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Oregon Road Trip MPG - 2014 Acura MDX AWD Long-Term Road Test
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Oregon Road Trip MPG - 2014 Acura MDX AWD Long-Term Road Test
My daughter recently enrolled at the University of Oregon, so we took the 2014 Acura MDX on a quick jaunt north for IntroDUCKtion.
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Congrats for your daughter. I have the same complain with Honda Accord regarding the car's mpg meter. What is annoying is that it's ALWAYS optimistic from 5 to even 10% when the mpg numbers get higher (at 30+ mpg). I know that the car measures fuel and that the MPG calculation accuracy is diminished with the less fuel you measure being used but still this is unacceptable and a cheap trick for duping the number averse people...
This is absolutely fantastic mileage for this type of car. Sure, conditions were perfect for maximizing efficiency but I don't think you get these numbers in any other 3 row CUV. This is better than you ever got with the long term Explorer and that had FWD and the powertrain was less than satisfactory. You have to wonder, where is the new Honda Pilot? Efficiency is nice but not one of the top differentiators in the luxury market but in the mainstream 3 row CUV market they could really make a compelling case for the Pilot vs. the rest of the competition.
I never understand why the fuel economy readings aren't scientific instrument accurate. The computer knows exactly when the injectors fire and for how long and how much fuel was injected. It should know the amount of fuel used over a given distance with precise accuracy.
our mazda cx-9 actually reads low. it'll indicate 23.someting on the highway and i'll calculate 24.something... but i've never gotten, nor will i get, anything around 29mpg. nice.
(This has nothing to do with the article, but) Acura is often knocked for their button-laden layouts and confusing interfaces, but man, their gauge clusters are some of the best in the business to my eye.
That is a huge improvement over the old MDX. Had a 2012 MDX and took multiple trips from Ohio to Florida and we could barely average 18.5 mpg...
I think it's because as the car is driven, the circumference of the tires changes as the tires wear. I think the tire diameter could change as much as 1/2" or more over the life of the tire, which would obviously affect the circumference and, in turn, the actual distance traveled that is being measured.
Two other reasons why the meters aren't scientific instruments: 1) the computer knows how many pulses and what their duration was, but they can only estimate how much fuel squirted through each pulse. There is a design value of this for a given injector, but they are not directly measuring the actual amount. Still, I'm sure they need to know the amount of fuel to more than 5 to 10-percent accuracy, so point taken; 2) OBD information is a series of snapshots taken every second or tenth of a second. I don't think they are counting and summing each and every injector pulse, but instead are using a sampling of pulses at some longer interval, with square step functions assumed between them instead of reality's smooth curve.
An actual fuel flow meter is lacking in the system, but that's what it takes to get a scientific reading here.
Tires play a part, just like they do with speedometer accuracy. With mph they always prefer to err on the side of caution by displaying a greater speed out of an abundance of caution, but it's never 5 to 10 percent greater. I usually see 1 mph, perhaps 2, which is about 2 percent.
This greater distance would make MPG appear higher too, but if one caused the other we should see an identical 2-percent overstatement in MPG instead of the 5 to 10 percent we see here. There's another tolerance factor at work, and they seem to be allowing it to drift in their favor via higher numbers and better perceived customer satisfaction.
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Yet another reason that our 2008 MDX will likely be replaced with a 2015 MDX... REALLY impressive fuel economy for a vehicle of this size and utility.
Our current MDX tops out at about 22 mpg on the highway.