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Subaru B9 Tribeca - Real World MPG Numbers
What sort of mileage are you seeing in your B9 Tribeca? Let's talk about it here.
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It seems as though for "around town" stuff I will get between 17.5 and 18.
Only complaint so far is the Nav system, very inaccurate (at times) in giving mileage to a particular destination. Also, the time shown to get to a destination is far, far off. I know it can vary depending on what particular route you may take. As example, from Prov, RI area to where we went in Jamaica, NY I have drive several times and approx 190 miles. So, why does the computer tell me less than 180? My car is now like a "crow" it must go over highways not in the air. Also, why would it tell me over 4 hours for the trip when it should only take around 3 hours 15 minutes driving time (not including traffic)
Anyone else out there have similar problems??
Your a Sucker I'm a Sucker we're all Suckers Too!!!!!!!
That's why we're having a real-world mpg reporting discussion, for the benefit of those who drive in the, um, real world.
For my first 1500 miles in current vehicle I have been using premium. I am aware that premium usage is "recommended' and not "required". During the next few weeks I expect I will play around and start to use mid and regular grade. Probably first try them when I am about eo embark on a long trip. Heck one trip to Montreal and I will burn what's in the tank in 6 hours. I have a feeling I will not notice any difference in performance and quite possibly in gas mileage either. When I know I will be close to home & maybe take a week to burn off on tank full, probablyh stick with premium. If no change in performance or gas consumption during highway usage, will then go to lower grade for around town. For anyone interested I will report back during the next few months what results I come up with.
Yes that's exactly what I'm saying.
The engine/transmission does work hard to get over the Mtn. passes but more than adequate power and sport-shifting does give more control over keeping the engine in the sweet spot.
By the way the Tribeca was a great traveling car for us. Lots of room to pack and move around, Seats were comfortable for all day, great ride and handling, ipod plugged in when the radio stations sucked, nav not perfect but very helpful and the rear DVD was handy when arriving at a campsite too late to set up a fire- had a couple of beers and watched a movie in the reclining back seats.
Not a perfect car but capable, comfortable and with great driving dynamics we are even happier with our purchase- ready to take her out for more road trips soon.
-juice
Only other problem low tire pressure light was on most of today on my 500 mile trip, stopped by a Subaru dealer in Bennington, VT. They were very pleasant, took my car into shop put it up on lift & determined one tire was about 2 lbs less than the rest, that was causing the light in dash to go on. I guess that sort of stuff covered under the basic 36,000 warrranty.
While I have everyone's attention how about some prices on extended warranties. I got 100,000, 5 year, Classic -0- deductible for $1000. Still time to turn it in, could I do better? How much more would the gold one cost for same time frame.
Quick question regarding you comment re. the engine/transmission working hard uphill, could you elaborate... was it difficult to accelorate? how hard did you have to really push it? did it maintain desired speed?
many thanks
I never had any problems with maintaining speed as long as you downshifted-even in quite steep passes, so sometimes you had to get down into third for short time-I must admit the engine doesn't have the greatest sound but gets the job done just fine. Even in third you are only going to get up into about 4500 RPM when you are pushing it and it will accelerate or maintain just about any speed up the steepest hill.
A lot of us have gotten used to having a vehicle with way more power than one really needs and so some folks get pissed that a vehicle even has to downshift. I think a modest sized efficient engine that works great in day to day driving and has to work a bit when called upon is just fine. Though one could make the argument that a more powerful engine would stay in the higher more efficient gears longer and thus could be more efficient (Toyota's 3.5 V6 comes to mind) that only goes so far. I noted Car & Driver didn't find the Lexus RX350 particularily efficient -about 16 MPG-despite the claimed EPA mileage estimates.
I drone on a bit but my take on it. I have a WRX for speed, the Tribeca is for comfort and function.
In stop-and-go traffic (city driving), I'll see as low as 15-16 mpg. On a trip just this past weekend, I averaged 25.6 for about 50 miles on a two-lane highway with little traffic and traveling about 60 mph the whole way.
I always run premium gas and I almost always use Sport Mode.
These are real-world numbers.
