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ECO is only for local driving and the ECO system is unable to distiguish these driving types on its own (why I dont know). If you are doing mostly highway, turn off the ECO.
I dont care what the dealer says.
Anyone know anything definitive in detail about the system? Appears it tries to keep car in highest gear possible, wanting to delay downshifts when accelerating and upshifting as soon as it can. But unlike Honda's more advanced system, it doesn't apear to impact A/C or heater. I've noticed the car tries to quickly get to 4th gear in town (direct drive 1:1) but then doesn't want to get into 5th (an overdrive) until 30-35 mph.
The owner's manual also states: "your vehicle does not require extended warm-up. After the engine has started, allow the engine to run for 10 to 20 seconds prior to placing [it] in gear. In very cold weather, however, give your engine a slightly longer-warm-up period." Following this will save some gas for those who like to warm their car up for a minute or more.
Not trying to get into a critical discussion on your technique for using cruise control verses mine. I have found that using cruise control as much as I can, including city driving in DFW, increases my mileage by a measurable amount; which is what this discussion topic is about.
When I need to deselect cruise, I push the brake pedal; same as when I am NOT using cruise control and need to slow down.
Owner's Manuals are written by attorneys trying to mitigate risk for the manufacturer (i.e., see Your Honor we told them not to use the cell phone when driving... even though we have bluetooth, etc...)
If you want to improve your mpg, give cruise a try. If you think it is less safe, than don't use it.
I do not use it in stop and go traffic, but if I am going from red light to red light with two blocks in between, absolutely.
But to each his own, I guess.
That sounds like stop and go traffic to me. lol It also sounds like not much fun driving worrying about cruise every 2 seconds.
Anyway. 3rd tank gone and the avg was 24.8 with mostly city driving this time.
I filled up with Sunoco. Car is over 1000 miles now. If no improvement I will be passing on this complaint to the service manager.
After several months of ownership I have yet to reach 30mpg. I drive alone, use the ECO mode at all times. I coast to stop signs and red lights. I slip the transmission into neutral when safety permits. I do not carry anything in the car, nor do I make jack rabbit starts or sudden stops. When on the freeway I use cruise control with the tachometer set at around 1,500 RPMs.
I am extremely upset by what I now recognize as false mileage sales pitches by Hyundai. My goal is to trade this guzzler in for a vehicle that brand that actually conforms to their fuel economy listings.
I want Hyundai to compensate me for this deceptive MPG claim. I will not cease in my efforts to bring this to a successful end. There are many options available to the consumer that will result in a flood of paperwork on your end.
Recalls are one thing, but lies are not to be taken lightly.
What actions have you taken so far? One thing that would be interesting to do is rent a 2012 Elantra GLS for a day and drive it as you usually do, and see what the mpg is. If there's a significant difference with your car, that will be good evidence to take to your dealer.
What mpg did you get in your Sonata under the same driving conditions?
The new Elantra's 6th gear is very high to allow for low RPM (efficient) hwy performance. The 1.8L engine, relatively low curb weight, and aerodymanic body allow this car to achieve 40mpg at 65mph on the hwy under ideal driving conditions. The 33mpg combined number is obtainable by conservative drivers under ideal driving conditions (50% City/50% Hwy, good weather, and maintained vehicle). Getting 29mpg City is going to be tough for all but the hyper-milers.
For the life of me I can't figure out how people are getting 29mpg Hwy mileage unless they're driving Denver to Vail in the winter. I think about the weight, gearing, and engine in this car and just can't figure it out. :confuse:
I do not doubt that others are having issues with the published Elantra mpg, but I have never gotten less than 30 mpg on any tank, whether I use the onboard mpg display or simply calculate mpg from gallons added when refueling.
It's too bad for the other folks and maybe I have a "good" one.
I would think anything in the low 20s is cause for a dealer fix or buyback.
Consider that if you dont see a number 55 MPH or above...its not likely you'll get 40 MPG as you're not really doing highway driving.
I'm convinced that many people think they do more highway driving then the actually do. My average is between 29 and 40 MPH. I seem to get about 30 MPG. I'd like to get 40 MPG but dont see how I will achieve that if I am not driving in a manner that will allow that to happen.
Do I think Hyundai has been deceptive. Yeah, as they are heavily advertising the 40MPG and not the 33MPG combined. That sets an expectation with consumers that it is an achievable number with ordinary driving. That clearly does not seem to be the case.
Perhaps Hyundai can address this with a new computer flash. Their doing so will depend on the level or pressure they receive from consumers and the EPA.
:surprise:
At this point I feel that I should sell the car and buy something that I will like. From this I have learned, if you are buying a car for MPG you should test the MPG on the test drive, what is on the window sticker means nothing.
Oh, and I will NEVER BUY A HYUNDAI AGAIN!
