calculated avg MPG. For your next road trip, before merging on to the high way, rest the MPG gauge. Take said highway cruising @ 60ish (less is better) then let us know what you get. You can do this for local city jaunts to see what you get for each segment of the roadway.

FWIW, I avg ~30 mpg (lost 1-2 mpg from upsizing the 205/50 tires, should have stuck with 185/55). The highway exercise can net me mid to upper 40s. All city nets in the lower 20s.

 

It's kind of hard to gauge exactly how many MPG your actually getting. There are so many factors involved - temperature, humidity, elevation, driving style, tire pressure, quality and grade of fuel, added weight in the car, etc.

The best way to get your TRUE highway mileage is to fill up the tank and drive highway miles till your fuel light comes on.

I just recently got 30 MPG on my 2007 and that is with an intake, a handful of full throttle runs, and I'd say 80/20 highway/city miles.

If anything, MTLIAN is the one that should be worried, lol.

 

You're aware of gas mileage and that you can effect it, that's half the battle right there. You're trying to drive gently, that's most of what's left.

City driving has lots of places to make you lose mpg no matter what you do. Go with what silentnoise713 says- reset your display to get current numbers. Your best bet is to reset it every time you fill up. Now you're using the gas gently and tracking actual mileage, that's awesome. The next step is to use the brakes gently: It doesn't matter how gently you got up to speed if you're going to throw it all out the window by hitting the brakes. Thinking ahead to when you're going to hit the brakes next can get you off the gas sooner.

Getting a Scan Gauge or UltraGauge can help a lot, giving you more and better information than just the OE feel good bar of mileage.

 

Guys – I'm not disappointed in the car at all. This is easily the best car I've ever owned. I figured I'd get closer to 27-28 in the city is all. But I literally live downtown, where the closest freeway is fourteen red lights away, and I almost never get on it. Maybe once a week tops. So I understand – I'm kind of in a 'worst-area-for-mpg' scenario.

What started getting me worried was posts like these, which I should take with a boulder of salt: Fit - Vortex Blue (Honda Fit) | Fuelly
That guy is actually claiming to somehow be getting higher than 36mpg in the city. I'm not buying it.


I thought when I got the car that it had a ten gallon tank (just a guess, but seemed right because only 9.5 gallons would fit when the tank was empty – plus it was super convenient for quick calculations) and I was surprised that it got 24 MPG combined. This was my first full tank, so of course I was used to driving a big torque-y 2.5 boxer engine and I was probably accelerating wrong (and accelerating right, too, if you know what I mean). Since then I've gotten used to when shifts come and can avoid unnecessary gear changes, carry speed better, etc. I thought I was doing all right when my next tank came back 27 with nothing but city driving.

Turns out the Fit has a 10.6 gallon tank. Which lowers all of my previous calculations a bit.

But no biggie. As long as others are getting similar numbers and there's nothing wrong with mine, I'm gonna work on getting the most out of a tank (without pissing off everyone behind me). Thanks guys!

 

He seems to be saying 75% highway. 36mpg was my experience when my daily commute was about 75% highway. This was on metro Atlanta freeways during normal rush hour traffic.

I also fell victim to claims of ultra high MPG. There was some traffic cop that soaped his Fit windows: "ZOMG 50mpg+!!!" (he was directing traffic nearby for a shopping mall). Seeing that daily and reports here had me convinced for sure I'd get 40mpg consistently. I don't have a heavy foot.

The EPA estimates I think are realistic for the average driver. You'll have outliers with most tending on the high side (Honda is conservative in running these tests, unlike Hyundai).

You're right though, you have a perfect storm of unfavorable conditions. At least without going to a hybrid (do the math though, the economies don't pay off, although my eyes have strayed to the Prius C of late...)


uh, you need to do the math based on how much gas you put in, not how much you think the tank holds. Better just to reset the trip mileage at each fill and let the computer do the work.

 

The post you linked to says: Driving Habits: 70 mile (round trip) HWY commute and weekend trips. 75% HWY / 25% CTY. He's not actually a city driver.

Don't use tank size for your calculations, use the amount you actually pump! You're donig fine on mileage, though. You're getting used to the car, you don't rive it all that much and you're in the city.

 

Its your 80/20 highway that got you the 30. 30 is actually low. I went to NY a month or so back and I got 38mpg on the trip. Sometimes late at night when I can hit all green lights in 4th I can get 26 mpg. City driving kills it.

 

I know, it sucks. Your right, when I'm in NYC it seems to guzzle a bit more.

I was getting 34 MPG just highway when I had the Fujita intake in at 52K but that was when I was commuting to work. I was also not filling it up. I would put in 8 gallons exactly run it to the light and re-pump another 8 gallons and wait for the light again. I was getting in between 270 and 280 miles right around there. I'm at 90K right now. From my experience gas mileage always goes down with car age even if its 2 to 3 MPG over the life of the car.

Maybe I was getting better mileage because the car was newer then, maybe from the Fujita intake, not sure.

I need to drive up and down I-87 a couple hours to really get an accurate number.

 

My mileage went up over time, people said it was the computer basing its performance over more data points. And I replaced the stock Dunlops with Yokohamas, that helped too.


Red lights are horrible for mileage- stopping and starting and stopping and waiting...


I got 42 mpg on a trip that was 90 miles of highway and 2 miles of local streets, late at night when I could put the cruise control right around the speed limit (55 and 65).


But there's a bar graph and a computer that can be reset every trip, why is anybody calculating mileage by hand?

 

OCD. I did it both ways for a couple years.

 

Because the Feel Good Bar of Mileage isn't all that helpful and the mileage calculation isn't entirely accurate. Calculating by hand X gallons and Y miles gives you a more solid number that you can record, and doing it over multiple tanks irons out any pump shut-off differences.

I'd also rather have the car displaying the trip odometer than the mileage. I've got an UltraGauge that displays instant mpg, short trip (since startup) mpg and trip (since fillup) mpg. That's more useful for getting good mileage than a jumping light bar and tank mpg.