[Culinary Wolf]

This is my third fill up. Keeping the rpms under or at 3k. All in town, very little stop and go or parked running. Mileage is 12 miles away from 1,000.

What am I missing here to achive the 19-24 mpg advertised ?

 

[elle717]

im averaging 230 miles on a full tank... 2010 SC

 

[scorsone]

There have been a few posts on here mentioning a "break in" period for the mileage to improve. It has been a while since my E was new but I vaguely remember lower numbers at the start of it's life.

 

[ramblerdan]

Thread moved to Fuel Economy and Gas Related Discussion forum.

 

[Junebug]

How long are your in-town trips? I get sub20 mpg regularly when I'm doing very short trips.

 

[jdiane]

It's also winter (or so I've heard, its 80 degrees here) and winter blend gas is really bad for the mpgs. But all city driving is the worst- I used to get 17 mpgs when my commute was 14 miles round trip all city. And anything under about 5000 miles is still the break-in period (a quick look on the Accord forums will tell you this is a Honda thing, not just an Element thing). Get your E out on the highway, freeway, or tollway for a nice long trip and then calculate. ;-) It'll get better.

 

[Flat Lander]

My first tank was around 13, then 16, then 21, now back to 16. I've got a little over 1k miles, all in town, I use the same gas station, same pump, park in the same direction and fill it the same each time.

I love my E, but this is ridiculous. I honestly expected better, more consistent mileage for a $25k vehicle. I could have kept my '89 Chevy P/U and got the same mileage.

 

[Racer Chaser]

I'm getting just under 16 for my in town driving up here in Omaha with my 2010 that I picked up in the end of December. I'm hoping it will pick up once the E gets broken in and the weather warms up. My last in town fuel up was 16.7. I drive just under 7 miles to work for a total of about 15-17 miles a day depending on where I go to lunch at.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/conechaser/element

 

[AKRunner]

I just cleared 1400 miles on my Christmas present 2010 EX AWD and it has been getting 15 - 16 mpg so far. Give it some time to fully break in and warmer weather, do not forget that the MPG figures on the sticker come not from the manufacturer but the Federal Government. They did improve the methods used to arrive at the figures a few years ago but it is still not more than a guideline.

 

[elle717]

how long til the break in? im at 4500 miles n still 17-18 mpg

 

[scorsone]

Elle717, fill in your profile and we can give you a bit more specifics for answers. At 4500 you should be past your "break in".

What is the terrain like in your area? Is your mileage combined, city, highway? Do you have a roof rack? How hard do you drive? A lot of little factors add up to decrease mileage.

18-19 in the city during the winter and being a little heavy footed is very typical. If I am careful and air up my tires a little I can get 21-22 city in the winter.

 

[elle717]

sorry..los angeles area and yes combined mileage city and freeway. i have factory roof rack everything else is stock. the most ive gotten was 270 miles and that was careful driving, slowing accelerating.. my buddy has an 08 and he avg 320 miles

 

[psschmied]

Averaging 16.40mpg in 2010 EX awd... Is this the norm ? This is my third fill up. Keeping the rpms under or at 3k. All in town. . . . What am I missing here to achieve the 19-24 mpg advertised ?

Longer trips including moderate speed driving. The advertised "city" rating isn't based on real world city driving condition. I've seen my wife get as low as 17 mpg for her short trip local driving .

 

[RWMunday]

E Mileage

I have driven 10,000 miles since I purchased my 2008 SC. I just returned home from a 2500 mile trip from Jacksonville to Milwaukee to Chicago to Indianapolis to Montgomery. Here were my fill-ups for the trip:


Date ---- Miles -- Gallons - Price - MPG
3/17/10 - 377.7 - 14.198 - $2.78 - 26.6
3/17/10 - 347.7 - 13.032 - $2.86 - 26.7
3/15/10 - 187.6 - 07.236 - $2.70 - 25.9
3/14/10 - 351.7 - 14.539 - $2.70 - 24.2
3/12/10 - 352.8 - 13.953 - $2.70 - 25.3
3/11/10 - 364.4 - 13.226 - $2.75 - 27.6
3/11/10 - 311.4 - 13.250 - $2.76 - 23.5
3/08/10 - 320.2 - 13.010 - $2.75 - 24.6
3/07/10 - 192.3 - 08.210 - $2.70 - 23.4
3/05/10 - 284.1 - 11.731 - $2.70 - 24.2

