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My new Accord is only running at 2700rpm at 80mph. Interestingly, my old 98 Accord with manual transmission ran 80mph at 3000-3100rpm. Despite this fact, I regularly got 30+mpg at those speeds. As a result, I have been of the impression that speeds of 80-85 mph shouldn't hurt fuel economy too much. But, perhaps I am wrong?
Speed does affect mileage. I have learnt a lot over last 7-8 months, experimenting with my TL. The following represents my observations (fuel economy calculated between tanks, a).
80 mph: 28 mpg
75 mph: 32 mpg
65 mph: 34 mpg
It is almost impossible for me to figure out how much I will average driving between 55-65 mph on freeway over extended period. But, based on trip computer over an extended stretch (not over a tank), the car has indicated 36 mpg around 60 mph.
During long road trips, I watch for my average speed (indicated). Lately, I have been trying to maximize my average speed while maintaining 32 mpg or better. The better hasn’t happened yet, but I have averaged 32.3 mpg at 73 mph (average, point A to point B, no stops included) over a tank. It was part of a 685 mile trip (includes driving around in Houston and Dallas, and slower roads in east Texas, got me an overall average of a little over 29 mpg (interestingly enough, EPA rating on the car is only 18/26 mpg).
In mixed driving, the observed numbers have been so repeatable that if you told me my car was average x mph, I would be fairly accurate in estimating observed mileage without actually measuring it myself. My mixed driving involves 50-50 city/highway split. I would say my average speed on freeways is around 67-68 mph (varies from 60 to 80 during any stretch). City roads range from 30 to 45 mph. It looks like this:
37-38 mph: 26 mpg
34-36 mph: 25 mpg
32-33 mph: 24 mpg
30-32 mph: 23 mpg
These have been observed over full tanks. I have managed 27+ mpg once, but that tank involved more freeway driving and my average speed was 41 mph, so I don’t count it.
Contrary to popular belief, at least in my TL, the best mileage is to be had between 55-70 mph. It is good between 70-75 mph, but seems to taper off quickly approaching 80 mph.
It would be virtually impossible for me to calculate mileage going no faster (or slower) than 45-55 mph, so relying on trip computer, the indication is that I get around 28-29 mpg at those speeds. So, slower isn’t necessarily better. It actually comes down to 26-27 mpg around 35-40 mph. But these readings have potential for big errors since they are indicated over short distances.
In other words, to get the best mileage, 60-70 mph would be it. BTW, the fastest trip I have ever had involved my Accord, with 507 miles covered between Dallas and Memphis including one (5-7 minute stop) at a calculated average speed of 76.5 mph (it would be higher if there wasn’t a 15 mile construction zone right in the middle of Little Rock). I got 32.1 mpg. And EPA’s new rating tells me that the (1998) Accord should get only 27 mpg. :P
80-85 mph does hurt fuel economy, A LOT. Its not the cruising RPM, but the drastically increased drag.
The result, if you drive forever at 40 mph or less, you're never going to use the top gear. Interestingly enough, most of EPA testing cycle involves speed under 40 mph. In fact, it rarely goes past that speed. This logic, I think, plays against Honda when it comes to getting EPA rating. But I also think it makes Honda's numbers more realistic and easier to beat EPA ratings.
The slowest speed the Accord will shift into 5th (I know this from intentionally trying to get the car to 5th on a 40MPH road I travel) is 42MPH, in the outgoing model anyway (I'd bet $ that the new one is the same). The lowest speed you can maintain in 5th before the car goes back to 4th is 35MPH, but RPMs are right at 1,000 (lugging) at that speed. I'd guess 45-55MPH is best for max mileage, since the engine is a little deeper into its torque band, but still running well under 2k RPM.
Personally, I've gotten over 40MPG more than once with 72-77MPH averages. Around 80 I can maintain 37MPG. Add in two people and 100% A/C use and I get 35MPG at 80MPH.
Also, just curious again, but is the coupe tuned to rev a little differently to get more performance out of it since it could be considered the sport model? I hope these don't sound like dumb questions. People are always telling me that the only dumb question is that which remains unasked.
Of course, I think I've only had two tanks of gas that were below 30. And I now have 36k miles on my 06 EX-L.
The stick Accord goes into 5th at any speed you want.
