By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
Best Regards,
Shipo
Best Regards,
Shipo
Radio, CD players, glass, and the starter on MT (park on a hill) aren't really necessary. They are just a convenience. Without glass the AC and heater won't be effective, so chunk both of them. Also the inside door panels, door locks, window motors and all the heavy associated wiring is now obsolete.
How often do we really need/use the air bags or seat belts. They really aren't needed any more than the spare tire. Anti-lock brakes and vehicle stabilization are nice but add weight. Chunk em! We can shave our heads and drive naked with our clothes in a plastic bag and suspended from a balloon filled with helium.
Now the car is so light that we can replace the wheels, tires, and brakes with motorcycle components. And fill those tires with helium. That large gas tank is simply not necessary. Replace it with a 1-2 gallon plastic can and mount it high so gravity can take the place of the fuel pump we just discarded. Why carry 60-100 pounds of fuel around ? A gallon of paint is heavy, sand it off !
Of course this post is ridiculous! But so are some of the other suggestions posted here. Some of us will, but most of us will not keep a car 100K miles. So spending money that requires 100K for "pay back" doesn't make much sense to me.
Everything on modern cars is there for a reason. Including the spare and the lug nuts and all the safety devices, and the seats. . We have the option of buying the entry level of some cars that don't have electric windows, AC, and such but most of us want those things. The one thing that affects mileage more than any other is the driver. Makes no difference, the terrain, traffic conditions, or weather. The driver that is skilled at achieving the best mileage for conditions, will win out every time. The driver with a heavy foot that thinks they can "Buy" their way to great mileage, such as K&N intakes, fuel additives, light weight but expensive components, or remove enough of the car to make a difference is dreaming.
There is one thing they can buy that will help. That would be a Scan Gauge. However they will have to go to some effort to learn and actually practice using it.
Kip
You get good mileage. Probably without a lot of costly alterations.
You will likely get better mileage than the average person in a "like vehicle", with most anything you drive.
It is a knack that some people naturally have, others can learn it, yet most simply can not.
Kip
I just recently purchased a Civic EX Automatic. When it came off the dealer's lot, I think the fuel indicator was off by 1 bar(or may be 2). I have barely driven about 90 miles right now and the fuel indicator is down to about 50%. I have been driving around in suburban traffic and have been gentle on the breaking and acceleration. I am not sure exactly what my mileage has been as of now, but if I were to use the fuel gauge as any kind of indicator it does seem a bit low. Should I expect better/realistic #s a bit once I have driven the car around a bit more. I have been using the AC at the low setting.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Gundan
I've never aggregated tanks only because it's rare that I fill one of our cars 2x in a row. (Wife will never save receipts or save mileage numbers).
In any case, this tank didn't prove much. I drove 345.7 and used 8.58 in gas. It's a hair over 40.
But this tank was way different. 100 miles of it was secondary roads, with few lights. About 25 miles of mountain driving with maybe 5 or 6 steep hills, including some errands. 200 miles of interstate at 65 or less. Another 20 miles on interstate at 68 mph. AC was on 30% strength most of the way.
There was lots of traffic and some stopping with more predicted on 87. I chose to get off the highway and do 45-55mph on secondary roads.
So 40 mpg in this tank. Let's pretend that's a legit number. If my 48 was high, this 40 should be low right? I've got to believe if I can do 40 under these conditions, that a test-tube pure 90% highway run could hope to get 48.
What do you think?
Don't really expect things to stablize for the first 1,000 to 5,000 miles. Concentrate more on proper break in: 0-1,000 miles and longer term break in (to 5,000 miles, if you plan to keep the Civic for a LONG time)
Thanks for your advice, my civic is new indeed, I took delivery of it with about 28 miles in it. I will keep your thoughts in mind. I do intend to keep the civic for some time to come. From the manual, I saw the short term break in is to not brake hard and accelerate hard. What are the long term break steps(~5k miles)?
What are the other specific tips to "learn" how to drive a civic? I used to drive a 5 speed before(just sold the car after 100k miles with not much significant wear/tear). I used to drive aggressive, but with the addition of a little one, I am a lot more defensive and calmer in my driving style.
Best,
Gundan
Congrats on your new ride!!
Try the Civic Break-In Questions discussion for the tips you're looking for.
Enjoy!
Next from 500 miles on up, it is good to accelerate to at least 75% of red line and to redline if you are so inclined. To some this might be counter intuitive, but it is one of the keys to extremely long life AND higher mpg.
The owners manual also says to let the oem oil fill go the FULL OCI. In my case it was 10,000 miles. If you have an olm it gives the % of useful life remaining. So as you can see there is a lot going on simultaneously.
