What is your Average Fuel Economy

[Z-06]

With the recent gas prices spiralling have been doing a non scientific experiment to find out how much driving habits can change the fuel economy. Reading those news about people getting 50 mpg in a regular four banger Accord makes you think how do people claim this surreal number. Is it true or it is a banal trick played by the import humpers. Websites like these Gas Savers make me try to validate this claim.

So here goes my experiment. I will just give the data, you folks decide what to claim from it.

The Precursors:

1. I keep a pretty close if not up to the decimal tab on my fuel economy numbers. For the previous miles, before the experiment, my three cars have averaged as follows.

a. 1998 Lumina City: 22.3 mpg (+-1.1)

b. 2003 Corvette Z06: 21.2 mpg (+-0.5)

c. 2005 TSX 6-speed: 26.1 mpg (+-1.5)

2. The current experiment was conducted on one tank of gas for each of the vehicles, as per the fuel I use. (Mid grade for Lumi and Premium for the other two).

3. I pretty much followed the instructions of the gassavers.org website. My goal was to drive with as light foot as possible, without speeding, and coast to the signal. But at the same time, I wanted to not to impede traffic, or cause any driving problems by excessively slow driving.

4. All three cars have had their services done within 1000 miles of the experiment.

5. I did not add any fuel additives, nor any drag prevention or aerodynamics technique.

6. All my cars are bone stock, with no mods, what so ever.

7. I have a general idea of how the lights operate on my way, and thus know when to coast and when to accelerate.

The Procedure.

1. I drive 7.5 miles one way to work. It takes me about 14 minutes, by my regular driving to drive back and forth to work.

2. All the three cars were topped to the limit (just enough to see the gas coming out of the protective flap.

3. The gas was refilled about at the time when the fuel light came on. Or the arrow passed the red dashed lines on the fuel indicator.

4. For the manual transmission cars, I passed the gears in sixth in as few changes as possible. For the vette, the 1-4 shift was used, followed by the shift in the sixth gear at about 25 mph. For the TSX I usually passed from 1-3-6.

5. The time of travel was noted.

6. I tried to avoid interstates, and expressways.

7. Experiment conducted also included my travel to the groceries, restaurants, errands and other stuff.

Results:

Following is the general summary of the three cars

Car Lumi Cori Tara

Start Day 5-May 6-May 3-May

End Day 31-May 2-Jun 4-Jun

Days 26 27 32

Miles 359.8 421.3 524.9

Refill (Gallons) 14.8 16.5 16.2

Avg. mpg 24.3 25.5 32.4

Average Time* 15.8 15.4 16.1

% Gain 8.96 20.28 24.14

Miles/Day 13.8 15.6 16.4

* Calculated for Work only. Total miles 1306 My Cafe (27.5)

General Results:

1. On an average the fuel economy went up by about 4.3 mpg, (18.5%) by my defensive driving. The average time increased by about 1.5 minutes or about 10%. That is not a significant number considering it is well within my driving limits or regular driving.

2. It seems like the manual transmissions offered a better control over the automatic.

3. Those numbers are no way near what those geezers claim.

Now Let the discussion begin.

Edited June 5, 2007 by smallchevy

[Northstar]

If I don't give a crap (which is 95% of the time), the GTO gets 14 in the city. 20 on the highway is about the norm. When I do give a crap and drive similar to an old lady in her Buick, I can actually get surprisingly good mileage. I went to the mall over the weekend and I had just filled up and wanted to see what type of mileage I could get. I got 18 MPG on the way there (about a 15 minute drive with numerous stoplights). On the way back, I didn't care and the average went down to 14.

[Paolino]

Haven't checked anytime recently, but it's about 24mpg mixed.

[Nick]

According to my OBC I'm averaging about 17.4 mpg.

[toesuf94]

My Corvette is averaging 24.6 in mixed driving...My Tahoe 4x4 16.9 mixed. Our Commander 4.7 12 mpg uphill/downhill/tailwind/sails extended or on a tow truck...still gets us 12 at best.

