New Vehicle Owners

[Chester Taje]

I was just wondering if you folks which have bought new vehicals in the last few years are getting close to published miles/gallon of fuel on normol driving conditions.
EG---My Toyoto Rav 4 is stated to be 25 City and 37 Highway.I am not getting close to the posted Highway rating of 37 miles per gallon CDN

How about you all.

[Mary F]

I got 32.5 mpg with my new Camry on our trip to New Orleans last May! (It's rated to get 33 mpg/highway.)

[brendadave]

I was just wondering if you folks which have bought new vehicals in the last few years are getting close to published miles/gallon of fuel on normol driving conditions.
EG---My Toyoto Rav 4 is stated to be 25 City and 37 Highway.I am not getting close to the posted Highway rating of 37 miles per gallon CDN

How about you all.

I'd have to check the exact number, but I think with my 2008 Ford Escape I am getting within 1 m.p.g. of what it is rated for. I haven't check my city mileage yet. I'll hae a better rating soon after I have driven it a little more.

[Morgan]

I was just wondering if you folks which have bought new vehicals in the last few years are getting close to published miles/gallon of fuel on normol driving conditions.
EG---My Toyoto Rav 4 is stated to be 25 City and 37 Highway.I am not getting close to the posted Highway rating of 37 miles per gallon CDN

How about you all.

My V-8 F-150 is 8 years old. It gets 22-23 mpg (without the Casita) on the road; the sticker said 17 mpg. That's with some small mountains but mostly rolling hills.

Ches, the mileage you get is very much dependent upon your driving habits, especially with newer vehicles. When I'm on the road, I set my speed control at 57mph and leave it there. I think the speed control more than anything else helps my mileage, but the lower speed helps too.

[Chris Z]

Is the problem that Canadian gallons are different than US gallons?

I have purchased a 2002 Olds Intrigue, 2005 Tahoe and 2006 Suburban and on all three, I got a little more than what is advertised on the highway. I never measure city - too many variables.

[Chester Taje]

"Quote
Is the problem that Canadian gallons are different than US gallons?"


No i did take that into consideration.Thanks

[brendadave]

Is the problem that Canadian gallons are different than US gallons?

Yes, that part confuses me, I never know if someone is refering to US Gallons or Imperial Gallons, I find using L/100KM a more acurate comparison. You can't mix up the volumes.

Chester, I use this site, it gives you all the measurements.

http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/...lator-input.cfm

[Robert Brummett]

Morgan is certainly right about how driving habits (some of which we are barely aware of) will influence your mileage. I have a 6.6 liter diesel in a 2500HD pickup (actually a 1-ton + vehicle). Pulling my Casita I get about 16 overall and no-tow and lightly loaded I can get as high as 22. It has one of those computer doo-dads that give you all sorts of info, some of it useful. The computer says that it has gotten an aggregate 16.4 MPG in the 50,000 miles since I have had it. Quite a bit of that has been low-&-slow 4WD stuff so I am not unhappy with these results.

'Course when I bought the truck, diesel was about $1.39 and significantly cheaper than petrol.

[Chester Taje]

Yes, that part confuses me, I never know if someone is refering to US Gallons or Imperial Gallons, I find using L/100KM a more acurate comparison. You can't mix up the volumes.

Chester, I use this site, it gives you all the measurements.

http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/...lator-input.cfm

Hey ---Great site.I like it.
PS---Just talked with Toyoto.They were surprized to hear that milage was so poor so now must keep a record for them.

I must point out that i am talking about good driving habits and keeping maint up.

[Rarebird]

Hi,
Several years ago some Element owners noticed that the mileage they thought they were getting was not true, due to a odometer mess up. Or something like that...not exactly sure.
Now there is a class-action suit against Honda, claiming they knew of the problem. The situation would not only change your mileage, but decrease the time a warrantly would be in effect.
These is only true for the earlier Elements.
Marjie

[brendadave]

Oh, and one other thing, starting with 2008 models (maybe in Canada only), they are using more stringent measuring procedures to come up with fuel economy, so in the future they will be more true to life. This might be why my mileage is so close to published.

[Lainey]

According to the little onboard computer display the Frontier is getting 12.9L/100 km (in summer, winter is more like 15L/100km). My driving is mixed city/hwy. The specs say 15mpg city and 20mpg highway (are those US gallons?)

