Fuel Economy

[Astig02]

I did the second fill-up today on my brand new '11 Sport GS with the 2.5 litre engine. So far I am averaging 8.2 l/100 km. That's with50/50 highway vs. city driving. This is much better than I had been expecting.

Keith

i have a '11 GT Sport AT and do around 11~12L/100km. I only have 650km on the ODO so far. I'm currently on my 2nd fuel up and its not looking good. is there something wrong with the car? i do 80% city and 20% highway.

[XTOTHEL]

i have a '11 GT Sport AT and do around 11~12L/100km. I only have 650km on the ODO so far. I'm currently on my 2nd fuel up and its not looking good. is there something wrong with the car? i do 80% city and 20% highway.

See bolded for why, also are you reading what the car is telling you? OR doing this by hand.

[ElectroJay]

Just entered my third Fuelly fuel up.
Slight improvement with 9.6L/100km (previously 10.2)
my gas light came on at 430km
fueled up 42.255 litres

not sure how are people getting 500-550 km per tank

[Kiyomi]

Just entered my third Fuelly fuel up.
Slight improvement with 9.6L/100km (previously 10.2)
my gas light came on at 430km

not sure how are people getting 500-550 km per tank

word, it is getting better. as my car broke in, it got worse mileage, hehe I wonder why???

[ElectroJay]

hahaha I have a few theories

[CanadianReaper]

Just entered my third Fuelly fuel up.
Slight improvement with 9.6L/100km (previously 10.2)
my gas light came on at 430km
fueled up 42.255 litres

not sure how are people getting 500-550 km per tank

60-75% highway. I drive Newmarket to Sunnybrook for work. I had 518km last tank.

[sweetadad]

Im in the same boat as electrojay. I have 9300km on my 2011 GX and I get around 410-420 before light goes on.
I've started to record my mileage so I can show it to my dealer...but it's pretty bad. I do 70% highway and 30 city, don't rev more than 3000, coast as much as I can. According to my calculations,I get around 10.7l/100km( last2 fill ups). 2 weeks ago I went to Kingston and back ( from ottawa) and had 1/4 of tank left. That 1/4 tank was gone in 80km for a total of 480km with majority highway driving . It sucks!

[Hoodzy]

Just entered my third Fuelly fuel up.
Slight improvement with 9.6L/100km (previously 10.2)
my gas light came on at 430km
fueled up 42.255 litres

not sure how are people getting 500-550 km per tank

430/42.3 = 10.1km/L
55L tank?? * 10.1 = 555.5km per tank

[rzapata]

Im in the same boat as electrojay. I have 9300km on my 2011 GX and I get around 410-420 before light goes on.
I've started to record my mileage so I can show it to my dealer...but it's pretty bad. I do 70% highway and 30 city, don't rev more than 3000, coast as much as I can. According to my calculations,I get around 10.7l/100km( last2 fill ups). 2 weeks ago I went to Kingston and back ( from ottawa) and had 1/4 of tank left. That 1/4 tank was gone in 80km for a total of 480km with majority highway driving . It sucks!

Darn, that's even worst than my car. I get 10.3L/100km on average at 90% city driving (sometimes 100% city) and as far as I know, the break-in period ends at roughly 1000km. Might want to have it checked out...

[Hoodzy]

Im in the same boat as electrojay. I have 9300km on my 2011 GX and I get around 410-420 before light goes on.
I've started to record my mileage so I can show it to my dealer...but it's pretty bad. I do 70% highway and 30 city, don't rev more than 3000, coast as much as I can. According to my calculations,I get around 10.7l/100km( last2 fill ups). 2 weeks ago I went to Kingston and back ( from ottawa) and had 1/4 of tank left. That 1/4 tank was gone in 80km for a total of 480km with majority highway driving . It sucks!

How are you calculating your mileage?

[ElectroJay]

430/42.3 = 10.1km/L
55L tank?? * 10.1 = 555.5km per tank

ah, that makes sense lol

btw, i drive about 65% city

[DumpInfo]

[sarujo]

Start using Fuelly to track. As others have already mentioned, give it time to break in. You will see your best #'s around the 20k km mark. Other factors to consider - are your tires inflated to 35psi? How is alignment? My new 2010 GX from MoT had off alignment all around (likely from transport) but they re-aligned. Get some synthetic oil in her! Oh, and if you have a MT, 'coasting' should be in gear, not in neutral!

Im in the same boat as electrojay. I have 9300km on my 2011 GX and I get around 410-420 before light goes on.
I've started to record my mileage so I can show it to my dealer...but it's pretty bad. I do 70% highway and 30 city, don't rev more than 3000, coast as much as I can. According to my calculations,I get around 10.7l/100km( last2 fill ups). 2 weeks ago I went to Kingston and back ( from ottawa) and had 1/4 of tank left. That 1/4 tank was gone in 80km for a total of 480km with majority highway driving . It sucks!

