Breaking the 500 mile barrier
 

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Today I made my usual road trip from south of Atlanta to Cocoa Beach, approximately 500 miles. But on this trip I wanted to see just how far I could go on a tank of gas.

First I topped off the tank - that's about 1 more gallon than I usually put in to give me around 10.5 gallons to work with. I set the cruise control to 59 mph and stayed in the right hand lane on the interstate (I passed maybe 3 trucks the whole way). I engaged the ECON button which helped dealing with the hills while on cruise control. ECON seems to prevent rpm from rising over 2200 while going uphill (most hills). Without it, rpm can wind up to 3000 on an incline. Also I noticed that these Georgia hills didn't hurt my mpg at this speed. Mpg would drop slightly going up but make up for the loss when going downhill. Also, no a/c during the trip (I left early in the morning so the heat didn't affect me until towards the end). I made 1 pit stop for lunch.

The display reads 53.1 mpg but the actual result was 53.4 when calculated manually. One of the few times that actual mpg beat the display mpg. I used 9.4 gallons during the trip - I topped it off again to make sure I'd get the correct gallon consumption number. I could have gone a bit further but 502 miles was good enough for me. Besides, I needed to turn the a/c back on.

This was just an experiment to see the car's capability. I won't be driving this slow on the highway in the future. But I was impressed with the hybrid-like results. It's a highway cruiser par excellence.

I love my Fit.

Very nice! I was experimenting with ECON mode on a recent trip and when I hit a steep hill on the freeway, it was caught off guard as the speed dropped and then revved it up over 5k to bring the speed back up to make up for lost ground.

Normally, in regular (non econ) mode, it would have just kept the speed exactly the same and maybe gotten the RPM's up to 4K. In other words, I found ECON mode worse for steeper hills. I'm probably not going to use it all that often as I don't like the numb throttle response, but might be useful on long hauls when I have the AC on and don't need to be as 'chilled'.

Nice writeup. That's exactly how I found the Fit, looking for a hybrid, but they were all so expensive, I would never get the money back over time, and they seemed to be made so poorly.

Again, value for the dollar, the Fit is the best car out there.

That's awesome ... I did a road trip a few weeks ago and decided a little after filling up in St. Louis that I'd try to make it to Tulsa before refilling, a little more than 400 miles. I set the cruise to 55 mph but did do some bouts of sustained acceleration when I thought it more prudent to go with the traffic. I kept a close eye on the MTE gauge and reset the MPG screen to track progress. I managed to roll into Tulsa with about 30 miles left on the MTE gauge and an average 52 mpg on the screen. I was ecstatic. After refueling I went back to the turnpike and jammed on the pedal, topping the car topped out at almost 110 mph, a rather skittish almost 110 mph too I might add. Mileage screen on that leg showed about 31 mpg, MTE numbers sank like a stone.

Another member, Limmie, also got similar numbers on one of his trips. And yes, the mpg sinks fast when when you get juicy with the gas pedal. These little engines seem to be highly efficient when you keep a steady, albeit slow, speed. It seems like the ecu has time to make adjustments to ensure the engine gets the most out of every mile. On my trip, the mpg kept rising as the day went on. It finally topped out at 53.1 about an hour before the trip ended. Almost like it kept learning new ways to be more efficient as the trip progressed. Almost like it was..... alive :eek3:

I did about 2,000 miles over the past week, mostly interstate with some State routes and a little in-town driving. Generally drive the posted limit. Didn't make any particular effort to push my MPGs higher, and each tank was ending usually in the low 40s, although some were high 30s (I'm convinced one tank of gas I got was of very poor quality). I think I had one tank that finished around 45. I consider my car to be a "350 mile" car (with a 30-50 mile safety margin), but you've got me curious now to see if I can break 400 or even 500.

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50+ mpg is incredible.

I had a 2007 Toyota Yaris hatchback and the best highway mileage I ever got was 42 mpg and that was with a much less powerful engine.

I've been getting 35 regularly. On the highway at 70 it goes up to 42 or so. I don't hypermile so I'm happy with these numbers.

I suppose if I did a long, straight highway trip with no hills and stuck the cruise control on 55 with the AC off I might see better than 50, but having lived through the energy crisis I've had enough of that nonsense for a lifetime!

That's great mileage and you might do even better without engaging cruise. My understanding is that cruise control is not the most fuel-efficient way to drive. If you read how the hyper-milers do it there's a concept called Driving With Load (DWL). The idea is to try to maintain steady MPG, not steady speed.

For example, let's say you're driving across rolling hills. Cruise control will increase throttle uphill and decrease throttle downhill to maintain speed, which is exactly the opposite of what you'd do to maximize fuel efficiency; for maximum MPG you want to take advantage of momentum and gain some speed downhill and then ease off the throttle on the uphill side, allowing speed to drop (within reason, obviously). This made a lot of sense to me since I do exactly the same thing on my bicycle.

Nice! I've only been able to break the 500 mile barrier when I forget to reset the tripmeter between fill ups :wiggle:

That hypermiling technique may be ideal for mileage but I loathe anyone that does this on a crowded road or freeway which requires my constant lane repositioning to accommodate their ebb and flow down the road. :(

wow 53.1mpg. incredible! my best has been 40.2mpg.. not even close.

Agreed. I'm a big believer in the overall benefits of energy efficiency but I certainly don't think anyone should drive in a manner that is unsafe or inconsiderate of others. Our Fits are some of the most efficient cars out there, no matter how we drive them.

I have an artificial right foot, a sort of unofficial cruise control. If I travel to the east of Nashville (hilly, Cumberland Plateau, Knoxville, Chattanooga), the right foot keeps a steady pressure that allows modest changes to take advantages of momentum. Going west toward the flatter Jackson and Memphis areas, the Fit's cruise control does a slightly better job. On the Interstate, I cruise between 70 and 75 mph. No hypermiling, just safe, comfortable driving. Oh, yeah, 6 speed manual.

Not only is the 500+ mile per tank incredible, but also your patience to cruise at 59 mph the entire trip!:eek3::eek3:

Yeah, it took some discipline to do that. Fortunately the seats were comfortable enough for me to endure a 9 hr trip - along with my PharMedoc seat cushion. ;)

For those who are interested to know, negatives, know-it-all, or show offs need not to comment...I have been able to fill the following amounts so far in a new Fit 10.6 gallon tank:

11.163 gallons, 1.869/gallon. $20.86, Range shows 0 bar, trip showed 3.5 miles after a reset at zero bar.
11.156 gallons, 2.099/gallon. $23.42, Range shows 0 bar, trip 3 miles. 12/30/2016

Of course, I believe I was running on fume to fill this amount of volume. :)

Did you take breaks?

I traded my 2010 yaris hatch 5 speed for first Fit in 2015 I too at best got 42-44 in the yaris. Fit gets little better.

All other things being equal (which they rarely are), a smaller, less powerful engine will NOT get better mileage. Weight, aerodynamics, gearing, wheel and tire size all are part of the equation. A 350 cid 2 bbl will get poorer mileage in a Laguna Estate wagon than a 389 tripower GTO.