37,000 miles. Wow. That's exactly 36,874 miles more than what's on my Tribeca. :shades:
I've had trip computers in most of my vehicles since 1985. I've never had one that was completely accurate, but I've gotten used to relying on them as an indication that nothing is 'going wrong' with the vehicle, as long as the readings remain relatively consistent.
Back in the early days, I used to compute every tankful on a calculator to get accurate mpg numbers, but I've gotten away from that the last few years. I don't know if the absolute accuracy became less important or if I've just gotten lazy, but I do tend to use the trip computer numbers too literally these days.
So, maybe the number is 19.0 or 18.5 or something else. It's still right in the ballpark of the 18/23 EPA ratings, which I think is important to note.
Hey, you should have come a little farther to PEI. We have a motel here. Next time you come this way let me know. We have a Tribeca and now my father is getting one. So we could have a mini-Tribeca rally.
I want to get back to Halifax area, last was there in 2000 when they had the "tall ships" Love that area. Haven't been to PEI since then but used to go every year over there for a few days, stayed in Cavendish (White Eagle Cabins) Water nice & warm in summer but stopped going cause too many Jellyfish that time of year. I think you wrote to me once before (you bought your Tribeca in Maine somewhere?) areen't you in Bridgewater or Charlotte?
So our "host" wont throw out this message, let's chat a bit on the purpose of this forum. Are there yet any Subaru dealers in PEI? If not, I would imagine you will have to go down to Moncton or Fredrickton for service if you needed it?
You probably have the only Tribeca in PEI, right?
So in the next couple of weeks I will be going back to Maine to get my father his tribeca....a blue 5 pass limited. Also, you are right...Moncton is the closest dealer...1.5 hours from me. Hopefully they will get a dealer here again soon.
New member here. I was wondering what everyone's experiences were on using regular vs. premium gas for the B9? Vehicles that require premium are a major non-selling point for me, but, it seems several people here have used regular gas with no adverse effects.
Is it bad for a car like the B9 to put it on regular for the entire time one owns it? What would you advise?
Thanks.
-juice
Frankly- that's about the same mileage that I would have gotten from my 1999 4.3L v6 Chevy Blazer in the same conditions (with regular gas). About the same weight vehicle, with more torque but a bit less hp.
I'm neither impressed nor dissappointed.
-juice
For me, I'd rather have the extra acceleration in traffic, even though better MPG is probably the more "politically" correct choice.
-Karen in AZ-
Perhaps with the kind of commute you have there would be more of a difference in performance between both grades.
Premium fuel, with higher octane, slows the combustion of the fuel. So, in an engine designed for 91 octane- the spark timing is advanced a bit to allow for a smoother and more thorough combustion, and slightly higher power. If you use lower octane fuel, it will burn too fast- before the piston is ready to be pushed fully down, and you will get a 'knock'- so the car, with a knock sensor, will retard the ignition timing to avoid the knock, and thereby reduce power a bit.
This comes into play mostly at lower RPM, as at higher RPMs you don't have very much time for combustion anyway.
So- when on the highway at higher RPM, you can get away with lower octane (faster burning) fuel (I think??). When lugging the engine up a grade at low RPM, higher octane is more important.
Also- when it's hotter, fuel burns faster, so the hotter the temp (or your engine as well as the air being sucked into it), the more important higher octane fuel becomes. If it's cold and you're running continuously at higher RPMs, you probably won't notice much of a differene between octane grades.
There's also more oxygen in the air at lower altitudes, so you need a higher octane in Los Angeles than you do in Denver... but it comes that way at the pumps in different locations. The oil companies already know this, so they offer us lower octane fuel in locations where they know that we don't need it.
Car will get another test starting tomorrow morning, have around a 1200 mile trip up from Prov RI area up near Kingston Ont, upto Montreal & back home Thursday evening. Already filled with high test now but next fill up in NY State I may try regular when tank almost empty. See what happens.....
So the drop in mileage probably has more to do with the fact that you had to mash the throttle to get the same performance from lower octane.
