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Wait...do you have a turbo? Mine is an OBS - no turbo.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Not just EPA, either. In Consumer Reports both the 4 cylinder and H6 models actually got BETTER mileage than the similar Honda Accord. :shades:
The mileage on mine goes all over the place given the duality of our using it. It seems like it either sees extended periods of short trips (yielding poor mileage as cited above) or mostly highway driving with very little of the short trips / stop & go mixed in. I am in Palmer right now, and we averaged ~25.5 coming down from Fairbanks today. I think that is okay given the winter fuel blend and snowy/slushy roads we encountered over much of the 330 miles. This was driving mostly 65-70 save for curves and other prudent places to slow down.
The 5-speed OBS used to be rated 22/29 prior to the 2008 dumbing-down of the EPA ratings, and so I just assumed I would be able to average 29 mpg in this car in my normal driving, as that has always been the case in the past.
And I am close at 28, but no cigar. ;-)
OTOH, I DID make 29 mpg in the latest tank: 356 miles, 12.3 gallons. Now if only I could keep it up on a regular basis....
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
'09 OBS 5-speed
rebel: isn't it essentially the identical powertrain, except the new Impreza makes 5 more horses from the same engine? And the two models are within 100 pounds of each other weight-wise, and it's the same 4EAT you already have in your Legacy. Any improvements in mpg you experienced would be in the fractions of an mpg, I would think.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I have been nursing my '10 Forester the last few days (since I got to fill it and drive it on consecutive trips) and it is reading 27 mpg after 70 miles. After the first trip upon the refill, when the engine was still warm, it was reading 31.9. Cold starts (when cold = 5 degrees!) really hammer the fuel economy, even when it is not allowed to idle! I would say the driving is, like yours, "suburban."
When I get the chance to put real highway miles on it, where the speed limits are 65-70 (real speed 75-80), my mileage starts dropping quickly.. 27 mpg is about the best I can do at those speeds...
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I rarely take it over 70, on the freeway I'm a speed limit guy exactly BECAUSE of the fuel economy gains that brings.
But I do have plenty of cold starts in each tank of gas, and I heartily agree that in this car (and I guess in most) they are a fuel economy killer, even during the warmer parts of the year.
My MPG readout always starts out like yours, xwesx: reading 32 or more after the first trip or two. But by the time 10 days have gone by and the tank is well below half full, it has dropped into the high 20s. :-(
And the dashboard readout is still reading 1.5 mpg too high. 29.4 is one of its favorite numbers, and the actual mpg is very reliably 28 on the nose.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I was getting 27-28mpg in the summer, though. Hope it warms up soon.
It's more like 24-25mpg now, plus it's a small gas tank so range sucks.
I love most other aspects of the car, but Subaru will never sell me another wagon unless it uses at least 25% less fuel than this one.
And yes, I'm still jealous of kyfdx's fuel economy in his - I just don't know how he does it! ;-)
'09 5-speed OBS, now at 12K miles.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
a) My car isn't fun to drive hard or fast, no matter what I do, so no temptation...
b) easy commute with speeds mostly between 55-65..
c) doesn't matter, because my lease is up in 3 weeks...
On the other hand, I find 26-30 mpg perfectly acceptable.. I drive around 15K/yr... The difference between 28 mpg and 34 mpg is less than 100 gallons of gas, per year... I'd give up the $20/mo. for something that I loved to drive... I don't love to drive the Subie, but I did get a killer lease deal, so it's been okay...
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Every tank falls in a very narrow range, with 28.5 mpg being the typical reading.
Mine is an '09 5-speed, OBS wagon.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
So Far, I have had the following:
402 miles, 13.3 gallons, 30.2 MPG
320 miles, 9.2 gallons, 34.9 MPG
264 miles, 8.7 gallons, 30.3 MPG
My wife drives the car on the weekends, and has a heavier foot than I do, plus she primarily drives city. the 34.9 MPG fuel up was exclusively my driving on highways.
