Not getting Estimated MPG

[MKVI]

Originally Posted by tickerguy

One of the BIG killers on gas vehicles is cold starts. If you make short trips from a cold start frequently it will utterly destroy your fuel economy; the reason is that gas engines all run very rich when "open loop" (before the emissions system comes up to temperature); this is unavoidable and results in awful fuel economy until the engine warms up.

It's more about the emissions loop system. A cold vehicle in modern day vehicles will be targeted to run learner with less emissions at start-up and cold temps. It could consume more fuel at cold but it will emit less pollution ...so said. I do not have the details in the devil, but these last couple of decades we're seeing that cold and frequent starts being heavily controlled by emissions regs. eg: poor economy but less emissions

Originally Posted by tickerguy

Diesels suffer far less from this, incidentally, since they always run lean (except at full power.)

Diesels suffer from cold and short distance drives more than any other type of fuels. Long story. I know that in our VW diesels fuel pumped to the injectors - about half of the fuel pumped to this area of the engine is returned to the fuel tanks - the head and block act as a heat sink to heat up the cold fuel in the tank. Cold fuel is not efficient. I could provide URL's but I don't know if the site allows it. TDICLUB has threads on it.

[litesong]

Originally Posted by driver57

I agree about Elantra - I have a 2011 with 29.2 mpg average - I'd say 60% of my 45,000+ have been city (not urban downtown stop/go) but not on the highway.

My 2013 automatic Elantra is averaging 39mpg. Our differences are explained with only 15% city driving, inflating tires to 40psi (drop down with lots of rain or snow), reduced speed, slow acceleration, getting the tranny into highest gears for a given speed, & my favorite, use of 100% ethanol-free gasoline, which has increased mpg by 3.

[litesong]

Originally Posted by sjhemp

The EPA estimates.... for the CVT are inflated compared to Consumer reports and fuelly itself.....on fuelly take the average of the manual transmission Imprezas vs. the CVT and you will see the manual transmission gets better mpg, even though it's EPA rating is less.

Another CVT hater. CVTs can be(normally are?) tuned for best mpg at certain low rpms. If you stay near those rpms(very slow acceleration, low speeds, learn to drive hills properly), CVTs give excellent mpg. My poor aerodynamic 2007 Dodge Caliber(EPA-27mpg highway rating) was mpg-tuned for 2000rpm, sometimes got 35mpg(37+ with 100% gasoline) on the highway. I overall averaged 31mpg, while most other CVT drivers averaged 26mpg or less. The smaller engined 5speed manual Caliber transmission drivers could only match me at best & normally got lower average mpg.

[litesong]

Originally Posted by driver57

..... noticed the elimination of shifting down from 6th to 5th that it does in auto gave me better highway MPG and the torque seems better when staying in 6th at higher speeds (60+).

Yes, I try hard to keep my auto tranny Elantra from shifting from 6th to 5th. But driving at higher speeds to do so, defeats the higher mpg reason to stay in 6th. While accelerating, ease off the accelerator at 43mph, will cause the tranny to drop into 6th gear. Careful reapplication of the throttle, will cause the 6th gear to hold & you can slowly accelerate to your target speed above 45mph. Also, carefully decreasing speed once the 6th gear has dropped, 6th gear will hold as low as 35mph. The Car Computer shows mpg will climb to over 50mpg, while between 45 & 35mph. I also agree that Elantra has low torque. The low torque demands caressing the gas pedal. Use of Cruise Control helps a lot, especially so, if you carefully approach shallow hills with the idea to retain 6th gear, even on the slight slopes.

[eatsshootsknits]

I too am in this boat. 2013 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited. Generally I get 26.5mpg on the dot, but lately that has been deteriorating... I'm hitting maybe 20-23mpg the last few weeks with no substantial changes to driving habits. It has been a lot hotter here (Seattle) the last few weeks, but I am not the type to sit in my parked car with the A/C on or anything. I've been tracking mileage lately to see if trading in for a 2015 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid makes sense... and it is really starting to with the current change in MPG...

[trollbait]

Are you using AC at all?

[benlovesgoddess]

My Hyundai has an extra urban figure of 94 mpg!!!! Driven regularly it returns 55 mpg. Driven with a ScangaugeE and like an eco minded old lady, it can return 70 mpg extra urban. I have had to let my anger at the lying figures go, and to accept and be happy with the real world mpg!

[litesong]

Originally Posted by driver57:
I agree about Elantra - I have a 2011 with 29.2 mpg average - I'd say 60% of my 45,000+ have been city (not urban downtown stop/go) but not on the highway.
///////
litesong wrote(12-13-14):
My 2013 automatic Elantra is averaging 39mpg. Our differences are explained with only 15% city driving, inflating tires to 40psi (drop down with lots of rain or snow), reduced speed, slow acceleration, getting the tranny into highest gears for a given speed, & my favorite, use of 100% ethanol-free gasoline, which has increased mpg by 3.
///////
litesong continues:
Our 2013 Elantra is now in the hands of a family member, who needed a car & loves the Elantra. We got a new 2016 manual tranny Elantra, which performs as well as the 2013 auto Elantra. My first tank of dealer paid, 100% ethanol-free gasoline, I test drove to 40+mpg-calculated. Later, the EPA rated 38mpg-highway 2016 Elantra gave 46+mpg, with ocean stops for pix & beach walks, some hilly interior travel away from the ocean, & some stop&go I-5 traffic, but mostly heavy but steady travel.

[Airstreamer67]

I regularly meet or beat the EPA estimates by refusing to give in to road rage or to the Interstate wolf packs that push the speed limits by 10 mph or so.


My 2015 Mazda3 automatic is returning an 8000-mile lifetime average of 42mpg, spent mostly on the highway. That's one mpg better than the EPA highway estimate and is better than most Fuelly reports for the same car. I think those other owners are passing me in the wolf packs.

[litesong]

Originally Posted by Airstreamer67

I regularly meet or beat the EPA estimates by refusing to give in to road rage or to the Interstate wolf packs that push the speed limits by 10 mph or so.


My 2015 Mazda3 automatic is returning an 8000-mile lifetime average of 42mpg, spent mostly on the highway. That's one mpg better than the EPA highway estimate and is better than most Fuelly reports for the same car. I think those other owners are passing me in the wolf packs.

Cool. Of course, you pass the wolf packs when they are gassing up....AND you don't need to! Go to pure-gas.org to find 100% ethanol-free gasoline(E0). E0 should raise your mpg by 8% to 5% as compared to 10% ethanol blends(E10). Ethanol can only extract its energy efficiently when used in high compression ratio(16:1) ethanol engines. Used(NOT burned efficiently) in low 87 octane, low compression ratio(9:1 to 11:1) gasoline engines, ethanol fails.