Company truck is a 2006 GMC Sierra 5.3 Crew cab 4x4 Averages 17 in mixed driving. Our Lax is getting 22 in mostly city driving, and our company Rainier is around 18 in mixed with mom behind the wheel.

[Sixty8panther]

My recent rides:

1959 Buick LeSabre 4411: 11.8 mpg

1976 Buick LeSabre Four-door: 9 mpg

1994 Buick Roadmaster: no idea as of yet

1977 Cadillac Coupe deVille: 13.5 mpg

1984 Datsun Maxima: 24 mpg

1997 Infiniti Q45: 18 mpg

[capriceman]

I only keep track on the caprice and it gets on average 18 with all mixed driving. When I feel like chugging gas and floor it all the time i get about 13 but if i drive normal i get 21 city. On the highway I have gotten 30+ on more than a few occasions at 70-85 mph.

[CaddyXLR-V]

I avg about 19-21mpg in my GTO. If I try to conserve, I get about 24mpg

[ToniCipriani]

Around 9.3L/100km (=25.2 MPG).

[knightfan26917]

I usually average 16-18 mpg with the '87 MC LS on a weekly basis.

Which, according to Honda's commercial for their minivan, is just about similar to that van....

Heh ... always amazes me how car and truck commercials tout a vehicle's 0-60 performance ... when speeding off from a stop can "waste" so much gas.....

Cort:33swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker

PICS:lego.HO.model.MCinfo.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"Push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us" ... Mat Kearney ... 'Nothing Left To Lose'

[pow]

I've recorded the Passat's (1.8T, 5A, 2002, 62K mi) fuel consumption since 3/8/2007, so here goes...

3/8 - 214.8 mi - 12.34 gal - 17.4 mpg

3/22 - 252.8 mi - 13.26 gal - 19.1 mpg - 18 mi/day

3/31 - 376.8 mi - 18.23 gal - 20.7 mpg - 41 mi/day

4/16 - ???

4/29 - 213.6 mi - 13.18 gal - 16.2 mpg - 16 mi/day

5/7 - 257.7 mi - 12.81 gal - 20.1 mpg - 32 mi/day

5/18 - 213.3 mi - 11.93 gal - 17.9 mpg - 19 mi/day

5/25 - 266.3 mi - 13.83 gal - 19.3 mpg - 38 mi/day

6/4 - 255.7 mi - 13.06 gal - 19.6 mpg - 25 mi/day

I do mostly hilly, errand, city driving with the exception of blasts up and down Angeles Crest Hwy. I do try hypermiling once in a while (fumbling between instant/avg MPG displays, rolling through stop signs, accelerating slowly, shifting very early, never going past 2K rpm), but ultimately I end up using more fuel because I get annoyed and follow it all up with rapid acceleration.

Also our city is up a few miles of hills, and usually that changes the average from 41.4 mpg (downhill) to 18.7 mpg (back up the hill) pretty quickly...

edit - It's also interesting to note our 400-lb heavier, six-cylinder BMW gets similar MPG under similar city driving conditions. The benefits of the Passat's four-cylinders only come into play on the highway, where I can average 35 MPG at 70 MPH, according to the instant trip display. Turbos, as required for brisk acceleration, guzzle fuel...

Edited June 5, 2007 by empowah

[Cory Wolfe]

20-24 mpg with mixed, spirited driving. Granted, I haven't actually filled up the tank completely to check in over 8 months.

[daves87rs]

My wagon is working its way back up...gets 20s in both city and freeway driving...

The other Cavalier (03) has dropped to the low to mid 20s for both-but a oil change and a new fuel filter will help....

[turbo200]

the computer on my civic says 40.7 mpg, but I've driven 440 miles on this tank, and I have about 3 gallons left. I'll be averaging hopefully somewhere around 46-47 mpg for this tank, where in the beginning I was doing horribly, and then towards the middle of the tank I actually became judicious with my foot and have now been accelerating freely up to 48 mph on regular roads and then keeping that foot planted for coasting baby. the car gets over 100 mpg in coasting sometimes.

