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2015 Subaru Outback Gas mileage

phreadphread Member Posts: 3
edited February 2015 in Subaru
Gas mileage as stated by Suburu for the 2015 Outback (2.5 engine) is 25-33 with a combined of 28. Mine has never attained that and it has been steadily dropping. Now it is displays as 19 mpg. It is new and has just under 500 miles on it, and I read that the break-in is 1000 miles. That being said, shouldn't I be seeing better MPG than that?

BTW - I am hoping that I am just not being fair (to the car and to Suburu) and that I'll be up in the advertised MPG's soon after I hit 1000 miles.

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Comments

  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited February 2015
    Too soon too tell (1,000 miles is probably too soon - I wouldn't start to get concerned until ~4,000 miles).

    Meanwhile you may want to start tracking your gas usage manually until you are sure the mpg display is accurate. Usually they are, but not always.
  • phreadphread Member Posts: 3
    Cool. That makes me feel better!!!

    Thx - Phread
  • phreadphread Member Posts: 3
    One other question(related?) that I possible should have added. Is there a way to reset the MPG that is displayed?
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    My old '97 Outback averaged 23.2 mpg, with an all time low (while I had it) of 13.16 and a record high of 32.48. Both tanks were probably anomalies. :)

    EPA on the '97 was 18-24, with a combined number of 21. It had the older 2.5. Beating the EPA is possible, assuming you don't have a bad commute. That'll hammer you. Mine was mostly a second car and leisurely driven.

    Enjoy the new ride!
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 11,049
    Is it cold where you live? Snow/cold weather cut mpgs significantly.
  • jfljfl Member Posts: 1,397
    Alas, there are many possible reasons for low mpg. If most of your driving consists of short trips where the engine doesn't fully warm up, mpg is usually low. Many people say winter gas blend lowers mpg.

    Long freeway drives within the speed limit usually exceeds the upper mpg.

    Totally clearing the computer (i.e. disconnecting the battery for a while) often leads to lower mpg while the computer re-learns your driving habits.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited February 2015
    phread said:

    One other question(related?) that I possible should have added. Is there a way to reset the MPG that is displayed?

    I think you fool around with the trip odometer (need to play with that on my van come to think of it). There's probably something buried in the owner's manual somewhere.
  • ray80ray80 Member Posts: 1,655
    I read elsewhere pressing and holding the trip button will reset MPG display (one of two perhaps), Never had a subie but as Steve suggests my vehicles tend to get better mileage around the 4000 mile mark, with perhaps smaller gains after that for another 4k miles.

    If I really wanted to see what a vehicle would do mileage wise after break-in period I might wait for a Sunday morning when temps are in 50's ~~> low 70's , grab a cup of coffee, and get in the interstate, set the cruise to 55MPH or so , reset MPG display and drive for 20 miles or so on flattest stretch you can find, Right or not quite right that's what I would do.
  • mntncougarmntncougar Member Posts: 1
    I own a 2015 Outback, and previously had a 2013 outback, which I traded in. I am a VERY high mileage driver, and I think, very well qualified to comment on the performance of these cars. The estimated gas mileage of the '15 actually may be conservative compared to my own experience, but there are some caveats. I've owned the car for just over 6 months and have 18,000 miles on it now, a large part of that from a 7 week trip to Arizona (from Connecticut) and back. During the cross-country driving the car got better than 34 MPG at times, and probably overall at least 32 to 33 MPG for long-distance driving. And out west the average interstate speed is around 75 MPH, so it does very well even at high speed.
    If you drive 1000 miles in a day across this country you will always end up with either a net increase or decrease in altitude, and over that distance it really does make a difference in the mileage, as much as 2 or 3 MPG at times. And of course short range, stop and start driving will cut into gas mileage greatly, but a typical mix of long and short range still produces about 29 MPG for me.
    But the biggest factors I've found, and it was even worse on the 2013, is the average temperature and the time of year. Colder temps mean longer warm-ups and mileage is much lower with the choke on. And in the northeast, even more important is the gasoline mix. We get a 10% ethanol mix during the fall/winter/spring months, and it cuts the mileage by around 10%. Easy to tell if you repeat the same drive a lot; just by watching the gas mileage you can tell when they start selling the ethanol mix. Right now I average about 28-29 MPG on the same drive that I got 32+ a couple of months ago. It's about 60 miles, so there is plenty of time for it to even out. And now that it's cold, if I take a very short drive with a cold engine I'm lucky to get 26.5 MPG or so.
    On other comment: I don't know if it's true with the 2015, but with the 2013 I am sure the car got less mileage when the air was colder, even with the engine warmed up. That car varied by as much as 5 to 6 MPG at times in extremely cold weather. I haven't had the 2015 over the winter yet so I don't know for sure, but it does not seem to be as much of a difference so far.
    Overall I am very pleased with the mileage of my new car, although not so much with some of its other "features."
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