High speed kills mpg. No accord gets better mpg at 70 than 50 - nobody ever cruises at 50 for an entire tank, so the never see the benefits. My scangauge clearly shows mpg dropping with speed.
Despite being far more "city" driving then we ever do in a regular week that's still better then the Mazda6 was doing.. and I'm still hoping for a 28-30 average once it's broken in and running our regular commute.
Random note, this Accord has the most linear fuel gauge I've ever owned.
My best guess is that doing the same procedure over again would put things back - like a toggle switch. The problem is that now that I have things just how I want them I am not sure I want to be the guinea pig.
It does seam reasonable that if the car is under warrenty they would reset things.
As far as resale value, as long as you don't push the A/C button after hitting defog the A/C will work as it always did.
Of course I would never reccomend that somebody try it on a rental and report back. :surprise:
First off, I want to thank you very much for posting this extremely useful process of bypassing the A/C when using the defog/defrost button.
I purchased my Accord over a year ago and have been irritated about the lack of control over the A/C since the first day. My previous car (92 Acura Integra) did not have this annoying feature, and I used the defog setting all of the time. Thankfully, I'm now able to fully utilize my Accord's settings without wastefully running the A/C compressor.
Question for dudley - Where/how did you first discover this "hack"?
Question for everyone else - Why would not NOT take advantage of this "hack"? There are absolutely no drawbacks, you are given full control over your car, and you increase your MPG by not running the A/C!
I don't know what to tell you, maybe print the directions and try again? Make sure you hold the buttons long enough.
All this, combined with a relatively tight engine, and I'd say you ought to be pleased with the mileage.
Thoughts?
I'll have to do some digging.
In post #1238 you wrote: "I just ran 380 miles of 85 octane gas with 10% ethanol".
Where do you live / drive where you can purchase 85 octane fuel?
Page 260 of the 2008 Accord Sedan Owner's Manual states: "Your vehicle is designed to operate on unleaded gasoline with a pump octane number of 87 or higher. Use of a lower octane gasoline can cause a persistent, heavy, metallic rapping noise that can lead to engine damage."
I might be concerned if I hadn't already driven 4, four cyl. cars with 85 octane to well over 150k miles apiece (2 of them were Honda Accords). I've never had any excessive wear problems with my engines. I sure hope that stays true with my new Accord :confuse:
My wife wears contacts so we use the FEET setting a lot in the winter and it will be nice to cut that unnecessary AC compressor during that time.
Wondering if it works the same way for the DEFROST and FEET/DEFROST?
Haven't had a chance to experiment yet.
I'm going to fiddle with the same process on the DEFROST setting in the garage tonight.. might work the same way. I'll post my findings.
That was a week of our regular commute but we added some pretty chunky snow tires so that higher rolling resistance probably canceled out any higher MPG we would have got from the more highway driving.
This tank also had more then it's share of runs to 6k RPM now that she's broken in a bit.
Remember winter blend gasoline is going to be hurting you right now. 40 MPG is a rare occurance for me on trips, since conditions have to be just right (and speeds over 70 don't help, and I refuse to drive less than that on a 280 mile trip on the interstates). Anyone can get 35+ though, even at 80MPH speeds (we did it in May going from Bham to Oklahoma City with a friend helping me drive - 600 lbs plus A/C use at 75-80MPH).
I rambled a bit, but as tankbeans said... yes, your mileage should get a little better as the engine loosens up. It won't be a HUGE jump, but 1 MPG average could reasonably be expected based on my experiences.
I just have a quick question. Sometimes when I try to calculate my MPG I have to do so after I've put a few dollars here and a few dollars there and then finally fill it. Is there any way to do this where it won't throw the results off. For instance I can fill then I run low on money and can only put 3 gallons, then later I'll put 2 gallons, but I never actually fill it until the last minute. Is this a bad way of doing it? I feel that my numbers may be off somewhat.
Just curious.
Write down your gallons pumped each time when you do the little adds
Don't reset the trip odometer until you fill up. When you do finally fill up, use this:
Total Miles Driven before Fill Up / Gallons to Fill Up + Gallons added before complete Fill Up
For example:
550 miles / 2 gallons + 3 gallons + 15 gallons = 550/20 = 27.5 MPG
You are not going to be 100% accurate no matter what.