Anyone who believes they are having serious mpg issues, either city or highway, probably should find some decent "test" area that is decently near your Hyundai dealer. Say some near perfectly level piece of road or highway that is at least 5 miles with no stoplights or stopsigns and not too much traffic. Then check out your computer's mpg reading while driving it continuously at legal speed (say 35 mph for city/suburban or even rural and 65 mph highway/interstate). If when you drive this the reading is seriously low (say 30 mpg for 65 mph steady driving or 20 mpg for steady 35 mph driving), drive the same road a couple of times and see what the average result is. Then if it is still horrible, see if you could get your Hyundai service advisor to drive the same route in your car and watch the readings. At least the advisor would know the road and speed that lead to such a horrible result.
This past week, I traded in an '07 Tiburon for something more fuel efficient so I decided to go with the Accent. I must say I am VERY satisfied with the Accent. Sure, it has a smaller engine, but when it comes to mpgs, it hits the mark rather well. So far I am around 38-39mpg and this is with driving the same percentage of time on the highway, same route, same driving style.
I made mention of the mpg decline to my dealer for the Elantraand they said to do a fuel consumption test because the avg mpg indicator on the dash isn't that accurate. To my dismay, I did the test, did the math and low and behold, the results were actually very close to what the indicator was giving me in the first place. The last time I was at the dealer, I rather sarcastically mentioned that I may have bought a "friday car".
Needless to say, now that I have a good base comparison, I have to jump on the bandwagon of dissatisfied customers over the Elantra. Fortunately the opposite holds true with the Accent. No complaints about the build, function, performance...I should have bought that instead of the Elantra at the time!
Not long after I bought this car, I received a very detailed survey from Hyundai which was supposedly going to the Hyundai engineers, to which I aired my frustrations and even made suggestions about how the transmission is NOT acting the way it should for normal acceleration onto highways. I still have yet to hear back and I shudder to think that they are ignoring me (us).
I seriously think the MPG issue is tied moreso to the transmission and how it handles acceleration. There is nothing ECO about it, as this is driven home by the dealers and advertisers for the sake of, how do they put it "makes shifting easier and it's easier on the engine"? I would really like to pick the Hyundai engineers brains to find out what the heck they were thinking when they designed the powertrain and equated their super gas mileage to it?
With my ongoing comparison between the Elantra and the Accent, my Accent is getting a solid 38mpg highway which is still over 4mpg to the Elantra. Yeah, I know, smaller car, smaller engine but not by much and as far as engine control features, they are the same.
The Elantra is geared very conservatively in order to get good fuel economy. Both the individual gear ratios as well as the final drive ratio were selected to max out FE, not acceleration. So attempting to accelerate aggressively at speed means forcing the transmission to downshift, thus raising RPMs. Aggressively accelerating from a stop means the tranmsission holds the lower gears longer, esp. 1st and 2nd which are the least fuel efficient.
I've noticed that in city driving the automatic transmission attempts to get to 4th (direct drive, 1-1) gear ASAP (by 25 mph) but it won't go into overdrive 5th until about 30-35 mph, and even deeper overdrive 6th until 35-40 mph. Max FE comes from being in OD 6th with steady speed driving.
This is a small economy sedan with a small engine and should be driven as such if you want FE. That means slow acceleration from stops and smooth acceleration while at speed. But if you want acceleration, then you'll give up your FE. You cannot have both simultaneously.
At first, I drove the Elantra exclusively and then after a bout of guilt over having the new car in the house (not to mention my wife's constant boo-boo lip), I gave it up and let her have it. I know her driving style is more cautious than I (albeit her brake usage is a bit excessive), and even with her now driving the Elantra, the mpgs have not improved. Currently, we have about 6000 miles on it and again, no decent improvement. Here's a kicker though, the manual states that the oil should be changed every 7500 miles, but according to the dealership, it's still 3500. They like to call it "extreme conditions maintenance". It's wintertime now, no 100 degree temps, so explain why we are still in extreme conditions? Beh, I digress.
Another oddity with the Elantra's info panel. Everytime gas is replaced in the tank, a full reset of the counts is done (i.e. trip, mpg avg, ETA, range). I noticed before and I assume it still happens that the range goes down every time a fill up is done. I know that the range is supposed to indicate the amount of miles you can drive on the tank...shouldn't that stay consistent? Now, before someone chimes in with the obvious an answer of "well you may be approaching the time to change the oil", this has been occuring ever since I got the car, meaning that when the car was brand spanking new, the range would decline.
I cannot seem to shake the feeling that perhaps the computer is not reporting correctly. If that were the case, it's an easy fix and I would be a happy camper if after being fixed, the reports would be more of what I would expect out of the performance of the vehicle.
Hopefully this helps.
