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Subaru Outback 2008 MPG
I recently purchased a Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited Automatic transmission model. I do mostly city driving in upper Michigan area. I am getting 14 to 15 MPG with very careful driving in city. The dealer says I should go on a long drive and this will improve the mileage otherwise does not offer any solution. I doubt that a long drive on a highway will cure this problem after all i am not going to go daily on highway just to get better MPG. Any suggestions?
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-mike
Motorsports and Modifications Host
-mike
Motorsports and Modifications Host
winter tires, very short city trips and winter gas, the mileage is as low as 17. Of all the factors, it's the cold engine that makes for the worst mileage. With winter gas and snow tires, I still get about 25 on the highway.
Did your other cars give you worse mileage with time?
My worst tank was 16.9 - the last tank I had before I sold it. I attribute that primarily to its being in the shop for 5 days with frequent idling and short test trips followed immediately by -50 temperatures for the remainder of the tank.
Winter versus summer mileage here in Fairbanks shows huge variations - from 27 in the summer down to an average of around 19-20 in the winter for my Subarus. A friend's Toyota Prius gives her about 35 in the winter versus 50 (or more) in the summer. It takes more energy to get the cold parts turning....
-mike
I drove it in a more sane manner than I normally drive (being a race car driver I tend to be a bit hard on the pedals) and was able to get 25mpg in mixed city/highway with my 05 Legacy GT Turbo w/5MT wagon. I am also running 235 width tires v. 215s which are stock and these are also heavy heavy tires and rims. With stockers im sure I'd get at least 2mpg higher.
-mike
My 04 Dodge Cummins 4WD gets right at 19.7 mpg on my 28 mile commute of mixed rural and freeway driving rain or shine stop and go or not.
The change just doesn't make sense even with diesel as high as it is.
-mike
Subarus are among the most fuel efficient AWD in the market. Much more fuel efficient than CRv's, RAV4, Rogue. The outback is even more silent and relaxed on the highway despite the short gearing. 2450 rpm at 60 mph seems steep but that is the most efficient rpm for a gas engine.
It takes about 2 miles are so just for the engine to warm up and reach peak efficiency.
Another big thing too is inertia. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Rather than accelerating into a red light, a prolonged brake which slows you from 50mph to say 20mph, then have it turn green and reaccelerating is better than 50mph to 0, waiting 10 seconds, then reaccelerating back again.
Another thing - highway speeds deteriorate due to parasitic drag (roofracks, too) which also includes the skin of the automobile (wash your car more often, wax it.) etc. This parasitic drag increases with speed exponentially - just like on an airplane (I'm a pilot, had to study this crap) - and you'll really notice beyond 55mph you start getting around a 10% loss in fuel every 10 mph you go - maybe more, if you have accessories like A/C running.
I noticed on a trip from NJ to FL, I had amazing mileage through NJ, MD, and DE where the speed limits are lower - 55 mph in some parts - compared to VA, SC, NC where the speed limits are 70. It made the difference between 450 miles per tank (11.9 gal tank on my Civic) and 350.
Keep in mind that your sticker rating on the side of your car is based on a highway speed test at 55mph for the highway rating. If you have a lead foot, like my wife, then you really may want to consciously try slowing it down - just 5 mph or 10 mph for a week - and see if there's a difference.
Typically, on my average commute of 10 miles, with an average speed limit of 55, it takes me about 20 minutes. Going 5mph faster would only get me there about a minute or two faster, but I don't feel like getting pulled over by the cops that wait in the bushes (they're in the same spot every day, haha!)
Ethanol does NOT have as much bang for the buck compared to gasoline, and by that, I mean energy measured in joules per given volume of liquid. In addition, lower octane fuel doesn't give as much energy per joule compared to plus or premium.
I'm not recommending you go and buy plus or premium unless you do some quick math to find if the extra mileage you're getting (say 50 more miles to a tank with premium, but you're spending an extra 10 bucks at the pump), is worth it.
So, if it's 25 cents more per gallon to run premium, and you get 15 gallons, thats 3.75 more for premium gas.
That's a little under what a gallon of regular goes for around these parts in NJ, so you'd have to figure you'd need to get at least 25ish miles per tank in order to justify paying the initial premium.
