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The mileage was actually 450. So /11.1 gal= 40.54 mpg.
Off the top of my head here are some: Drive this particular car's hp/torque curve
(I swag most folks who get poor mileage and complain about it, really do not understand this)
1. Sustained (highway) speed oem recommended 35 psi
2. Low rolling resistant tires
3. Lowest viscosity oil ( Mobil One 0w20)
4. No to little extra weight, i.e. don't pack over 100#'s unless you have to.
5. Idle as little as possible
6. SMOOTH driving, drive ahead, light on the machinery
7. Drive so as to decrease the use of brakes
8. Don't do left hand turns, unless you have to or it is signaled
9. Drive like you are paying for it (most of us really do!! )
All this stuff really can easily be over ridden, " between the headsets" given the environments one has to drive.
I remember I read some post mentioning about re-setting the computer by pull off the battery contact. Will that help or any other way to boot up the mpg.
By the way I am a normal driver (not a light foot one), the same driving habit, I'd driven my previous car, a Mazda portege LX for 11 years (same 1.8 liters engine) averaging 430km before the light is on. This 06 civic EX doesn't seem to up beat that Mazda that much. Why ?????
I would not disconnect the battery to do a reset. It will NOT help fuel economy at all.
The garbage strike is over a while ago. Since we never have the sub-prime situation here, Vancouver still the best city to live.
any thoughts?? am disappointed so far
Fire away ,all set to compare and contrast.
Just as a heads up, auto here also, 55-60 mph at under 2,000 rpms, logically would yield better mpg than my 0-80 mph commute as I have described. (no RPM gauge) but judging from other cars which have rpm gauges, my rpms are all over the band width. I am swagging 900 to 3-4k rpms. Indeed on today's trip to the gas station, I was passed by a Highway Patrol car (no codes) while I accelerated to 75 mph!
So my fuel mileage management really is making sure I am not hit in dense traffic by merging or exiting cars, suv's, trucks, buses and severe overl and wide loads, and of course do not cause an accident by rear ending some car coming to a mad stop.
Pretty much every tank has come in between 34-36mpg. Driving conditions vary as I travel all over, not just one route. Doesn't seem to be a huge difference between running 70ish and 80ish, I just try to keep the tach out of the "holy-crap" zone...like 6,000rpms or more on a regular basis. I idle very little and when I drive in town I use a lot of alleys and whatnot to avoid the lights.
No major problems to report. A couple rattles in the door and a rather annoying buzz in the ceiling behind the sunroof. If I push up on the ceiling it stops but that's the only way to make it stop.
Steering feel kinda sucks on this thing. A little jumpy at highway speeds and not heavy enough for my liking.
This car just doesn't encourage you to drive fast. It sheds speed easily and I'm generally having to get on the gas pretty hard to keep moving along in the hills and such. Probably better for mpg....but coming out of a diesel jetta that would get away from you very easily.....it's a culture shock.
Seat comfort is mediocre at best, no good armrests to speak of.
The trunk lid has swing-down arms. Holy crap I didn't think anyone used those anymore so I had boxes stacked in my backseat.
Big plus though, you get a lot of fairly refined vehicle for little money and it shouldn't depreciate much in the short term. Exactly what I needed.
Hey Ruking....just hope you don't get rear-ended as it throws those long-term vehicle plans right out the window! I'd much rather be racking the miles up on my Jetta but oh well, such is luck.
However, I am glad to hear the Honda is doing well for you!!
A lot of stops and starts will significantly reduce gas mileage. I usually run the rpm's 2000 to 3000 to keep from lugging the engine on hills.
Huh? :confuse:
As an off topic I sometimes ride a bicycle the same trip. Takes 30 min going down, and up to 2 hours coming back. :sick:
I have a similar commute, but the steep grade is only about a mile long. Several stop signs, traffic lights and road changes. About 7 miles each way and takes 20-25 minutes.
Little opportunity to get much over 45 mph., and most of it is 25-35. I've often thought how and all electric or maybe a 2 cylinder car, capable of 50mph, could well serve my commute purposes. (Honda could do that!)
Not far from us is "Peachtree City" Ga.. It has near 100 miles of golf car trails. Accessible to every sub-division, schools, every shopping and industrial area. In other words a golf car can go most anywhere without having to actually be on the roads, except to cross one occasionally. At the local high school, the golf car parking area is huge and full and likely holds as many golf cars as the regular lot holds cars. .
Lots of cars are NOT on the road. Lots of pollutants NOT in the air and lots of gas NOT being purchased. Seems like a great idea to me!
Of course as the idea gets more popular, I recon they will have to 4 lane em, install traffic lights and such!
Kip
any thoughts?? am disappointed so far
I have a thought or two. My dad has a 2007 Civic Auto. He got 32MPG last time he took a highway trip. I thought it was low until he told me how quickly he got home from the beach (He had to have averaged over 80-85MPH). Driven slower (70 or so) the car has returned 37-38MPG in the past (and he's not really smooth at driving).
How fast are you driving on the freeway? Where do you live (hilly/flat)? How much traffic do you see? How are you calculating mileage?
I travel at around 55 to 60 MPH on the commute. Only three stops, probably 70 % of my miles per week.