I use cruise control for most of the daily trip, and have seen that the car's computer wants to say that I am averaging 2 MPG better than I actually am.
so, i'm assuming that the dealer tested things out so that when i started driving the car, it was warme d up. i drove from the dealer to work and then home. i would say that the first trip was about 50/50 highway and then stop and go city stuff, the second trip was 60/40 highway/city driving. i got an average of 32.5 mpg over those two trips. very impressed especially since i could see, as expected, the stop and go stuff killing my mileage and i still got that number.
this morning, pulling out of my garage in a mild, cold morning temp of 49 oF outside, i drove to the train station which is 4.1 miles away. in that short stretch, my mileage dropped (overall) to 30.6 mpg with mainly stop and go driving the whole way
as has been suggested, the problem, is probably the 2-3 miles where the car is cold and trying to reduce emissions. i dropped to that 30 range average quickly and the last mile, it stayed steady there. so, although i didn't look at the instantaneous mileage, it suggests that when cold, i was probably seeing less than 20 mpg. (if my math is right, it got 22 mpg for my commute in -- all of these based on car's computer, not real consumption) i'll have to keep an eye on it in the days ahead, but i don't think i'll break my habit of driving away from my garage with the cold engine. letting it idle in my garage to bring it up to operating temp seems silly...
I'm upto 200+ miles on my CVT Sport. I have a roughly 35 mile commute to work with 80% or so being urban interstate (highway) miles. Today there was 5 minutes of stop-n-go. So traffic conditions can really change the conditions from day to day.
Within the first mile on city streets the blue temp light goes off. Then once on the interstate the first roughly 3 miles has the instant MPG usually under 25mpg. For the first 200 miles I'm still above 1/2 a tank and I don't think the tank was 100% full from the dealer. Average MPG based on the computer is 33, which includes 5 to 10 minutes of pure idle time at the dealer.
Outside temps have been between 35 and 60. So not very cold, but not real warm either.
My old 2001 Outback wagon is the same way. Cold engine = poor mileage. Once the engine is warm mpg is at or above the expected values.
As a teenage driver, I can say that my average (combined) MPG is around 23, because i'm decently aggressive on the gas.
Now, I do drive a lot of highway miles, where the real time highway MPG is usually around 30, but in the city the real time shows around...say...19.
Still much better than my previous '07 Sportage, which averaged 12MPG.
Let's see, carry the one, you're saving about a billion a year in gas now. LOL
237.3 miles 7.3 gallons 32.5mpg 33.6 car display
374.2 miles 11.43 gallon 32.7mpg 35.4 car display
319.2 miles 9.73 gallons 32.8mpg 34.8 car display - tempature ranged from 40 to 60?
366.9 miles 11.48 gallons 31.96mpg 33.9 car display - tempature ranged from 30 to 55.
364.0 miles 10.54 gallons 34.5mpg 36.9 car display - tempature ranged from 40s to 70.
Current tank: Car display is 38.1 with about 140 miles. - temp ranging from 50 to 80.
The tank that shows 31.9 mpg was a cold week and had more true city street driving. My current tank is more highway (70%?) and temperature is warmer. So far I'm happy but a little worried what -10F might bring next winter. Each fill was about a weeks worth of driving so none of these are a single long trip.
I think it may be due to the fact that the readouts are in 3/10 of a mile increments, rather than 1/10 of a mile increments, and therefore the accuracy is compromised.
Bob
I have noticed this Impreza does take a little more gas when topping-off than my old outback does. Agree it would be much nicer to have an accurate readout so I can put my calculator away.
There is a need. But until gas goes $5, or you drive over maybe 20K miles a year, its not as much as one would think.
For $600 not getting stuck at the bottom of my driveway sounds good. Oh and my wife hated driving the Prius, not that she gets to drive the Impreza much.
Or even to tow.
The Soob is all around a more versatile, complete car.
Our driveway has 2 Subies and a Tahoe (4x4). The Tahoe sits mostly now.
