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30mpg?!

2K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  te1966 
#1 ·
Well, not quite. But I am on a road trip and on Sunday while driving from northern Virginia to The Villages Florida I saw one tank get 29.53mpg. Then yesterday I was driving from Melbourne Florida to New Orleans. After stopping at Buc-ee’s in Daytona and stopping again 330-ish miles later, I recorded 29.55mpg. I tried to better this when I stopped at the next Buc-ee’s in Alabama (not because I needed to stop for fuel…I just love Buc-ee’s) and got 29.62mpg. This was driving at a cruise controlled 60-65mph on 70mph I-95 and I-10, no air con, 2009 EX automatic with 107K. I wonder if I drove at the minimum 50mph limit, what might I get?
 
#2 ·
That's great MPG! About as good as it ever gets with an Element.

The best I ever got with my '03 EX 2WD Auto was 26 MPG when driving mostly through the Northern Indiana cornfields at 60 MPH, mild temperature and no A/C.

I suppose you have an advantage having a 5 speed auto versus my 4 speed auto. At 60 MPH my '03 is buzzing at 2500 RPM, so.....

But one thing for sure, the slower you go, the better the MPG on an Element. If you dare going only 50 MPH on the interstates (wouldn't try it around here!), you likely would get better than 30 MPG! :)
 
#3 ·
60-65 mph around here will get you run off the road!! 80+ is average, and they will still tailgate while flashing lights and blowing the horn & flipping you off. I get 22/23 mpg at those speeds, any increase is not worth my life.
 
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#8 ·
I did it. Between yesterday and today, I traveled from the Robertsdale, Alabama Buc-ee’s to Jacksonville, Florida. I kept the speed to 60mph, with about 2.5(?) hours at 55mph. Traffic on the I-10 was virtually nonexistent, so I wasn’t slowing anyone else down; a lot of the drive was in the evening and early morning. Winds were light; temperature 65-70F. 388.9 miles on 12.4 gallons of fuel…31.36mpg!
 
#11 ·
You cannot, despite any normal efforts, accurately measure fuel mileage by the tank or even the gallons you pump into the tank after a drive. You have to have several 'tanks' over several hundred miles before the error of the automatic cutoff (or squeezing the pump one more time) gets diminished to the point where your measurement of fuel is close in accuracy to your measurement of miles driven. :)
 
#14 ·
Of course the cutoff is going to be slightly different from fill-up to fill-up, and I was using different pumps each time. Regardless, I am home from my trip now, which was over two weeks and 4171.6 miles. The lowest mpg I recorded was 22, and the highest 33(!) FWIW, both of those were fill-ups of less than five gallons. My final leg from the Florence South Carolina Buc-ee’s to a gas station less than two miles from my home was 379 miles. The low fuel indicator lit at 376 miles (I was watching my fuel gauge very intensely!) I took on 12.2 gallons; roughly 31 mpg.
 
#12 ·
My Funium 2 2010 EXw/nav 4wd 75k ; auto trans. I have gotten as Hi as 33mpg , I use cruise control , stay at 2000 rpm , that is about 63/65 mph , my trips are usually long state Hwy routes to Nat'l Park areas. Around town , errands ect not nearly as good . If I jump on it and give Funium 2 the beans I have gotten as little as 20 or hi teens. We love this vehicle , bought it new would not trade it for any current Honda product. Cheers R
 
#16 ·
That pretty amazing. My 05 Element 4AT does 24mpg on the highway at best even at 60mph.
In contrast my 20 Ridgeline can get 22mpg on the same trip but it has a 9AT and four of those gears are overdrives. At 70 it's barely turning 2000rpm where my Element is around 3000rpm.
I agree. I have the same situation with my '03 EX 4AT.

I always thought that Honda should have geared the Elements differently; or at least they should have had optional final drive ratios.
 
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