Ok, I'm hitting 9,500 miles on my car in a few weeks, so my engine is pretty much broken in. So far so good. I was reporting 28-30 MPG when I first got the car. Now I am hitting 32 MPG consistently. My daily commute to work is only 5 miles to the Park and Ride. And the rest is freeway when out on dates over the weekend or in the evenings. Oil was last changed 2800 miles ago with castrol synth blend 5-20 and purolator premium plus oil filter. No oil consumption at all.

I was planning to go with full synthetic, but I don't feel like waiting that long for an oil change. At 5,000 miles, I can check under the hood to see if anything is wrong. Next, I'll be changing the transmission fluid at 15,000 miles. I think a big factor in the gas mileage improvement is that the transmission is breaking in. I find that shifting is smoother and power has increased significantly compared to when I had first purchased it.

My recommendation to those is, take it really easy on your car when you accelerate.. There should be absolutely NO jolts or kicks at all when accelerating from Zero. I have noticed that it is hard to step on the gas petal with precision, so I added racing petals which increased the surface area for my shoe, and accel and braking contours better to the way I step.

On cold starts, I give it about two minutes before I roll out of my driveway. I've done some reading and some say that it is actually bad for the engine to idle for long periods of time upon cold start - unless in snowy conditions. I then drive VERY lightly for the first 15 minutes.

I am loving this car!

spec: A/T Sport, purchased July 5 - 2006

Andy