Now that I've checked out that excellent link to the Fuel Calculator site, I now know that my summer rate translates to:
18.23 miles/US gallon or
21.9 miles/Imperial gallon

So it appears that my fuel use is somewhere in the right ballpark.

Someone once told me that the published rates are based on testing under perfect conditions at sea level, so YMMV (don't know if there's any truth to that)

[Frederick L. Simson]

Now there is a class-action suit against Honda, claiming they knew of the problem. The situation would not only change your mileage, but decrease the time a warranty would be in effect.
[b]These is only true for the earlier Elements.
Marjie

I have received a class-action notice that this pertains to other Honda vehicles; the Odyssey and the Fit. I have already put more miles on my Odyssey than the new warranty extension will cover.

I usually get about 2 mpg less than was advertised on the window sticker when not towing.

[Morgan]

...
The specs say 15mpg city and 20mpg highway (are those US gallons?)
...

I would bet the vehicles sold in Canada specify the mpg ratings in imperial gallons.

[Chester Taje]

I would bet the vehicles sold in Canada specify the mpg ratings in imperial gallons.

Thats correct Morgan

[Brian B-P]

None of the 2007 Frontier Crew Cab 4x4 LE specs, in the Canadian or U.S. Nissan sites, exactly match 15 and 20 mpg... so there's been some change between 2005 and 2007; however, those values are much closer to the U.S. 16 and 20 than the Canadian 19 and 27. I'm guessing Lainey's numbers are in US gallons, from the US spec.

This is one reason I agree with the earlier sentiment: just use L/100km. Especially since the odometers are in kilometers and the fuel pumps are in litres. Why do any conversions at all? I sometimes convert to miles/USgal for display in topics as a convenience for members in the U.S.

The Canadian specs for the 2007 version of that Frontier are 10.6 L/100km (highway) and 14.9 L/100km (city). 12.9 L/100km actual experience in mixed driving makes it look to me like the official estimate is reasonable.

Yes, Morgan, the published numbers which I have seen in Canada are all L/100km and miles per Imperial gallon... the latter being a unit of measure we were supposed to abandon about 30 years ago.

[Lainey]

The Canadian specs for the 2007 version of that Frontier are 10.6 L/100km (highway) and 14.9 L/100km (city). 12.9 L/100km actual experience in mixed driving makes it look to me like the official estimate is reasonable.

Brian, that sounds about similar to what I remember the specs for my 2005 to be also. It's good to know that the actual fuel consumption in real life is matching what the specs are (or at least according to what that little computer thingy says...)

Any way you cut it, 12.9L/100km sure is a LOT more fuel than my little 4 cyl. 5 spd Rav4 used! Luckily I don't commute into work anymore, or I'd be broke!

[pjanits]

Here in the Midwest we have Summer and Winter blends.
I have noticed that the winter blend gives horrible mileage ( along with the slower, heavier traffic).
Maybe 3 to 4 mpg less than summer.

Thanks, Gas folks, for the special blends.

[Brian B-P]

I have also noticed the seasonal difference, but I would be very surprised if the winter gasoline formulation is responsible for any significant fraction of the observed decrease in fuel economy. The seasonal blends are not done to hurt us, or even to benefit the fuel producers, but to make the fuel more suitable for driving conditions.

I suggest a reading of the Wikipedia page for gasoline, particularly the Volatility and Energy Content sections, as a start to a better understanding of this situation.

Winter driving is bad for fuel economy, due to traffic conditions (as mentioned), plus longer idling times as people leave vehicles to warm up, richer fuel mixtures required by the vehicle to start and to run cold, greater drag of cold lubricants in the transmission and final drive, greater drag of snow-covered streets, and probably some other factors.

I assume that the government tests are under conditions more like a typical midwest summer than winter.

[brendadave]

I was just wondering if you folks which have bought new vehicals in the last few years are getting close to published miles/gallon of fuel on normol driving conditions.
EG---My Toyoto Rav 4 is stated to be 25 City and 37 Highway.I am not getting close to the posted Highway rating of 37 miles per gallon CDN

How about you all.

Okay, I finally went through a tank of gas with just city driving, it is rated at 12.5L/100KM, and I got 12.3L/100KM. I have not done a lot of highway driving without the trailer yet, but it was around what is rated... 9.1L/100KM.

I am quite happy that it is getting the economy that is advertised.