When I am on the freeway, stay at about 70, but that is only about 15% of my weekly miles.
I use the same station, the same pump and ususally run 250 miles per week.
Interestingly enough, I spoke with two of my local dealer service reps and was told that all I could expect is 32 to 34 and that is high, real world 28 to 30.
Still, disappointing as I downsized from an accord strctly to get the mileage increase.
1500 miles to date.
90% highway.
60 mph limit.
No a/c usage.
No severe weather.
Paid $22250 + Tax/Title/License fees.
$2100 tax credit
I will have pretty quick payback at this rate (driving 32K/yr.).
I, for one would be interested in your 80-200k miles experiences. All the best!!
$2100 tax credit
How much more was this car compared to one with the same equipment and 1.8L engine?
Thanks,
Kip
Thanks!
My one caution is that very unfortunately, the Si has a desperate lack of torque, and if I have more than 2 people in the car, I can't maintain highway speeds (60+) in 6th gear. The others are fine, but I just end up having to switch between 5th/6th somewhat often to maintain my speed. Driving is still fine, but the "higher" rpms (4k-4.5k as opposed to the 2.5k-3.5k I normally drive at) in 5th gear hurts mileage a little bit.
I can speak from experience and the difference has to be experienced to be believed. The only problem I had was that the crap gasoline that they sell in the mountains is not turbo friendly and caused the electronics in the ignition system to constantly have to step in and retard the ignition timing to keep the engine from blowing up.
Best Regards,
Shipo
The other alarmingly common issue with CAIs is that I've read dozens of accounts where cars fitted with CAIs injested water causing a "hydrolock" condition that destroys the engine in a single revolution.
I'm thinking that you couldn't pay me to fit a CAI on any 8th generation Civic given all of the problems that I've read about.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Anyway, my '07 Civic (30-40) sits right around 35mpg when used mainly for highway traveling. I've had a couple tanks recently where I've only driven around town and have been averaging around 27mpg. My "town" driving is nothing like "city" driving as we live in a rural area. I drive 8 miles to town on a 55mph road (hilly and curvy though) and might hit two or three fairly quick traffic lights to get where I'm going.
Either way, it appears the '08 EPA numbers for both my Odyssey and Civic are much closer. 17/25 for the Odyssey and 25-36 for the Civic are about right on from what I can tell. So realistically it would seem I would be beating the pants off of some non-honda '08 models. The Pontiac G6 rental I had when my Jetta got hit was averaging 32mpg which was one shy of its highway rating. The '08 G6 is now rated 30mpg highway. Seems weird. Any idea why the Hondas don't seem to do better in real world? I always marked up my Odyssey as not hitting the EPA numbers because of the VCM, but really the Civic isn't much better in the scheme of things.
One other question (since the other Honda forums are dead here)....anyone have cold-start problems? Mine seems studder a bit on cold starts. It reminds me of starting my previous diesel when it was 0°F. It usually starts, but stutters for a few seconds before catching and idling normal. I've seen high performance engines do this so I know it can be a characteristic, but wasn't sure. Haven't had a normal gasser do anything like this, but thought I'd ask. It's not really a problem, unless it gets worse I suppose.
My wife gets 3-4 mpg less than I do in the same type driving with the same vehicle.
She doesn't speed, she simply waits a lot longer before letting her foot off the gas before an up coming stop, then having to use a lot of brake. She tends to follow closer than I do and thus has more gas, brake, gas brake...! I ease away from a stop, she jumps away from one.
On the road where I pass someone, she PASSES them. If cruise is not set and she discovers she is loosing some speed, she will accelerate back up to the original speed while still going up hill, where I try to stabelize the speed and gain it back going down the next or on a flat.
If we drive a 4 or 6 cylinder car so that we get the same seat of the pants acceleration feel as driving a V8, the mileage will suffer.
It is both the big and the little things that add up to poor mileage.
With my 4wd Pilot I've gotten 18 mpg on a trip and got 27 on the return trip the very next day with the same load and virtually the weather conditions. The difference was how the car was driven and the speed.
Kip
I also noticed that as the car shifted into 2nd when it was cold it made a weird whirring noise but it hasn't happened again. Just chalked it up to all the other things that happen when it's super cold, like all the dang creaks and pops in the dash. Anyone notice that yet? Sounds so cheap.
The dash/door materials and fit/finish is pretty good though. Better than our nearly twice as expensive Odyssey for sure.
I, for one, do better than EPA in my 4-cyl Accord. My dad, in a car that was mechanically identical (just one year older), always got numbers LOWER than EPA, but drove the car a lot harder.
They've basically updated EPA ratings to match a heavier-footed driving style.
Thanks, Don
Used to run a car till it quit to tell what the gauge read at empty. Then fill till it overran to tell how much gas it really held. I will hasten to add neither is a good idea with todays vehicles and may actually lead to damage.
Those of you with automatics.....did you know you can start the tranny in 2nd gear? I was monkeying with it the other day when I got stuck in a snow storm (i give it a thumbs down for snow performance btw) and if you shift to 1st and then back upto 2nd it will start in 2nd. I've had other vehicles that did this so I gave it a whirl. Good for starting out in slippery conditions. Sucks my Odyssey won't do that because it has a jumpy pedal.