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What kind of driving do you do? If you drive a lot on the highway, the Civic, for instance, gets an excellent mileage. Unfortunately, you cannot have a Civic in hatchback, unlike in Europe.
Specifically, I am talking automatic .... (hip problem is forcing me to switch from a 2000 manual Saturn SL which actually gets darn good mileage... 31-42 mpg depending on conditions).
We own a Fit Sport with AT, and have noticed that the mileage can really suffer if you let the VTEC have its own way (fun but you pay for it). Also, the Fit seems to have a relatively narrow sweet spot where you can get an excellent mileage. If you are driving in the zone, however, the Fit can deliver some amazing numbers, and we have certainly had many of those.
If they are not seated well, oil can leak past them, leading to high engine oil consumption, especially after the engine has a few 10Ks under its belt.
You basically get one shot at really seating the piston rings well. Of course, knowing that people won't even OPEN the owner's manual, much less follow recommended procedures for engine break-in, manufacturers have in recent years begun changing their practices so that less of the break-in falls on the owner's shoulders. From what I hear, some car companies don't have any break-in recommendations any more.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Anyway, I've read that going uphill is no problem for you guys, but there was this stretch of road on the 5 where I had to go uphill several times, and my MPH dropped quickly from 70 to 55, even though I had the pedal pushed pretty far down. I didn't have the AC on. I was in the middle lane and my face was turning red as cars passed me left and right. Is this supposed to happen? Would using the S mode and downshifting make a difference? I don't know much about manual driving.
Okay, here's the MPG estimate. I drove 266 miles before filling up with 7.0 gallons, so that comes out to be 38 MPG. This was on 98% highway, with some uphills in the beginning of the trip. Luckily it was cloudy and only patches of sunlight shown through every now and then, so I had the AC on at the lowest setting for ~1/3 of the distance. I drove at 80 MPH 50% of the distance, 70-80 30%, and 55-70 the other 20%. There were 2 people in the car.
AC use is AC use. The compressor will cycle just as much with the fan set on 1 as it will on 4. So, if you want A/C, don't be afraid to really make it blow.
Are you sure? I'm under the impression that the duty cycle will decrease at low fan speeds since the evaporator coils cannot absorb nearly as much heat energy which in turn allows low-side system pressure to fall faster when the compressor is running.
If I'm wrong in my assumption of the Fit, I certainly apoligize.
Don't hesitate to correct me, though, as my knowledge in this area is somewhat moldy.
Seems the compressor runs constantly unless "AC OFF" is engaged. In "Auto" mode the temperature seems to be controlled more by adding or not adding hot air to achieve desired temperature.
Kip
For people like my aunt, who has an A.C.C. Odyssey EX, the "Set it and Forget it" method of the Honda is best.
Guess it's "broken in" now?
I've been taking it real easy on the gas pedal. My 26 mile (one way) commute has been mostly at 60 MPH with cruise control (2200 RPM).
31.870 MPG - 1st fill up.
31.871 MPG - 2nd fill up.
I suppose that's an upward trend!
Somehow, I was expecting better.
-Marge
Those numbers aren't good if you are in fact going 60 all the time with very limited city driving/idling. My 2.4L Accord gets 37 MPG at 75 MPH.
It's too cold for the AC here in Cleveland. (It's too cold for baseball, also - but that doesn't stop them).
I got the Fit for my commute. 2 miles of city driving until the freeway. 25 miles of freeway using (mostly) cruise control as described. Three traffic signals from the exit ramp to my workplace.
I've been driving like a sissy, trying to save gas (and following 'break-in' advice).
Wondering if you see much improvement as it ages... If so, when?
Any other ideas??
Thanks,
-Marge
Do you carry a lot of weight around in the vehicle? Are the tires properly inflated? There are so many tips for maximizing your mileage, in addition to using cruise and driving under 65. How you drive in traffic is important, whether or not you accelerate up to stops or you coast, for one example. And tire inflation, of course, is important, as is how much weight is in the car.
Good luck to you, and I recommend logging your gas purchases/mileage at fueleconomy.gov. I've logged all of mine there, since purchase of the vehicle.
(1) There is more drag because the cold air is denser;
(2) In some states, they add in ethanol in winter, which hurts the mileage;
(3) Your car tends to run on the richer side in the fuel/air mix until it warms up, again hurting the milage.
Just because (3) is true, you should not change the habit and spend five minutes warming up the car, since that will hurt the mileage even more. I think that (3) is probably the biggest element here nevertheless.
And of course, your car is rather new, which might be contributing to the lower mileage, although when we first got our Fit Sport, we recorded 39 MPG in the first 500 miles (albeit in November in Minnesota) of mostly freeway driving.
It takes very little city drivng to bring down highway numbers.
I have an idea that it might be the gasoline - I have been filling up on Wednesdays at a car wash that lowers their price every Wednesday. I changed to name brand gas last fill up and intend to get name brand gas next fill up. I'll have results in the next week or two..
Could the gas I use affect MPG very much? Stay tuned...
Thanks,
-Marge
Do the math and you will see what I mean. If time is hard to grasp I will simplify it a little. You have to consider how many gallons you are using at the low mpg portions of your drive vs how many gallons you use during the high mpg portions.
If you drive 20 miles at 40 mpg you use .5 gallons. You then continue on by driving 20 more miles at 10 mpg (this could happen with brutal traffic) which uses 2 gallons.
