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I now have around 6500 miles on my 08 Civic Automatic..
Averaging between 29 & 31 MPG. 80% Hiway...
I was told by my sales and service guys (after I purchased of course) that teh mileage is what I should expect....
Sorry to say, I traded from an Accord to the Civic for the mileage and made a huge mistake. My 02 Accord was getting between 27 and 30 with much more room.
Best Regards,
Shipo
p.s. my sister has an 05 civic, as long as she stays at 70mph or under on a trip, she always gets 40 MPG, as soon as she crosses over 70, it drops, and she averages 34 mpg overall..
So for example, I am swagging that you probably owned the 02 Accord. If that is/was so, the biggest stumbling block would/would have be/been the monthly payments.
On the fuel mileage issue alone, you can buy a whole lot of commute fuel at that monthly rate (300/400 per mo@ 3.25 per gal) At that point, you'd have to doing almost exponentially more miles or the next vehicle you are considering gets a min of 2-3x better fuel mileage- ideally 3-4 x. I think you would agree, those are very high obstacles. (metrics)
In the case you describe, keeping the 02 Accord 5,10, dare I say 15 years, (past a normal 5 year payment cycle) would have saved you up to $24,000, $48,000, $72,000 dollars, respectively.
The good news going forward, you have a (close to in your case/ will already be driving and own a) 35 mpg vehicle. The other is you see now the wisdom and utility of having far less money in vehicles.
Since your Honda Civic probably has the chain driven timing belt, if you see the utility of keeping it longer, then the only thing I would do is to have the chain inspected at 225-250,000 miles, and have it replaced, if so warranted. I have not studied the technical data to see if the design is a NON interference type design: as surely MY 2004 Civic is an interference design; aka, almost certain CATASTROPHY if the timing belt snaps.
I have been trying to find some repeatable driving conditions and have a few hwy speed/mileage results with no wind, mostly level with little elevation difference, 35 psi in the tires.
55 mph 51-53 mpg, 65 mph 45-48 mph, 70 mph 38-40 mph. These were on cruise control and are averages over several runs, using the ScanGuage II. This gadget has been reading very close to tank mileages calculated from tank fills so I have some confidence in it's readings. Btw, no wind isn't easy to find nor tell unless you stop and step out of the car. Also small slopes can be difficult to see but will sure show up in mileage readings.
I have no idea how to compare city mileage results. My overall mileage is over 40 but is probably something like 95% hwy 5% city. I have yet to burn a whole tank in a city but have seen mileage averages under 30 mpg on the ScanGauge.
Should have said mileage hasn't seemed to increase after 9000 miles.
Also most of my mileage has been at 5000 to 6000 ft elevation.
..."I switched to Mobil 1 around 6200 and show 70% oil life left."...
This is HUGE as the OLM is calibrated for the CONVENTIONAL 5w20 Honda specified oil with a TBN of 7 with no provision for calibration for synthetic oil Mobil One 0w20,5w20) or operatively, a TBN of 12.
So (given your quote) your consumption rate is 6200/2.1= 2,952 miles per TBN. If you were to keep the oil to ZERO TBN (or some safety factor usually), The lightness on the vehicle indicates a OCI of 20,000 miles!!!!!! This is with, I repeat CONVENTIONAL OIL! So the same math with a 12 TBN comes out to 35,424 miles OCI's!!!!! .These are absolutely awesome numbers!! I would just do a baseline UOA at say 10,000/20,000 miles and going forward do trend UOA's to see if you are on track. So if you just do the 10,000 miles OCI's or the OLM you will almost have as much safety factor left as you had consumed !!
I sort of try to make clear my driving conditions are not typical to most people. Also being a retired old part I am seldom in a big hurry to get anywhere and rarely exceed speed limits. However the payback is beginning this winter, unless the mud is frozen the Civic won't make it to the hwy or back I have use my 4 W drive Dakota.
1. Change the oil filter at the Honda oem recommended "every other oil change" or in my case 20,000 miles. Indeed if you are so inclined (since you use Mobil One 5w20) change oil AND oil filter at 20,000 miles!!
2. Switch to 0w20 Mobil One. You MIGHT notice a .5 mile increase. But given what you are getting for mpg, it will probably just shorten the "dry lube" cold weather oil flow. There will be NO sotp feeling.
The car is great except for the consistent mileage of 21-22 mpg. Maybe a bit higher with all freeway but 21-22 mpg for normal metro driving. Revised EPA now show 25 city and 36 hwy.
This is horrible for a little car. My 6-cylinder Sienna approaches 19 mpg regularly. I could have an SUV and get similar mileage to our Civic.
I feel ripped off and won't recommend this car based on mileage to anyone.
Anyone else getting poor gas mileage?
Morrisos
Something bad wrong with that freeway mileage. May need the car checked? Even the metro sounds out of line.
As somewhat of a comparison, with a 6 cyl 4w jeep cherokee I routinely ran 25 mpg mostly hwy and average a bit over 40 over the same route with the civic.
I think a bit more than 21-22 mpg for freeway driving is unacceptable and may indicate a problem with the car.
That would depend on the type of "city" driving you do.
