MPG

[MNSLS]

@Ehibb034

You had asked about fuel. I primarily use unleaded. I tested premium once.
87 octane provided me with 29.6 MPG. The next tank: 92 non-oxygenated octane provided me with 31.4 MPG. Higher octane cost me 5.67% more. Mileage improved by 6.08% more.
* Though the driving route, weather, and driver were not the same. I did use the same station's gas. * So this was just a rough test to see what could happen.

I'm hoping for something a bit more accurate. Monday I filled up on the way to work. I hope to refill on the end of the day Friday. I might make a couple of small trips but I'm trying to keep the routes as similar as possible, while not majorly impacting my life. Also, I'm just driving 'normal' without going out of my way to be excessive on the hypermilling. I estimate I'm getting about 29MPG. Using my car's estimate minus the error it seems to have.

The next tank on Premium might be a few weeks later. The reason is a combination of miles and timing. I'm unlikely to empty the tank by Friday. Which means I can't test next week. And the week after is broken up by July 4th. The next 'similar' week would be the week of July 9th. So I'm hoping to empty the tank before the 9th, fill up with premium, drive a bit and top off with premium on the morning of July 9th. I want as much 87 octane out of there as possible.

And to your list -
1) Yes inflate your tires more. I haven't done that yet, I make sure they're what the door.

2) Certain gas may make a difference. I think I see a difference (read lower) with Holiday's Blue Planet. It's supposed to be some environmentally friendly but 'Top Tier' product. My old 99 Ford Mustang Cobra definitely did worse on their gas. It appears the Kizzy may not like their base 87 either. Though - driving habits and route are typically not the same so it can be tricky to truly identify a station is giving you worse MPG.

3) Shed some pounds - well last year I was 50 pounds heavier. I guess it doesn't count if I shed the weight before I bought the Kizashi. I should have bought the car first.

Certainly weight acts against the best MPG. One hypermilling trick is to only fill the tank up to 1/2. So the Kizzy would have between 0 and 7 gallons at any one time. So 8 gallons low saves you about 48 pounds. The problem is MPG is harder to determine when doing this. Of course dropping the tire, carry a can-o-fixit or AAA membership, saves some weight. And certainly carrying no passengers can help, and you can then remove the back seat to save more weight.

I just carried five 40 pound bags of dog food in my trunk. The increased junk in my trunk made a noticeable handling difference. Not sure on the MPG as it wasn't that far. But, from the instant MPG meter I think it did worse than it did without that weight all in the back.


4) Cruise is indeed your friend.

I'll add - less stops and fewer starts is always good. Mainly highway driving will return better mileage for you than mainly city driving. I spent a heavy weekend in city traffic. I also did a Sprint Triathlon that weekend so I was toting a bike on the back everywhere. I think it was my lowest MPG rating. Probably 23-25 area. Sorry, I didn't commit this # to memory.

[jute2003]

I will say that the difference between the cars average mpg readout and my math is very inconsistent. sometimes the car is 2mpg better sometimes its 2 mpg worse....sometimes its right on.

[gmkizashi]

I have a 2010 SLS Auto (CVT) FWD with 50,000 miles. I rarely use the manual shift ,(or paddle feature) I don't jackrabbit a lot, and average 70-75 on highway. I do a lot of highway.
I will average 32 miles per gallon on straight highway and my overall average is 26-28 mpg
I use 87 octane 10% ethanol from the cheapest place I can.

[Northernstar]

just filled up 40L a few days ago. Gonna do hypermiling for this tank and see what happens. Will post once the result is in.

[Ronzuki]

I will say that the difference between the cars average mpg readout and my math is very inconsistent. sometimes the car is 2mpg better sometimes its 2 mpg worse....sometimes its right on.

I've been noticing this lately as well...wtf? last tank it was a spot on match. USUALLY, it's been a pretty consistent 1.8-2.0 higher than actual calculated mpg

[Ehibb034]

Sounds good northernstar. Let us know.

[ipaqxman]

22 mpg last tank by math... 23 on display... even with more than 50% highway. gona bring it to another suzuki shop... would calling suzuki help?

[Ehibb034]

ipaxman,

Just a question for you. How often are you using the cruise control? I have to really try very hard and use hypermilling techniques to keep my car above 28 MPG. that's only 3 MPG better than EPA estimates.
I did notice after driving this car for a couple of weeks now that if I were to just "normally" drive this car or let one of my friends drive the car, I don't think I or they could even get the EPA combined of 25MPG. Maybe its the hills of PA but it is hard to beat the EPA with this car.
If you are not using the cruise which will be insurmountably better than your throttle foot in this car especially, I can easily see how you are getting 22 MPG.
If you drive this car around town for even 30% of your driving, it's really hard to get above 20 MPG when doing so conservatively. I am willing to bet that if you car is getting 22-23 then there is nothing wrong with it. While I have been doing 27.5-28 MPG (hand calculated), I can safely say that for my roads and driving conditions here, this car is terrible on gas. I was getting 33 MPG in my old car. I can promise you that if you are getting 22-23 MPG, then your version of conservative driving is most likely not as extreme as those who are getting into the 29's-30's for MPG.
Check tire pressure. Try having a tune-up or using gas with more cleaning agents. Maybe engine build-up has gotten extreme in your case and is actually hampering your mileage. I'm almost positive that Suzuki will say there is no issue.

[MNSLS]

@Ehibb034

Okay - first week of my 'experiment' down.
Monday AM filled up with unleaded (87 octane). Drove 'normal'. No conscious hypermilling efforts. Used cruise but I just left it do it's own thing.
Car tells me it went 413.2 miles at 29.9MPG. Average Speed was 44MPH.
The low fuel light came on so I refilled with 14.725 gallons of Premium (92 octane).
That works out to be 28.06 MPG.

My first couple measures and using hypermilling techniques.-
* Home from the gas station 14.2 miles and 40.2MPG.
* Sister-in-law + home is 132.7 miles showing 37MPG. This route is fairly the same to the 230mile route I drove at a guage of 34.2MPG or manual of 33MPG. It's a shorter version of the same roads.

My goal is to refill on Monday AM and try a week's driving 'normal' to see how the Premium compares to Unleaded. I'll post my results next week.

[MNSLS]

I did reset the avg MPG, avg speed, and miles at fill up.