This takes a little investigation on your part, but you may want to look into it. I found by running Plus Test (91) in my tank, it costs me an extra 1.00 or so at the pump when I fill up, but I end up walking away with another 50 miles. That makes up for the extra gallon and a half of regular I'd need for my Civic - so I've started filling it with Plus.
I knew math would come in handy some day.
I would keep in mind too that you could - keyword COULD - run into fuel injector issues if you continuously run 93+ octane in a car that says "Unleaded 87 or better". I usually run plus test when I have long road trips, and a tank of premium every few months.
If you want more information on why not to run premium constantly in a car built for 87 octane, Google it. There's a lot of returns.
Gasoline is sold by volume (gallons in the USA). Temperature is directly proportional to density (If you have thing "x" at two temperatures, one higher and one lower, the lower temperature one is more dense.)
My thought is, if you purchase gasoline in the early morning hours before the sun rises and starts re-heating the earth, you're getting more gasoline than when you purchase it in the middle of the afternoon. While the volume is the same, the density is different, and in theory you should be able to get better mileage out of the tank that was filled in the early morning.
Yours?
Bob
isn't a joule a joule regardless of its anti knock capability????
It's a minimal gain.
Bottom line is unless your car is tuned for premium (turbo cars/supercharged cars, higher performance cars) then you are wasting your $ on premium.
-mike
I drive like a grandma (no offense), between 58-63 mpg. I use the cruise control when possible and avoid all the jackrabbit starts at the line. Car only has about 3500 miles on it now, would like to see how mileage changes as we head to our camping spots in the mountains this fall.
-mike
The 2009 Forester actually has more leg room than the Legacy, IMHO. Try out the new one if you haven't already.
The cargo area is not as long, but it's taller and box-shaped, so in practice it's very useful.
You sit higher up to see better, and it costs a tad less. Resale is better - ask car_man for residuals and you'll see. I think it has a tad more ground clearance, too, and a tighter turning radius.
I do think the Outback has a nicer interior, though.
A half-tank in, I'm showing 23 MPG city/highway combined (about 6 miles highway and 4 miles city to work each way) with the Air Conditioner on constantly.
I did some quick math after the sale of my previous vehicle, a 2000 Honda Civic LX Automatic.
10 miles per gallon difference will end up being something like this for my Honda:
Subaru - 23 MPG Combined - 23 * 17 gallon tank = Range on Paper of 390 miles.
Honda - 30 MPG Combined - 30 * 11 gallon tank = Range on Paper of 330 miles.
In terms of a pricing standpoint, with gas at 3.50 a gallon here in NJ,
3.50 / 30mpg = 11.67 cents per mile
3.50 / 23mpg = 15.27 cents per mile
Assuming I drive 10,000 miles per year, I'll be paying $0.036 * 10,000 more in fuel a year.
That difference is $360. Is $360 worth surviving an accident? Better yet, is it worth having a vehicle that can help you AVOID the accident all together? My answer was yes.
I'm pleasantly surprised with the results so far. I'm taking a ride this weekend on a stretch of 50 miles of Highway, so I'll have to set the trip B MPG computer to figure that out. Unfortunately, I can't use Cruise Control yet until the break in's done - but that's ok, that's just another 800 miles away.
I guess with all the negative posts here I was expecting like 10 miles per gallon for the first couple thousand miles or so while the computer gets its act together.
Once you hit about 8-10k miles you'll be at optimal MPG.
I'm currently in a rental 08 Forester AT Base and I'm getting about 24mpg and I'm romping on this thing like a red-headed step child
-mike
Motorsports and Modifications Host
Taking it for a ride on highway up and down the GSP today and tomorrow for a few trips, I'll use Trip B to calculate highway MPG.
I've noticed that at startup the idle is high as per some posts on this forum (about 1.5k RPM) - but it seems to drop within about 30 seconds of startup down to under 1k RPM. Probably just a sensor or two that needs to get a little warmer. I'll keep my eye on it in the winter because people said they've actually stalled or borderline stalled.
I don't think the highway MPG on the LGT 5MT is lower than 21mpg? Heck when I had stock sized snows on I was getting 23mpg and driving saner.
On the highway even with the slicker wider tires I'm getting about 24mpg at 80mph, at 65 I can get 27mpg on the highway, but I never drive that way.
-mike
Motorsports and Modifications Host