[Z00M-Z00M]

My 2011 GT-E Sedan... gets about 480-520km/tank and thats a mix of highway and local.

[sweetadad]

Start using Fuelly to track. As others have already mentioned, give it time to break in. You will see your best #'s around the 20k km mark. Other factors to consider - are your tires inflated to 35psi? How is alignment? My new 2010 GX from MoT had off alignment all around (likely from transport) but they re-aligned. Get some synthetic oil in her! Oh, and if you have a MT, 'coasting' should be in gear, not in neutral!

I'm going in next week for my second oil change at 11000km and will mention this to the dealer. Tires were at 30 psi a few months ago , and so got them to 35 psi, but still no change in mileage increase. The first half tank yields 280-300km which is awesome. But since it's not linear, the next 1/2 tank is consumed giving only another 100-120 km for a total of 400ish Km.
How much would synthetic help? Also, what's the recommended oil weight to use?

Thx

[Hoodzy]

I'm going in next week for my second oil change at 11000km and will mention this to the dealer. Tires were at 30 psi a few months ago , and so got them to 35 psi, but still no change in mileage increase. The first half tank yields 280-300km which is awesome. But since it's not linear, the next 1/2 tank is consumed giving only another 100-120 km for a total of 400ish Km.
How much would synthetic help? Also, what's the recommended oil weight to use?

Thx

You can't use the fuel gauge and your trip to calculate your fuel mileage. It's nowhere near accurate enough.
If you are getting what you said above you should be getting 514km per a 55L tank.

Synthetic will maximum give you a 1% increase.
Continue to use fuelly and you should see it get better if you are calculating correctly. However expect the next 6 months of winter to destroy your fuel mileage.

[Iceman_F1]

You can't use the fuel gauge and your trip to calculate your fuel mileage. It's nowhere near accurate enough.

While I agree you can't use the fuel gauge and trip to calculate accurately, you CAN use it as a basic way to see how you are doing once you get used to how the car behaves.

An example, in my old 08.5 GT auto and now my 07 speed3, I equate on-target mileage as ~150km per 1/4 tick mark on the gauge. In other words, 1/4 = 150, 1/2 = 300, 3/4 = 450. If I'm around those numbers, I think it's pretty good for my driving. If I'm above (more long distance highway) even better! If I'm below then it's not as good a tank (usually a lot of city driving).

I still use fuelly on every fillup though to ser actual numbers and to keep track of things.

[Hoodzy]

Yes. But sweetadad is saying he is getting great mileage up until 1/4 tank then after that it's not as good.
So by that logic he should be filling up when he is only half full to avoid the worse gas mileage at everything under 1/4 tank.

[ipse]

My average is going up badly after the initial break in, since my commute to office is only 8km...I should be biking.
The coolant light is blue half of the drive. No wonder mileage is dropping. Oh well...

[ElectroJay]

Yes. But sweetadad is saying he is getting great mileage up until 1/4 tank then after that it's not as good.
So by that logic he should be filling up when he is only half full to avoid the worse gas mileage at everything under 1/4 tank.

I'm going to test this. If the gauge is anything near correct, I was getting great mileage up to 1/2 tank... maybe 3/5 of the tank. After that, it went downhill.

[slam525i]

The coolant light is blue half of the drive. No wonder mileage is dropping. Oh well...

OFF TOPIC:
The new 3s have a cold-coolant light? I wish we had that in the 2010s. I have to rely on an OBD II reader (coupled to a Garmin GPS) to tell me my coolant temp.

[ipse]

OFF TOPIC:
The new 3s have a cold-coolant light? I wish we had that in the 2010s. I have to rely on an OBD II reader (coupled to a Garmin GPS) to tell me my coolant temp.

Yeah...it's a 2011. I have an ODBII reader too and it tells me the light goes off at around 60C

[sweetadad]

Yes. But sweetadad is saying he is getting great mileage up until 1/4 tank then after that it's not as good.
So by that logic he should be filling up when he is only half full to avoid the worse gas mileage at everything under 1/4 tank.

Sorry....should have clarified. As to Iceman's point, I do infact use mental markers to see how bad/aggressive I'm driving and then perhaps ease off the gas a bit in an effort to increase the mileage. I've started to use fuelly and it's showing me a reading of 9L/100KM. Seems to be inline with others are seeing. I have 2 fill ups only, so will wait and see what happens this winter.

[ElectroJay]

Been fueling up with no less than 1/4 tank and can confirm that, after 3 fuel ups for this test, mileage is improving. I've been getting 9.4 instead of the usual 10.1 (measured with Fuelly) No more waiting for the gas light for me.

2011 Mazda 3 GS - AT.
75% City

[CanadianReaper]

I've been doing 90-100% city driving lately as I'm back in school and not working in Toronto. I've been around 10-10.5 L/100km lately. I don't accelerate quickly, I lift off the gas early and coast to red lights, and brake late/as little as possible. 2.5L engine is pretty gross fuel eco wise