Another is getting used to the automatic transmission. I am not sure how to say this technically, but the auto "suffers" from having a hard time figuring what gear it wants to drive you in. I used to just step harder on the throttle, so it would down shift. My best advice is to let it do its own thing.
That won't matter much; the compressor runs whether the fan speed is set to low or high. If you are going to use the A/C, you might as well make yourself comfortable with it and crank it up. It won't affect mileage differently.
...kl...
Really? Hmmm, the last car I had that didn't engage the A/C when the defroster was selected was my 1979 VW Scirocco, and that car didn't even have A/C.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Here is the sequence for the Accord - no guarantees with the Civic.
1) With vehicle on, push the airflow button for "top vent".
2) Shut car off.
3) Turn temp knob to the coldest setting
4) Turn fan off
5) Hold down both "Air Recirculation" button and "AC" button. With both buttons depressed, turn key to "ON" position. (don't need to actually start the car) Keep holding the buttons down for at least 7 seconds.
6) The AC and Air Recirculation lights will light up and flash at different points during the 7 second hold-down.
7) When the air recirculation light stops flashing, release the two buttons.
Now you have full control over the AC. When you hit the Defog button, the AC light will now illuminate. You can now shut it off if you so desire and get Defog air without AC
I may have to do it again once my CD Changer is replaced in my Accord this week.
Jack
May and June I did little highway driving, mostly all short (under 20 mile) stop'n'go city driving, and was getting 27-29mpg.
My experience with my civic is that cruise control at 65-70mph will get me optimal highway mileage - 42mpg is the best I've ever achieved (on several trips now). Above 70mph, my mileage definitely drops rapidly, and below 65 seems less optimal for the 5-speed automatic transmission.
Hi I also have a 2008 Civic Si sedan and I average 30mpg in mixed driving. I have a high of 31mpg and a low of 28mpg.
Mostly sub-urban roads and highway.
I keep close track of my fuel. I also use the same gas pump at the same station for 9 out of 10 fill ups.
I drive 75-80 on the highway during the day and 70mph at night. The Si is a great car and you can short shift it for better fuel economy. I can drive on our back roads in 6th at like 40mph!
That 6th gear makes a huge difference. My back loves the seats and it has VSA which combined with snow tires works really well around here on the hills.
No options, it's fully loaded.
I'll probably trade it in for the new Honda Hybrid in a couple of years but so far it's a great car and no problems except for a ding my wife put in it from the shopping cart she didn't secure before coming back to the car so it came back to remind her. Between the factory tires and the Nokian snow rated tires they should last the duration of time we will have it and then some.
It's great to drive this, we were going to buy a Prius but this car drives so nice and my wife likes it better.
I think I could probably squeak 32mpg out of it but I really just drive where I'm going and keep the revs low enough and it's still 30mpg. Hypermiling is not for me.
It came in real handy when the compressor on our CR-V self destructed. The extended warranty (Honda Care) paid to have the entire system replaced, including the hoses. Service writer said it would have cost close to $3k without the warranty.
They also paid for the rental car.
Kip
This might actually be burning more fuel than by driving in a lower gear. Typically, throttle position will determine your fuel usage so if you have to give it more throttle in 6th to maintain speed, it may be better to rev a little higher in 5th but coast along. I've never measured a Civic, but on my Odyssey and Tundra (using a scanguage) the fuel burn is better using that method. I've bumped my mpg by 1mpg on my Tundra and nearly 2mpg on my Odyssey since adjusting what I thought was efficient driving. And these are guzzlers by all means....I imagine the results would be even better with close monitoring on something that gets 30-40mpg anyway.
If you don't lug the car and 2,000 rpms is not lugging the car. We have all rural roads here so no stop and go and I get less if I keep it around 3k rpm's.
scanguage does not wire into all the cars sensors does it?
I don't think with the hills and type of roads we have that I could do much better, I just shift down when i come to a hill.
If I was lugging the engine I'd agree with you but I consider 2,000 rpms to not be lugging the car.
Most people don't get 30mpg combined in a Civic Si. Too much temptation to wind it out. :shades:
I live in a very hilly area also and was surprised at the situations I found I was burning more fuel (comparing both mpg and gph) depending upon my driving. Right now I'm commuting 70 miles a day of two-lane state routes that are very hilly (get behind a semi and you're going 20mph up the hill until you can pass....). I was getting around 16mpg with my Tundra (V8 crew 4x4) driving my normal style (a tad aggressive). After adjusting shift points and the way I climbed hills, I'm up right around 17mpg and trip time is within a couple minutes +/- depending upon traffic more than my speed. So basically no change in speeds etc. just shift points and throttle position adjustments. Now if I really hypermile (is that an oxymoron on a truck?) I can get 20mpg particularly if I can keep the A/C off. Adds about 5 minutes to my trip. Still sounds crappy but 17mpg vs 20mpg is 20% improvement just by driving style.
