I took a day off from studying and drove to Palmdale today.
I left from Alhambra (suburb of LA) and it is 60 miles to Palmdale via I-10, I-5, and CA 14.
The drive to Palmdale was mostly uphill and there was some traffic. The speed was about 50-65 depending on traffic flow. As I reached Palmdale Mall, the MPG meter showed 46.5.

I drove back to Alhambra holding mostly 55-60 as it was late and there was little traffic. The meter steadily climbed to 49.4. It dropped down to what you see on the picture due to some city driving at the end of the freeway run.

The total trip is about 140 miles. I was easy on gas and the car was empty. The tires were inflated at 33 psi all around. Very happy with the gas mileage at current $4.30 per gallon here.

 

Too bad you did not get a ticket for distracted driving.

 

Kudos on outstanding mpg.
Imagine the highway filled with cars that achieved such outstanding savings.
If all drivers stayed below 60, we would enjoy safety even if everyone was obsessed with the gauge cluster.
I got 40.1 on a similar distance in her '13 Accord. I was ecstatic!!!

 

What is your average mpg for the tank? (don't tell us till it's empty). How much drafting was involved?

High MPG anecdotes do people a disservice when they're shopping for cars. The takeaway is Fits get 50MPG highway. They don't.

For example: I got 44mpg (this was over 50 miles relaxed freeway driving). The entire tank was 36mpg over 75% highway/25% city. I've never come anywhere close to 44MPG in regular driving over an entire tank. Open highway driving with little or no drafting nets about 36mpg going 70-75mph.


No motorists were harmed in the making of this picture. Professional driver, closed course.

 

To address distracted driving. The point is well taken and I am against drivers fiddling with their phones, navigations, eating behind the wheel, etc. Oh, and having dogs in the front seat.
Legally, though, taking a picture of your speedometer with a digital camera is hardly a violation. In California, motorists do have a right to briefly use hand held devices such as smart phones or portable GPS units for the purposes of looking at driving directions. I think the guy who made this comment is just angry because he gets 26 mpg on his defective Fit which he doesn't know how to drive economically.

Steve, the mpg meter is usually 1 mpg optimistic on my car. I've compared the readout with the hand calculated mileage numerous times. So I have no reason to doubt this result.

There are multiple factors involved. I bet that if your car was driven in exact same way over the same course (assuming yours has a manual transmission), you would get the same mileage. That's also assuming your car is in the same mechanical condition (mine has 15,000 miles and 0W20 Mobil 1 in it). I don't draft behind other vehicles. It's dangerous in terms of getting into an accident, getting rocks break the windshield, or being shot by an enraged driver.
Keep in mind, I use gravity as my break pedal and I accelerate as if going down a gentle slope in neutral. I bet a full cup of coffee could stand motionless on my dash when I drove. If you do all that, your Fit will get the same mileage. Oh, and how heavy are you? I am 175lb. Also, very important, NO MODS!

 

That's some impressive mileage. The best I ever got was 6.2L/100km which I think is around 38mpg. This was during a long 5 hour road trip which had the car packed with three adults and as much band gear as would fit (entire drum set, hardware, cymbals + full recording rack and luggage). I wonder if I could have gotten better without all the weight but I think there's also something to be said about all that weight helping coast down hills better. Uphill is another story, haha.

 

Someone who is good with physics would probably know better since I am not sure whether heavier car has any advantages over a lighter car on a course that involves climbing and descending hills.
On one hand, the amount of energy used to move the heavier car will always be more than to move a lighter car over the same distance given getting rid of all variables except gravity. On the other hand, descending a hill in a heavier car, your gravity pull might overcome the effects of air resistance, and overcompensating the initial energy spent to ascend that hill in the first place.
So my conclusions is that the heavier the car, the more fuel will have to be spent to move it, but on the downhills, it may roll further before needing fuel to keep going, thus "going down hill helps".

 

Haha, I kinda figure the same. It would be interesting (though far more boring) to do that same trip without anyone else in the car and without all the gear to compare.

 

I tested* my 2009 and it cruises 50 mph at 50 mpg, on a flat straight road with cruise control. This is believable. Of course there will be variations due to traffic and starts and stops but if you're gentle and smart with it this is possible.

*With a calibrated Scangauge, not the 12% high built-in gauge they put on 2009's.

 

In a low powered car more weight hurts because the car is prety efficient to begin with. It helps on the downhills, but the little engine has enough to do getting the car up a hill without carrying more weight. A more powerful car is helped a bit by being loaded- you're burning a bunch of extra gas anyway, so going up the hill you're just giving some of that wasted gas something constructive to do. Going down the hill the added weight helps a bit.

My current tank was looking beautiful- 150 miles at 50 mpg. Then some short errands on Saturday and a family trip using the AC on Sunday. I got in to work this morning with 310 miles at 46.something mpg.

This car is really spoiling me, complaining about only 46 combined.

 

FYI, there's a TSB for '09s to recalibrate the overly ambitious MPG meter. I had it done for free, it is now reads about .5 to 1 mpg off paper calc.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...g-display.html

 

Yeah, I know. I'm lazy. I have the scangauge that IS accurate so it's no big deal right now.

 

Amen. Folks who post these fantasy/one time highs should throw in their typical avg X… keep it real.

then why mention it as though it is a problem?? UG/SG is good for beginners to understand road conditions and how it affect engine load. Once you get a basic understanding it is as simple as lay off the throttle = better mpg but boring drive. If this is you goal all along, you should be driving a Prius, which is the master of P&G without conscious/active effort…

 

It would be that simple if every road were flat and straight with no traffic. If that were the case forget the Prius, get me a Google self driving car and wake me up when we get there. Until then I'm going to enjoy the drive.

 

Those are some awesome mileages!

 

It's only a disservice if the person is dumb to not be able to tell the difference between everyday city driving an a drive as I described in this thread. I also did not mention 50 mpg.

And noone claims the Fit to get an average of 50 mpg.
My average is 40 and I do a lot of short hwy trips (about 85 hwy in heavy LA traffic).

If you know how to drive a manual Fit, you can routinely average 40 mpg. That is the lesson that people should take away.

 

Mileage always comes at a cost, either performance or the lack there of to achieve the mileage. I would hope the majority of people smart enough to get on the internet would understand that and the purpose of this post. It is an informative post as to the type of mileage you can get not that you WILL get on a regular basis. I found it interesting and appreciate you posting it John!