100% agree: "The Soob is all around a more versatile, complete car."
Went camping this weekend, mostly highway with a little bit of being stuck in traffic and puttering around near the campground, 395 miles, 12.9 gallons, 30.5 mpg and that's pretty much the best I ever manage. :-(
Oh, and I'm with Bob, it's annoying that the trip computer can't accurately calculate mileage, and I don't top off when filling up, but mine is a little closer than some here have reported. My readout this time was 31.5 mpg, so only one point off (it's usually more like 2).
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Anything else, and it is also easy to tow.... all you have to do is put it on a trailer!
I've also noticed my combined seems to be creeping up to the low 30s (computer).
Could the impreza be sensitive to winter gas formulations?
Bob
I'm not just using the blue temp gauge as determining when the engine is warm. The blue light goes out in about a mile, but the RPM stay about 500 or so higher until the car is fully warm.
For long trips (over 30 miles) I haven't seen much of any change in average mileage. (Comparing March and April to June.)
I am looking over in the 2012+ thread and folks there seem to be doing about 2 mpg better than me in their mixed driving, so I would probably be able to improve my mileage to about 35 if I were to trade for a '12. So that would be almost a 20% savings, give or take.
For now I'm standing pat....I rather like the extra power of the 2.5 vs the new 2.0, and I'm a little disgruntled at Subaru for not giving the new model a 6-speed manual, so that it could match the CVT for fuel economy.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
My current Subaru had the "standard equipment" A-pillar rattle when it was new. I had the dealer fix it, which they were able to effectively do, and it has not recurred (the car is at 40K miles now).
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The seat does creak when I get out of the car, but other than that, it's tight!
I liked it more than the Mazda CX5 and Mazda3 2.5l we drove back-to-back-to-back.
Give the CVT a chance. I was pleasantly surprised.
- Winter gas doesn't store as much energy as summer gas because of the winter additives, so your car consumes more winter gas.
- Your car runs less efficiently when the engine is cold, and it takes more time for the engine to warm up when it's cold outside. Many short trips exasperate this problem.
- Both of the Defrost modes on your climate control knob make use of the air conditioning compressor (even though the A/C light doesn't turn on). If you commonly drive in the winter time in one of the Defrost modes, then that will wack a couple of MPGs off of your calculation. Try driving without using one of the Defrost modes whenever possible.
- In many areas of the country, the supplied gas is E10 (10% ethanol). This causes approximately a 10% reduction in MPGs when compared to E0 gas. If you can find a gas station that sells E0, give it a try. You can bet that Subaru was running E0 when they did their EPA tests.
Hope this helps.I researched on Consumer Reports and other sources before I bought my 2013 Impreza Sport Premium wagon in December so I knew that 26mpg was a more realistic number than the "ideal" 36mpg hway in the Subaru promotional literature.
I drive 60mi round trip work/home daily which is about 70% slow traffic/30% highway (NYC and suburbs). I can't say I'm thrilled that I'm averaging only 24.5mpg but I am already saving an average of 5gals/wk over the Toyota Sienna minivan that this car replaced. That's $850 annually assuming an avg of $3.40/gal by 50 weeks.
I also drove to Toronto and back two weeks ago and I averaged 27mpg on that mostly highway but very hilly route through upstate NY.
Also, don't forget that this is an extremely fun car to drive which, when coupled with my $$$ savings, is a win-win in my book. I drove home in the driving snow from the blizzard called "Nemo" last Friday night and it ate up the slippery mess on the Palisades Pkwy with no problems.
Ownership 6 weeks
Total mileage 4125.3
Total gallons fuel 179.87
Total fuel cost $519.00
Avg cost per gallon $3.408
Avg mileage per gallon 24.584
Avg # gallons per fill-up 12.63
Avg # of days between fill-ups 3.77
Avg # of miles between fill-ups 313.95
# of fill-ups 16
Looking forward to the warmer months if it is true that the summer blend gas will net me more mpg.
Hope this is helpful to others.