Average town mileage 25-27 MPG with lot of stop and go
Highway mileage - Lowest 34 MPG at average speed of 80 MPH
Highest 41 MPG at cruise control set at 75 MPH 2 hour run
80 MPH is 2800 RPM or so. Lower RPMs (< 2700) are the best for better mileage IMHO
The Sandman
My last 3 fills had a 41.72mpg average...I'm not expecting that on the next fill, which should be around 39-40mpg--I did a little less highway than usual and had extra weight in the car (passengers). I find that non-highway driving lowers the tank MPG pretty quickly per the ScanGaugeII. Ouch!
BTW...http://www.ecomodder.com gives you a list of hypermiling hints and a place to track your fill ups (see the "EM Garage"). You'll get a graph of the MPGs, and you'll get an image with your MPG that you can put on your web site if you like.
...kl...
I kept the speed around 65 mph, and found a couple semi-trucks doing 65 to 70 consistently and so I stayed "behind" (3 or 4 seconds behind) them. Kept the cruise control off when hitting hilly sections.
There was a billboard advertising the Civic's 36 mpg. It's exciting to beat the new EPA as well as the old EPA ratings for my car.
http://www.preignitioncc.com/usar1/index.htm
I'm glad I found this forum for Civic MPG
For anyone interested in increasing their MPG by driving a bit slower (and other tips), here is forum committed to achieving the same, including interesting discussions about the law.
Apologies in advance if this has already been given out:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9648
I like the emphasis on safety first, than MPG. Makes sense to me.
So no hard and fast rules for me--I assess things like the hwy conditions, the flow, the time of day, the number of lanes etc. and then make a decision as to how slow I go.
Exactly !
But that is the way with "ALL" insurance policies. We pay the premiums and hope we dont need to use them.
Over the years we have about broken even on Extended Warranty cost vs benefits received from them. With today's cars, the parts are expensive as well as the labor. Doesn't take much of a "Problem" to cost more than the EW.
BTW those EW are marked up 30- 50% by the dealer. Deal on them just like you do your car.
Kip
Hmmm, interesting; eight cars ago I was suckered into buying an extended warranty, in return I got maybe 30% value from it. The next seven cars all came with the option of buying an extended warranty, an option I declined, saving myself nearly $12,000, however, that of course meant that I needed to cover my own unscheduled maintenance.
Against that $12,000, I have incurred about $5,500 in maintenance costs that could have been covered, making for a $6,500 savings. Right? No, wrong. Why? Because $3,200 of that maintenance came beyond the extended warranty period (as in well beyond the 100,000 mile mark where each of the warranties I was offered terminated). Said another way, had I spent that $12,000 on the extended warranty, the total cost for keeping my cars running would have been nearly $16,000 (due to the single event "deductables" that the extended policies require), making for a savings of over $10,000. Not too shabby.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Home owners, and auto insurance premiums have certainly cost more than I have received. Yet I will continue to buy them.
Wife's CR-V AC compressor self destructed, after the 3/36 had expired. Honda said the cost would be in the $3K area due to tiny pieces floating through out the system. They replaced all AC related parts including the hoses. Seems it cost me $50. As I have an extended warranty, and paid a small "Co-Payment", chances are good that the EW picked up at least part of that bill.
Easier for me financially to pay for the EW in small monthly notes, figured in with the car purchase, than to cough up all that at one time.
BTW the "Honda Care" 7/70 cost me about $900-$950.
Kip
I was surprised to get 31 mpg for this highway driving; my best had been 27.5, but with the AC on, cruising the interstates.
Wish I'd taken the Civic but my CR-V had a more waterproof set of keys. My Civic has the buttons built into the key itself and I was unsure if our 3-hour cruise would affect it.
Thought about a hide-a-key somewhere underneath the Civic but I don't know where it would be safe or pot-hole-proof.
total miles to date: 33,500 (~25k/year)
ave mpg to date: 29.11mpg, std dev 1.65mpg. fill to stop and squeeze to next highest full $.
fairly aggressive 62 miles RT/day, 20% stop and go surface streets, remainder hwy at stop and go (rare) to 65 median and bursts to 80+ when passing. yeah, it's Houston traffic....A/C appears to make ~ 1.0 mpg hit altho the data is unclear.
Dealer (not factory) tires replaced at ~23k due to bad alignment when HFP kit installed. 225-40-18 (mentioned since these probably affect mileage negatively).