[CARBIZ]

Never trust the computer. To get an accurate reading you have to do it the old fashioned way.

I used to get 29 (Imperial) gallons on my '87 Shadow ES, 5 spd with a Turbo, which is why when I bought a (13 year old) '87 K-car for $300 and I was only getting 25 mpg, I was horrified. My '91 Caprice used to give me 23 on average, but that was more highway than city. My '98 Blazer would get 27 mpg (combined), but then drop to 13 when I was towing my 20' boat; whereas, the Caprice would actually get better mileage with the boat behind it. The Malibu 4 -cylinder will easily get 32 mpg, combined - and I am hard on the accelerator. I am currently driving a Pursuit (love the subwoofer and Pioneer speakers!) and it gets worse mileage than the Malibu. I blame the tranny. Over all, the Malibu with the 2.2 is the most impressive vehicle I have driven for fuel mileage.

I will be the first to admit I drive like a maniac, which is the only way to drive in this city where the car-hating mayor sets the traffic lights to nail you on red every light and where the only north-south (sort of) route out of the city, the DVP, was built in 1957: if you see a gap, you gotta fill it, or someone else will!

[Hollingsworth]

The computer says I'm getting about 22 MPG driving around town and 27 MPG driving on the highway. Of course this is inaccurate, but I've yet to actually calculate it by hand.

[intrigued]

My parents new Aura averaged 24.3 mpg in mixed driving on it's first tank which I was very impressed with. That includes a good amount of spirited take offs on my part. I can''t wait to take this car on a long trip, I have a feeling with the tall 6th gear, turning about1950 rpms at 80 mph, that for a long haul this car will get seriously good milage.

My malibu SS, well broken in with 22k miles, only manages to average about 20-21.5 mpg a tank. I did one time on a long haul manage 27 mpg, but that was a long highway trip with no traffice and good weather.

[loki]

99 MC 3.1 now with ~142K miles

typical tanks are around 19 for city driving...averaged from a whole year of just under 18 in winter to some just over 20

typical highway trips are just under 30mpg... typically 2 passengers and 70mph. have gotten a max of ~36-37mpg on highway with alot or 55 driving.

[AxelTheRed]

I'm averaging about 21-24 mpg mixed driving..

[the_yellow_dart]

My computer tells me that my average is 7.0 to 7.1 L/100km (33 to 34 mpg)

Best rural highway mileage (roughly at the 80 km/h limit) is 5.4 L/100km (44 mpg)

Best freeway mileage (roughly at the 100 km/h limit is 5.7 L/100km (41 mpg)

Typical highway with semi-aggressive passing (117 km/h) is 6.4 L/100 km (37 mpg)

Worst rating I've ever seen, stuck in an in-city traffic jam: 16 L/100km (15 mpg)

[trinacriabob]

For a sled with almost a quarter of a million miles, I still get the EPA sticker numbers which were 18 city and 28 highway.

In fact, on the highway, if I baby it (60 to 65, no A/C and easy pedal), I can hit 29 or 30 mpg.

I love getting good gas mileage. It makes me feel "civic minded."

[CaddyXLR-V]

I do try hypermiling once in a while (fumbling between instant/avg MPG displays, rolling through stop signs, accelerating slowly, shifting very early, never going past 2K rpm), but ultimately I end up using more fuel because I get annoyed and follow it all up with rapid acceleration.

Sounds exactly like what I do.

But whats up with everyones poor numbers? I usually cruise at like 85-90(best MPG is between 60-70), and I still manage to get 19-21mpg in a 400hp RWD 3800lb car. When driving my parents 04 Malibu I my avg was 28-29mpg in mixed driving.

[vonVeezelsnider]

With the Cavalier 2.2L, I get about 21MPG City with very conservative driving

With the Malibu 3.5L, About 24MPG City with not-so-conservative driving.

With the Venture 3.4L, about 17MPG City with very Conservative driving.