Impressive Fuel Economy on Oregon Road Trip - 2016 Honda Pilot Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Impressive Fuel Economy on Oregon Road Trip - 2016 Honda Pilot Long-Term Road Test

Our 2016 Honda Pilot turned in miserable fuel economy on last December's run to Oregon, but it did significantly better during this summer's follow-up trip.

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dm7279

Typical for the built in average MPG meter. Every vehicle I've driven from many different brands has been 10% or so optimistic with this calculation.

kirkhilles1

Interesting. I will say that in our older tech 13 Pilot that Speed and Incline are HUGE factors in MPG. We average about 19.5 MPG and that'll stretch out to about 23 MPG when travelling 75+ MPH on the Interstate, but we got nearly 30 MPG (!) when travelling from North GA to Alabama on one trip for about 200 miles. It was 60 MPG and flat. No stopping, no hard acceleration needed. As soon as we hit the Interstate and started going 70+, that MPG number tanked. Obviously things like stop lights are killers too and it's why I'll get 46 MPG on the highway on the Civic, but only 34 MPG with lights and slowing down and such.

craigo7

I've found recent Mazda's calculators to be fairly accurate

carguydaryl

Yeah, kirkhilles1, our 2011 is the same. I can coax 22-23 out of it at 60-65 on flat or gentle rolling terrain (ours doesn't have the mpg updates that hit in 2012) but any load, hills or wind and it tanks. I consider it a success when we get 20 on a trip. In the city its 16-17, when we tow our trailer up some hills its 12.

I like the idea of an EXL with the 6speed as it looks like people hit low-mid 20's without too much effort. That sure would be nice, but not sure if its worth the exchange in dollars, utility, passenger room and ground clearance of our 2011.

legacygt

My 2009 CX-9 was pretty accurate with the trip computer. mpg calculation. Never more than 1 mpg on the high side. My 2015 Durango tends to be 1-2 mpg above my calculations.

s197gt

craigo7 said:

I've found recent Mazda's calculators to be fairly accurate

our 2011 cx-9 under-reports mpg consistently by .5 mpg; always a nice result when i do the calculation manually.

agent0090

kirkhilles1 said:

Interesting. I will say that in our older tech 13 Pilot that Speed and Incline are HUGE factors in MPG.

Interesting that in his breakdown elevation didn't seem to play much of a role.

carzzi

Have any of the Edmunds staff used the ECON button to help with fuel consumption? I find that it dulls throttle response tremendously, so much so that it turns the Pilot into a rolling chicane in city/suburban traffic, unless the accelerator is deeply prodded.

I'll be taking it soon on a 400 mile round-trip; guessing that the wider hysteresis-loop cruise control that ECON engages, with its lower loading on the AC compressor results in mpg improvement.