Performance will drop, no question. Back when the H6 made 212hp, Subaru actually officially rated the engine at 208hp on regular fuel, so you lost 4hp. With a higher-tuned engine, you may lost more, say 6-10 hp or so.
The knock sensor will retard the spark timing to prevent pre-ignition, and retarded timing produces less HP. You probably use more throttle to compensate, and that means lower MPG.
So go for the premium. The difference only adds up to about $150 per year, or just $12 a month.
-juice
Nissan Pathfinder has the same engine as the Frontier, Pathy requires Premium and gets 15hp and 10lbs torque more than the Frontier.
Infinity QX56 gets 315hp and 395lbs torque from the 5.6L engine in my Armada on premium v. 305 and 383 on regular in my truck.
One of the Nissan boards did a cool comparison, took the QX56 dynoed it, reset the computer and ran it on 87. Took an armada and dynoed it then reset and ran on premium. Guess what? The dyno charts for the QX56 on regular was the same as the Armada on regular and the Armada on Premium was the same as the QX56 on premium.
I'm not sure what they did in 07 to increase the HP to 317 on the Armada so I can only vouche for the older 2004-2006 models.
-mike
-juice
I just read this..thanks Morey
BTW,my 2.5 only averages approx 25mpg so
the H6 is not doing badly at all considering
everything.
-juice
What's the most anyone has filled into this 16.9 gallon tank? I'm claiming the record at 17.0 gal (somebody call Guiness)
I wouldn't be surprised if you get a Check-Engine Light. Hope you don't. :sick:
-juice
Tell me I am crazy, but I always watch gas mileage very closely & fill the tank to the brim, every time. I am so nuts about doing this, I have small booklet in car with me, and have now for over 30 years recorded date, mileage, and gas put in. Starting about 10 - 15 years ago when cars put in outside temperature guages I added that info; shortly thereafter when I began to have cars with trip computers I added what the computer said at the time of each fill up.
Having my Tribeca for a little less than 5 months now (was a demo) have put on around 14,500 miles on it. Per trip computer, average miles since I got the vehicle between 21.3 and 21.6. When I last calculated actual mileage per consumption, it was something like 20.5, but I will summarize that again shortly.
On a recent trip back from NY State, managed to go 375 miles and was able to put in 17.32 gallons, which meant actualy consumption was 21.7, although trip computer read 23.7.
What upset me was that about 30 miles before I filled it up the light went on & computer told me I had about 50 miles to go before running out. I made it back to Albany, NY where I figured I would run out (the guage had absolutly no "bars" left at all so I filled up. Wanted to make it back to Mass Border as gas around 10 cents gallon less but not able to.
Good thing I did cause putting in 17.3 gallons must have meant I was running on fumes. So, Morey, I now claim the record! I doubt if any other Tribeca will beat that unless they had to get towed to the gas station!
Obviously mostly highway driving with all the miles I drive. Last fill up was a record. From Albany, NY back to Prov RI area 175 miles, per trip computer 26.1, put in 6.7 gallons so actual was also 26.1. I have no explanation why I got such good mileage on last fill up. As I mentioned, filled to brim with 17.3 prior to last fill up, so we know that was full or pretty damn close to full and when filled again may have been able to squeeze in 7 gallons, but that would have still meant averaging 25 mpg.
... however- I might want to have Guiness verify the calibration sticker on the pump you used.
-Karen in AZ-
-mike
PS I think there is a 2 gallon reserve as well.
I like to fill up as much as I can, thus mimimizing the number of times I have to stop for gas. When I head up to Quebec, I want enough fuel to last up to the border, thus avoid having to purchase any gas in Canada, which is somewhat more expensive.
Other reason I want to minimize amount of times I stop for gas is that invariably I will purchase a $2.00 scratch ticket. Rarely if if win, is would be for more than $2, or, if I am real lucky, maybe $4 or $5. I would say for every $100 I spend in scratch tickets, may be I win back a third of my investment. So, the fewer times I stop at gas less often I have a chance to buy a scratch ticket, thus saving me money in the long run.
With that said, I fill to the brim too.
-mike
So- the verdict is:
Fill to the brim... as long as it's under warranty.
-Brian
-Brian