If you think the way many people do you will say that half my miles are at 40 mpg and half are at 10 mpg so my overall mpg is about the average of the two - 25 mpg.
If you do the actual math the results are quite different. 40 miles divided by 2.5 gallons is only 16 mpg.
The results lean heavily towards the city portion because you spend more gallons (and more time) in the city portion of the drive.
For the true mpg to equal the "intuitive" average you would have to use the same amount of gasoline for both portions of the drive. So 20 miles at 40 mpg = .5 gallons. 5 miles at 10 mpg also = .5 gallons. 25 miles on 1 gallon = 25 miles per gallon.
So you are doing 4 times as much highway as city to get to the point where you can average the two.
radiolandog, the quality/content of gas can influence your mileage, though it is sometimes hard to tell how significantly. A much easier situation is one in which you use E85 (don't try it on your Fit - it is not compatible), where switching from pure gasoline or even E10 shows a dramatic drop in the gas mileage. Even if the difference is not as clear as E85, there is no doubt at all that the known or unknown content of your fuel can impact how many miles you get out of the same gallon because it is all about how much energy is available to be released. Anecdotally, people have tried successfully to improve their MPG by finding "right" gas stations at which they buy gas. Let us know how it goes after you try a new station.
So far on the 2nd tank, I'm averaging about 31.2 MPG according to my ScanGauge II.
Mike's Blog
You're right in that it's one way to look at it. However, most people (like me) have a commute that's a combination of highway and non-highway, so what I'm calculating is the average MPG of the total trip. It's not like I'm filling up the tank after my city portion and then on my highway portion. So my commute is about 15 miles with about 75% of that (a little over 11 miles) on the highway, and I get about 34mpg plus or minus depending on my speed and weather (winter is worse mpg).
In your example it doesn't have anything to do with time, or how long one is driving in either city or on the highway, but rather that MPG is a miles per gallon and not a gallon per mile calculation. In Europe, they use liters per 100 km driven, so it's easier to do the type of average you're talking about.
The large and small amounts can certainly be measured it time as it correlates to the mpg. If you take an hour to drive 1 mile you will get terrible mpg. If you take one minute to go the next mile you will get excellent mpg. You can then wonder why you get terrible mpg overall because half your commute is highway or you can realize that over 95 percent of your commuting time is in the city and understand that you mpg should be terrible.
The reason for using time is precisely because people don't compute their mpg while they drive, they can howerver very easily figure out how much time they spend in city vs highway driving.
31.870 MPG - 1st fill up.
31.871 MPG - 2nd fill up.
Well - about that second fill-up....
When I picked up the car, it did not have a full tank. So, prior to the two fillups listed above I had to fill up the tank for the initial time. I could not compute an MPG for that fill up as that was the first time the gas tank was ever full.
When Honda called with a follow-up survey about my new Fit (2008 Sport AT) and I did mention that the gas tank was not full when I picked up the car. The dealer later called me and offered to fill up the tank. I took them up on that offer.
So, my last fill up was by the dealer. I do not know if they stopped at the first click, or not. I did notice that I thought I was getting better mileage by how many miles was registering as the gas gauge went down. THAT got me thinking of whether the brand of gas matters, and where I was buying gas - which was a car wash that discounts their gas each Wednesday.
Since then I have learned about "top tier" gas (http://www.toptiergas.com/), so today I filled up at Shell (the only one in Ohio listed).
Anyways, with this fill up I computed 37.5 MPG.
Like I said, I'm not sure if the dealer topped it off past the first click, but I am hopeful that my mileage is getting into the range that I was anticipating.
My 3 tank avg is 33.7.
Looking better.... No more car wash gas for my Fit.
Things seem better three weeks into it. Give it some time and maybe feed it top tier gas - http://www.toptiergas.com/
I realize my Fit Sport AT isn't broke in yet and may get a little better MPG after break in. But I don't see it getting much better because the way I have been driving it. I really attempted to get the best MPG out of it so I could brag it up to my gas pals that still drive the gas gusllers.
I guess i will have to hang on to my Fit for a year but after a year if I'm not getting 35+ MPG we will have to part ways. Something this small with the lack of power it has has do to do me more MPG than what I'm reading on this site. i wish I had found this site before I bought the Fit. I knew how the Civics do on MPG and I was told to expect the Fit to do a little better. Hind sight is 20X20 but I sure wish my wife and me had drive home two Civics Saturday
For 2007 (which recall was only 6 month for the Fit), it averaged 35.75 MPG.
For 2008 (to date), it has averaged 34.42 MPG.
Highway miles are definitely better; I haven't driven a full tank exclusively on the highway but those tanks are always better, around 38 MPG. That's with highway miles totaling about 1/4 of the tank in total. I suspect that a full "highway run" with the entire tank would hit anywhere from 40 - 45 MPG; I should be able to find out for sure later this summer.
In my experience the Fit does not perform as well in colder weather; I've seen a definite drop in the colder months. This doesn't surprise me at all.
I love my Fit!
Ferretman
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and the old and new MPG govt figures side by side for the FIT
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So if you just got a Honda Fit , dont get all uptight with the MPG just be glad because at least you can park anywhere with ease and with space on all sides which can avoid the parking lot dings. I really like my Fit !!! :shades: