I just purchased a 2008 VBP Sport (Auto) a few weeks back. The car has a little over 1K miles right now. I have been taking REALLY easy but it appears I am only getting 29-30 MPG. Maybe I am calculating things wrong (I joined a couple of sites, FuelFrong and CleanMPG to help me keep track).

Here is were things get iffy for me. I put 9.8 Gallons last week. I may fuel up when the gas light comes on or I may wait till it hit "E". What is the best way to determined MPG ( I know places request miles driven) since I dont always fuel up at the same time, what should I write? if I fule up too soon it wil give me a lower MPG.

Am I confused or missing somthing?

 

It does not matter how long you wait or the amount of fuel when you fill. Just record the pump reading and divide in to miles driven. What's important to decent data is use the same pump and station and let the auto cut off work every fill up.

Anything else is a compromise for repeatable data.

 

Okay, that changes things. I was recording the pump reading and then recording how many miles I got out of it (later that week)

 

[quote=No-Gi;379022]I just purchased a 2008 VBP Sport (Auto) a few weeks back. The car has a little over 1K miles right now. I have been taking REALLY easy but it appears I am only getting 29-30 MPG. Maybe I am calculating things wrong (I joined a couple of sites, FuelFrong and CleanMPG to help me keep track).

Here is were things get iffy for me. I put 9.8 Gallons last week. I may fuel up when the gas light comes on or I may wait till it hit "E". What is the best way to determined MPG ( I know places request miles driven) since I dont always fuel up at the same time, what should I write? if I fule up too soon it wil give me a lower MPG.

The difficult thing to do is filling to the same level each time you refuel. Its easy to miss by a gallon or more.
Try a technique where you fill at the lowest fuel flow nozzle setting; when it cuts off, repeat by hand 3 times. even up to the next 10 cent mark if you want.
Then take the mileage driven since your last fillup (yes, zero the trip miles when you get ready to leave the station after recording the trip mileage and divide the miles by the gas pump gallons. (if you want to be really precise use the recorded gallons printed out on your receipt, its in thosandths).
Do this over several fillups to really get a good handle on your mpg. And 28 to 30 over hilly country is pretty normal for an automatic especially using a/c. Some people on this site may not be telling quite the truth when they shout 40+ mpg. Surprise ! You can get better mpg driving with sport mode; trany doesn't downshift as much. Keep rpm between 1800 and 3000 rpm.

 

Great. Thanks for the help. We keep the AC on all the time. I'll update next fill up.

 

Some people well give you very bad advise that can damage your Fit. Do not pump in any more gas after the pump shuts off. well maybe one slow auto click (about 1/4 gal more), but that's it.

 

Good point.
He's talking about overfilling the tank and loading the vent catchfilter. On my stations I can only add about 15 cents worth on each of the 3 top-offs so overfilling isn't a problem. 45 cents worth is barely a tenth of a gallon. The trick is to make sure you set the pump fill at the lowest flow notch so you refill at the slowest rate. Thats important not only for not overfilling but to minimize the vapor release to the atmosphere. And keeping it in you tank.
However do watch for gas spilling from the fill nozzle before you shut it off or it shuts off itself. Thats a definite no-no.

 

I read that somewere. I have been filling it up very slowly lately.

Thanks for all the great advice.

 

I generally wait until the low fuel light shows and pull in to a top tier fuel provider, in my region quick trip, I fill the first half as fast as possible and then manually slow the fuel flow to the slowest setting for the last half tank. I stop at the first click PERIOD. I want the best mileage but I'm not a religious fanatic or a cultist about this. I then divide the miles traveled (trip Odometer) by the gallons purchased. I've achieved barely over 39 without getting freaky. Please critique my method if improvements can be made without extreme costs either in time or effort.

 

You don't say how fast you are driving or the percentage of city vs. freeway. My daily commute is 16 miles (each way), 90/10 freeway/city. I drive 55-60, and I'm getting 44mpg pretty consistently. That's how I keep it in the 40's.

As far as filling goes, I use Unocal (Phillips, Conoco, all the same company) and fill at the slowest speed until the first click. I write down the gallons to the nearest 1/10th, miles driven, octane, and I'm on my way.

--Barry, 08 FS MT BBP

 

Something else to consider is noting what type of fuel is going in your tank. Are you filling at a station with ethanol? If so what percentage? Then try and find a station that is straight gas and fill there. Check your mileage after that tank. If you can't find regular w/o ethanol, consider going to high octane. Some stations do not include ethanol w/super.

Many are reporting (over on Cleanmpg) 3-6% mpg reductions with ethanol. That coupled with agressive driving techniques and wa'la', your in the mid/low 30's.

Until I starting getting into the saving fuel game I had no idea ethanol had less energy and thus less mpg. I also had no idea that deceleration caused fuel injectors to shut off. Could increasing your tire pressure really make that much of a difference?

Implement some basic, and safe hypermiling principles, get through your break in and you'll be in the 40mpg club in no time!

 

During the week its 90/10 freeway/city. I know the gas has ethanol. About 10% I think. I'll make sure then shop around to see what others offer.

There is so much to this I had no idea. Does lowering your car help?

 

You asked for it...

The reason I do the 2nd Auto shut off after 10 sec is because....
Even on low fill rate foam in the neck will trip the pump off before the tank is full. Waiting some time and than one more adds around 1/4 gal but never backs up into the neck so not danger of damaging the evac canister.

 

Okay, so my wife just fueled up and I calculated the MPG. This week we averaged 28.5 MPG with my wife driving. Keep in mind my wife has no interest at all in getting more mpg's than that, as it is better than our previous car.

I am confortable that I can get over 30 mpg's next week. The car now has 1226 miles and I see things improving with every tank.

 

MPG usually slowly climb as you accumulate more miles. I was told that after 2,000 miles, the mpg slowly climbs. I have about 2.2K, and i can see it climbing on highway miles. But all city still seems the same.

One of the method I've used to determined MPG. Don't know how accurate is... but at the half way point, put something like $15 to $20 of gas in your tank. Reset the counter and see how many miles you get until it hits the half way mark again. Then divide by how much gas you put in during the half way mark.

 

One of the method I've used to determined MPG. Don't know how accurate is... but at the half way point, put something like $15 to $20 of gas in your tank. Reset the counter and see how many miles you get until it hits the half way mark again. Then divide by how much gas you put in during the half way mark.[/quote]

The problem of seeing that you refill to the same place every time remains the difficulty. Refilling from half-tank reading means only putting in 5 or 6 gallons where even a quarter-gallon deviation typically means a 1.5 mpg error.
You'll have to average your mpg over at least 6 fillups to get a good idea of what your mpg really is
cheers. even 28 mpg is a far cry from the national average 14 mpg..

 

Lol...I tried to Rep Mahout for helping out once again... but this is what I got:

I don't mind the error that much as long as it's under the 10% (2.5 to 3.0 mpg) range. I would do something like divide by 3.0 instead of 2.8 to get a lower mpg just so I would try to drive better next time. As long as I'm averaging near 30, I won't be complaining.

 

Don't give Mahout nothing; there are 3 of us who use this site and we can't even agree with ourselves much less anyone else. If you think thats funny you should have watched us at races.