I added Lucas Oil Fuel Injector Cleaner on alternate fillings during the trip. As time goes by, I'm able to go longer distances on a tank. I would be looking for a pump at 330 miles and still have two to 2.5 gallons in the tank. Now I'm starting to get over 350 miles per tank safely. When the low fuel light activates, I presume I have three gallons @ 20mpg left in the tank. My average at present is 23.7. On interstates (most of my driving) I'm traveling 70 zones at 75mph, other highways 5mph over, exact speeds in cities, passing through small towns and work zones. Tires at 40psi.

As always, YMMV.

 

[Culinary Wolf]

Well I wish I was getting even close to those numbers. One of the main things switching to this vehicle was the mpg. And from the previous posts it appears the govs numbers are just plain way off but I suppose that is what the effect is when you do something like that in a laboratory environment vs real world environment . Knew it wasn't going to be AS good as the numbers as they never are, just not this far off.

I have switched gas stations to see if that will help to Shell fuel compared to Kroger fuel.

My trips are very short, I tend to stay in about 8 miles of home, very basic flat terrain, speeds averaging 35-45 mph. With only 3 slow downs for 2 turns and a stop light. Outdoor temps are averaging in the 40's in the morning to high 60's for the day.

Still glad I made the switch, love this car.8)

 

[psschmied]

Well I wish I was getting even close to those numbers. ... My trips are very short, I tend to stay in about 8 miles of home, very basic flat terrain, speeds averaging 35-45 mph. With only 3 slow downs for 2 turns and a stop light. ...8)

EPA mileage tests are done on recently driven vehicles, under near-deal weather conditions on closed courses, using a sampling of manufacturer-selected vehicles. This reduces engine, transmission and chassis warm-up times, and produces mpg figures that are as relevant to typical vehicles as NASCAR lap times.

Your short trip driving is considered "severe" use. With the Element being 3500# and having a 4-banger, the friction and inertia including tire rolling resistance during warm-up is substantial. I've notice that it takes a couple of miles of driving just for my brakes to polish off overnight rotor rust and the pads to fully retract. When I drive longer, multi-day trips on interstates, where I'm between 55 and 65 mph most of the time, my mpg dramatically improves, rising above 25 mpg (corrected odometer).

Your mpg will improve slightly as your engine is "broken in". You can help it along by taking some longer trips at higher speeds and varying your speed as the Owners Manual recommends. After break-in, things that can help mpg would include switching to synthetic oil, larger and/or harder highway/touring tires, raising tire inflation and lightening the vehicle by not carrying unneeded cargo, like the rear seats, and keeping the body clear of deflectors, bully bars, roof bars, etc, and predictive, not "granny", driving".

If you want to prong the life of your Element, i suggest that you be extra aggressive about oil changes and maintenance, (not waiting for the maintenance minder to alert you), and keeping the body - top and bottom- as clean as possible.

 

[doryman]

EPA mileage tests are done on recently driven vehicles, under near-deal weather conditions on closed courses, using a sampling of manufacturer-selected vehicles. This reduces engine, transmission and chassis warm-up times, and produces mpg figures that are as relevant to typical vehicles as NASCAR lap times.

Your short trip driving is considered "severe" use. With the Element being 3500# and having a 4-banger, the friction and inertia including tire rolling resistance during warm-up is substantial. I've notice that it takes a couple of miles of driving just for my brakes to polish off overnight rotor rust and the pads to fully retract. When I drive longer, multi-day trips on interstates, where I'm between 55 and 65 mph most of the time, my mpg dramatically improves, rising above 25 mpg (corrected odometer).