In their February 2012 print issue, Motor Trend provided an update of their long-term 2012 Elantra stating the vehicle has yielded 20.7 MPG in three months of service. We immediately knew something wasn’t right with this number and reached out to them to learn more. Motor Trend discovered this number to be a typo from their actual test data and has since corrected the number to a spirited 25.6 MPG in the on-line edition of the article [LINK]. However, the correction cannot be made to the print edition as it has already circulated. We know this has caused some confusion for some owners and shoppers which is why we’d like to make sure everyone is aware of the 20.7 misprint error. If you have any questions, please Tweet us at @Hyundai.
– Rob L, Hyundai Product PR Manager
I am glad PM emphasized that even though they achieved very good FE marks in their tests, "your mileage may vary." Aint' that the truth.
Mid-30MPG in city driving. That is amazing. The simple physics involved in accelerating a 3000 pound vehicle in stop and go traffic coupled with the idle time at intersections? 34-35mpg in city driving is an achievement worthy of a Nobel Peace prize.
If I get an Elantra again, I'll report the mileage here.
The difference being the tenths were increasing instead of dropping back towards 24 driving the same routes.
After the 4th fill up at sunoco yesterday, while on the highway, I reset the mileage gauge and actually got readings of 38-40. I was in shock because in the past i was getting 28-30. In fact i was getting readings of close to 33 for the day which included 50/50.
Today I had to take a a 100 mile round trip. On the highway I was getting 40mpg with cruise at 60, 38 with cruise at 65 and 36 with cruise at 70.
On the return trip, I reset the the mileage gauge and got 40! It was about 50% highway, 25% country roads, and 25% of stoplights every mile or so.
I use cruise the entire trip. The averages are all computer based as I did not fill up.
I'd say I noticed the mileage increase at about 1200 miles. I don't know if the gas had anything to do with it - I would have to switch back to be sure.
Popular Mechanics tested the car and got even better then the 40mpg highway and were closer to 50 mpg. Again it is all on how you drive. I have been getting over 40 on the highway and over 30 in the city with the Elantra without an issue. These tests back it up.
What you're not taking into account is that there MAY BE a flaw in SOME of the vehicles that is preventing owners, regardless of driving habits, from achieving acceptable MPGs. You can show all of the tests you like, but I can tell you right now that we are seeing pervasive complaints about this vehicle (and one other vehicle) that we are not seeing about other models. Even in models that are touted as having similar MPG ratings, that sell a higher volume of product - we aren't seeing near the number of complaints about MPG, even at the same break-in period.
So, if you want to believe that Elantra drivers are way, way more aggressive drivers, by a big majority, than, say, Civic drivers, that's your choice, but it pretty much defies logic and statistical probability.
We also see the same complaint in our consumer vehicle reviews, and there isn't a lot of crossover between those reviewers and forums posters:
http://www.edmunds.com/hyundai/elantra/2011/consumer-reviews.html?sub=sedan
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Any customers that feel there is a defect should visit their dealer to ensure that is not the case. Our quality standards are very high. We stand behind our products. Studies and independent tests show that actual mpg figures are in line with what we advertise. Popular Mechanics is the latest we've seen. The independently-run JD Power APEAL study conducted recently showed that our owners are most satisfied with mpg in the compact segment, above any other competitor. In fact, over 50% of our owners rate fuel economy and driving range as a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. That figure is 7% higher than the next highest rated competitor.
Back in December we released a document on Twitter attempting to help explain any discrepancy.
http://scr.bi/ElantraMPG
I hope this helps explain some of the concerns and factors that affect fuel economy.
- Rob L, Hyundai Product PR Manager
I didn't purchase my vehicle for MPG, and I barely pay attention to what I get. I needed an AWD vehicle, and I can sure tell you I'd notice if that weren't performing to expectations, even if everything else was great. We see a similar complaint from buyers who were swayed to some Ford vehicles by the My Touch/Sync system that isn't working properly. They have no complaints about other aspects, but that feature is making them sour on the whole vehicle.
If people are achieving WAY below what they expected, and are beyond a break-in period, and are taking steps to maximize fuel efficiency, I would most certainly recommend that they take it to a dealership - repeatedly and persistently if necessary.
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But... what was expected?
My advice is and has been, if the FE of a car is significantly lower than the EPA rating on a controlled test (details for which I've posted in these discussions numerous times so will not bore everyone here), under best-case conditions, then it's time to take it into the dealer since a problem with the car is one of the few variables left.
All things being equal except for gas (Giant vs Sunoco) and car odometer 600 vs 1400.
I really hope my mpg issues are over.
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I was hoping to complete another Elantra mileage report this week but alas, Enterprise gave me a 2011 Toyota Camry LE. I didn't experience any unintended acceleration on the trip, so that's a plus. :surprise: