Your driving style only requires you to "climb the ladder up to 12 ft high" and you are perfectly fine with the average performance, handling and mediocre MPG resulting from the recommended door sticker pressure of 32 PSI. This pressure gives you all around average results on everything and it's great when your Fit is simply an A to B means of transportation, without any other aspirations.

None of the people driving on higher pressures are pushing others to do so as well. We are simply recording and sharing our experiences and results with the FitFreak community. Obviously if you are like most people, distracted 90% of the time between text messages and day dreaming, then higher pressure may not be for you.

My style of hyper-attentive eco driving (most of the time) seems to benefit in overall performance, handling and MPG when I "climb the ladder up to 20 ft high" aka 44 psi.

When I drive a car at regular "door" PSI, it reminds me a bit of riding skateboards on crappy asphalt on hot summer days.


PS:
One of the other reasons, not mentioned in this thread, that 32 PSI is being recommended by almost all car manufacturers are the cheap no-name tires that are only rated up to 35 PSI max. The one thing that the car manufacturers can't control is what crappy cheap tires the owners are willing to put on their cars, which can create liability for the car manufacturers if they were recommending higher pressures.

 

your sig says 35.7 mpg. with all that hardcore eco driving you only net 35.7? lol

i could easily do 42mpg without trying running 35-36psi on my GK.. and i could careless about mpg. imaging someone who cares behind the GK’s wheel..

 

At least my 35.7 mpg is based on honest measurements recorded over 120 fuel-ups through all sorts of different driving conditions.
Your supposed 42 mpg is only a fart in the wind until proven otherwise...

I don't know where you live, but up here in the Great White North, I have to drive through long & bitter cold winters, using snow tires and winter gas, all of which significantly reduce fuel mileage. In the mornings I leave the engine idling for a few minutes, while I scrape the windshield from the overnight ice that tends to happen in the winter, regardless of precipitation, from November 'til April.
About 50% of my driving is in the city, with short trips, red lights, pedestrians & traffic. Also my commute to work is only 10 miles (16 km) each way of mixed city/hwy, so the engine barely operates truly efficient during my daily commute.
Lastly, I drive a manual Fit, which revs higher than an auto at pretty much all speeds.
And the Fit is fun as hell to rev high.

Since the EPA rates my car at 33 mpg highway and 29 mpg combined, I'm doing great beating the EPA by over 20% in combined mileage, given my driving conditions.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymo...onda_Fit.shtml

As long as you keep comparing your oranges to my apples, your opinion will be completely redundant.

 

which part of i could careless about mpg did you not read in my post? think bigger. saving a few bucks here and there with all that effort is a waste of time. get a real job and drive like you want. want to save a tree? ride a bike.

that 42mpg is real. i calculated milage by the gallons i put in. my GK is my wife's car so i usually dont drive it much, but the few weeks she wasnt around i used the car for the commute it was showing 43mpg+ ill leave it there. GL

 

Not carrying about mpg means you're likely 'merican, since your gas is cheaper than bottled water.

Saving a few bucks here and there is exactly the approach of most self made millionaires.
Wasting a few bucks here and there is the approach of the middle class (the ones living perpetually in debt) and the poor.
Sure the fuel savings are pocket change in the grand scheme of things, but it's still $$$ I'd rather keep in my pocket than ignorantly handing it over to gas companies. To each their own. The 20% I save over EPA ratings is definitely not to be pissed away.
And what exactly is "all that effort"?
I really don't see the effort, nor the wasted time... unless you mean the great effort of waiting around that extra minute it takes to pump the tires up to 44 psi. What a bunch of wasted time

By the way, I do have a real job.
Actually, what is a real job? Maybe mine is unreal and I just hadn't realized it.
"...and drive like you want" = wtf ?
No need to talk about trees or bikes, it's a car forum and we're all drivers here.


Congratulations I suppose.
I'm still not that impressed, as there's no proof here; a few weeks of driving isn't statistically significant.
I'd be interested in knowing what your daily commute was like.
If you got 40+ mpg driving 10 miles each way of 50%city-50%hwy in freezing temperatures and rolling on winter tires, then you've completely convinced me to change. I will think bigger, start wasting a few bucks here and there, and stop wasting time with all that effort. I will get a real job and drive like I want. Obviously then I'll also reduce my tire pressure to whatever you're using and I'll stop carrying about mpg. Hopefully that's the recipe to 40+ mpg...not that I care

 

Over the years, and even at different automotive sites, with different vehicles, I've learned I'm not going to convince somebody that believes running higher PSI that it's better just to follow the MANUFACTURER of the vehicles recommendation.

But I think it is best. MPG gains at higher PSI, seem at best minimal, at worst totally chimerical. Not worth the harsher ride and possible negative affect to the suspension.

I'm convinced those that ignore the advice are mostly just blinded by the "fun" of thinking they've discovered a better way or better "sweet spot". I'm convinced whatever Honda recommended...they would do different.

Nobody has ever been able to convince me it actually is better.
The very minimal, possible MPG gains the lower rolling resistance of a IMO over inflated tire creates are not worth the risks of driving a vehicle with the tires PSI out of manufacturers recommend spec's.
They are not created on a whim. Every manufacturer wants to advertise the best possible MPG for the vehicle.
If running 5-10-15 PSI higher was "better"-overall....that would be the recommendation. It is NOT.

 

IMO short sighted stereotype's of both classes.

Really in admittedly minimal experimentation, I have found higher PSI...really doesn't result in any amazing MPG gains.

Balance that "savings" against possible instability on the road, premature wear and damage to suspension components, and I think the tangibly dangerous scenario, of tires set to the max the tire is made to handle as opposed to the recommendation of the manufacturer and designers of the automobile....
And one blow out, one decreased stopping distance accident...and all that "savings" goes right out the window, in perhaps a tragic manner.

That's impotently trying to be penny wise, but being PSI foolish.

 

Absolutely the MPG gains are minimal. At most one can hope to see about 5% if inflating from 32 psi to 44 psi.
IMO 5% is a decent ROI in this economy.

It's been said many times that manufacturer's recommend 32 PSI for comfort, which is one of the more important factors for most people when choosing a car. Especially when considering how much of the population is either over-weight and/or old, suffering from a bad back, hemorrhoids, arthritis, etc. None of those people would even trade comfort over improved handing and MPG gains.

If manufacturers would recommend higher tire pressures, they would have to soften the suspension to reach the same comfort level, which will increase body roll in corners and nobody likes that.

Also many people are misunderstanding over-inflation.
Over-inflation = going beyond the max sidewall pressure (44 psi or 51 psi for other tires).
Over-inflation does NOT mean going anywhere in the normal operating tire range of 32 psi to 44 psi.

That possible instability on the road is honestly not the case. Under-inflated tires will cause real road instability and blow-outs.
Blow-outs also do NOT happen from tires inflated at higher pressures (up to tire max). If you do some research you will find that blow-outs almost always happen either when the tire is too old (rubber falling apart) or when the tire is under-inflated causing high friction -> high temperatures -> rubber starts to deteriorate rapidly -> ka-boom

Earlier in this thread one of the members reported having "stepped" on a nail with tires over-inflated somewhere in the 60 PSI range and he did not have a blow-out. Not only that, but he got cheap tire hole fix and kept riding those tires up to 80 PSI without any blow-outs at all.

So on one hand we have people offering honest reviews based on real life experience and on the other hand we have people spewing fear-mongering based on misconceptions or hear-say. I'll stick to the first group, but that's just me.

 

Sorry nitrogen and oxygen and air all follow the ideal gas law PV=nRT so if the n number of molecules are the same and the temperature is the same- the pressure remains the same at the Same volume. R is a universal constant.

Nitrogen is just fancy and an upcharge at service stations.

 

I agree with this

 

Really useful info

 

I have been inflating my tires to 36 psi, instead of 32, because the handling feels slightly better. I have not experimented with higher pressures, because I didn't want to stray too far from the recommended pressure from Honda, although I have considered trying 38 just to see what its like, not for the fuel economy.

 

1. Stock eco-tire look
2. Height from the ground
3. Rear brakes are drums, not discs
4. The seat only moving forward-backwards and not up-down, makes it semi uncomfortable for non-japanese drivers

All in all, pretty minimal complaints if that's the extent of my disappointment.