Your mpg will improve slightly as your engine is "broken in". You can help it along by taking some longer trips at higher speeds and varying your speed as the Owners Manual recommends. After break-in, things that can help mpg would include switching to synthetic oil, larger and/or harder highway/touring tires, raising tire inflation and lightening the vehicle by not carrying unneeded cargo, like the rear seats, and keeping the body clear of deflectors, bully bars, roof bars, etc, and predictive, not "granny", driving".

If you want to prong the life of your Element, i suggest that you be extra aggressive about oil changes and maintenance, (not waiting for the maintenance minder to alert you), and keeping the body - top and bottom- as clean as possible.

You're suggesting that we change oil MORE often than recommended?

 

[ramblerdan]

Yes, if your driving is primarily short trips. OTOH the Maintenance Minder is supposed to take that sort of thing into account.

 

[psschmied]

You're suggesting that we change oil MORE often than recommended?

If you are planning to keep your Element as I am, (until it's either wrecked in a crash, and/or they have to drag my cold dead body out of the drivers' seat ), yes, more often than a Maintenance Minder indicates. Frequent oil changes are far cheaper than engine rebuilds.

Oil life monitors are more driven by PC and economic forces than quality of monitoring technology. That they use elaborate algorithms involving run time time, engine speed and oil pressure doesn't change the fact that oil life monitors don't directly measure the quality of oil, they estimate - a statistical "guess". Their goal is to reduce average cost of ownership during a typical ownership period of under 5/50,000, not to prolong engine life. Think of an oil life monitor as a computerized idiot light warning to RTFM's maintenance manual. It's there to remind people who don't regularly maintain their vehicles that things wear out.

In a vehicle that is only driven for short trips, by the time that the viscosity of the oil changes enough to indicate replacement is needed, the pH of the condensed moisture in the lubrication system can build up significantly. Short trips give it a lot of time to corrode the engine, and when the engine is finally warmed up during a prolonged higher speed trip, the concentrated corrosive high temperature vapor is dumped into the exhaust to continue its destruction.

Having spent too many years working with computerized system, I'm skeptical, perhaps a little paranoid, about the trustworthiness of automatic monitoring systems. I know that there's a way to manually reset the oil life monitoring system. If the battery is removed or run down far enough to require a jump-start the emission system loses its data, the radio code needs to be reset; what happens to the oil life monitor's data?

 

[Tortuga Rojo]

Starting with a whole 4 miles on the odo, my trip mileage from the delivering IL dealer to my IN home base pushed 24 mpg, and that was with varying speeds not under 70 in really ugly, snowy, headwind weather in the low 30s, temp-wise. The terrain was mostly flat and highway. This is with an EX-AWD.

I haven't averaged under 18 since, mostly slow local driving, with some cargo and often pushing aside moderate snow. Hopefully Global Warming will kick in Real Soon Now??

What I don't do is creep to speed from stops. I give it moderate juice. Gas engines are most efficient when they run unthrottled, i.e., few airflow and pumping loss restrictions. Obviously, nailing it to get to speed then letting up is a waste of gas, but 1/3 throttle or so seems to work for me.

Your trips sound short, on cold equipment as psschmied mentioned, and TN is known for a hill or three, so that's probably a factor in your mpg. Plus that roof rack is wind resistance - I had one on my Acura RDX and got 2 mpg better overall by removing the crossbars when not needed. Try holding your arm straight out the window as long as you can, palm flat to the wind. Now try that with your palm against the wind. Good exercise plus it gives you an idea how much energy it takes to keep it there, even at 25 mph. That's the roof rack hanging on to your E.

Mileage: assuming $3.00/gal, 16 mpg would cost you about $.19/mile for gas. If you got 20 mpg, the cost is $.15/mile. So on a 13-gal fill up, the difference is a shocking 52 cents.

Over a year of driving, say, 15,000 miles in my fabulous Toaster but with 4 mpg less than I hoped for, assuming $3/gal gas, that experience would cost me $600 more or $50/month.

But since I'm getting better than 16 mpg and I'm not worried about an extra 52 cents a fill-up, I'm living large compared to those bloated SUVs that get maybe 14 mpg at best and aren't near as fun or versatile as my E.

I hope this helps!