What kind of car did the Civic replace? What kind of mileage did it get in same driving conditions?
Kip
Kevman3
Your mileage would increase a lot at 65-70.
An Accord (same year model and equipment) will not get the mileage that a Civic does, under identical driving conditions.
Even in my normal work week commuting driving - all local urban traffic (nothing over 40mph) and rarely more then 5-8miles per trip I average around 26mpg. I figure that's pretty good, since all the idling in city traffic intersections is bound to make a big hit on mileage. And the car barely gets really warmed up with my short morning commute on these cold mornings.
For what it's worth, from past experience, my civic's highway mileage plummets as soon as I start cruising above 70mph.
My daughter has her mind set on a Hyundai Elantra but we'll look at all the cars in this segment just to be sure.
The Sandman
The Sandman
2007 Honda Civic EX Automatic, and they already have 30k + miles on it!
(short trips, short mileage, short term, lots of start and stops, lots of idling in strip malls, retail malls, club stores, parking lots, super market stores, LOADS of MAX fan heat and A/C use, etc. ) 4 to 6 different drivers, up to 5 folks in the car)
We filled up and turned in a 34 mpg for a tank full.
(normal commute 38-42 mpg: for a 10.5% to 19% range of decrease)
(We have a 20,000 mile oil and oil filter OCI coming up in 3k for a 60,000 miles interval.)
Wishing all who follow this thread, A Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year!
Probably more on topic, Wishing one and ALL: great fuel mileage with NO break downs!
"29 mpg's for the freeway? My 04 4runner gets 23mpg's....please tell me that you get more than 29mpg's,"...
Sandman46 said it was 10 miles of a single road with multiple lights.
We don't know his speed between lights, how many lights there are, or total time for the 10 mile commute. How much starting and stopping, how much idling, etc...
If you are getting 23 on a 4Runner, You should do very well in a Civic, under similar conditions.
Kip
I don't think the average Civic is only getting 29mpg on the highway though. Perhaps there's a problem or they're driving more aggressive than they think. I was getting low 30's-35mpg with mine as an average, which is probably quite better than the average of a 4Runner. I'm using my V8 4x4 Tundra at the moment and averaging around 17-18mpg for the same driving as I was the Civic.
Kip
However really the key words are IF, IF, IF. So to me nothing substitutes for the research. In my case, pure dumb luck and good inadvertent timings have not hurt either.
All of us ultimately vote with our dollars. Let me throw out a few examples to hopefully contribute (keep the issue moving) to the discussion. If you own (aka no payments) a lower MPG vehicle, to make financial sense to buy strictly on MPG alone, the higher mpg vehicle needs a min of 3x the lower MPG vehicle to make sense. .To illustrate, suppose you need an F150 mostly for work (12,000 miles) does it really make sense to purchase something like a Honda Civic to do another 3,000 miles? (12,000 to 15,000 miles yearly total, but it also happens to be the average yearly US total per driver). So say the gasser F150 gets 20 mpg. You might just as well do the additional 3,000 miles in the F150. If they make a diesel model available that gets 20-40% better fuel mileage that is 24 mpg to 28 mpg. Why would you switch to a MUCH smaller vehicle when you need a much larger vehicle for most of your miles and the larger vehicle gets pretty close to a lower figure for the higher mpg Honda? Needless to say the gain is huge and overall cost cheaper.
The other is just a diesel in place of a gasser (actually in all segments) would add a min of 20-40% better fuel mileage. So you can still buy the appropriate sized vehicle.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Edit: Hey, my 7,000th post! Woooot!
First of all as most folks know, the current fleet standard is 27 mpg. However it is commonly known (among those that uncommonly keep track of these things) the DEFACTO average is currently 22 mpg, for a deviance of 18.5%. So with the new 35 mpg standard a 18.5% deviance would be 28.5 mpg or 6.5 mpg more!!??
So the good news is quite a few and a high % of Civic owners are already there. (see my past post for a link to a very interesting 587 person Civic mpg poll) The interesting news is the so called compact/small cars population of which the Civic is in) are a minority position. (less than 25% of the passenger vehicle population). One consequence, might be the landscape(percentages and volumes) will not look much different if the implementation plan is not much different for the 35 mpg standard as it WAS for the 27 mpg standard.
Indeed if the deviance is MORE, not much will change at all. Consider for example the greater use of ethanol E85 (which was not even used in the past) is a min of 25% MORE consumptive than RUG to PUG . In a like model comparison a diesel model gets 56% mpg better than E85!!!! So it will be interesting to see what vol and % E85 is mandated.
i am driving about 22miles one way 70%hwy at 70~80mph on a daily basis. Here are my # w/ different cars that i have had.
08 Civic 4dr Ex manual, 34mpg
06 Sienna LE FWD, 23mpg
05 C230K sedan auto, 26mpg (gone)
03 4Runner RWD V6, 18mpg (gone)
02 Corolla S auto, 36mpg (gone)
the Civic is not that bad, really depends on how you drive.
i have some other #s but my driving route w/ those cars are different and i don't really care much about gas back then when gas price is $1/gallon
Best Regards,
Shipo