Average fuel economy

murcod · Sat Dec 21, 2013 2:25 am

(6 mile trips are very short and wouldn't help.)

SamirD · Sat Dec 21, 2013 5:40 am

KuroNekko wrote:Make sure the numbers are not off. I've heard that heavy snow can really decrease fuel economy, but 111 miles out of two tanks (roughly 13 gallons per fill up) equates to 4.2 MPG. That's very very unlikely. Make sure your numbers are right.

That was my thoughts at first, but the miles travelled is straight off the odometer. We've only had the car two weeks to fill up twice, maybe even just 1.5 tanks.

It only donned on me as I was sitting and waiting for my wife. I usually let the car idle since that usually doesn't use huge amounts of fuel (and it's freezing cold outside), but if it's going to guzzle it, then maybe I better not.

It just seems super-low. I watch the instant when driving and it's hovering around 20 during the short commute, but it is a lot of stop and go. There's only three stretches where it actually can be at 20 for more than 5 seconds.

ipaqxman · Sun Dec 22, 2013 12:58 am

Reset your average speed, which will allow us to correlate better what kind of driving pattern you have. Idling kills mpg.

SamirD · Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:31 am

I'll do that. And just to experiment, I'm going to try to avoid idling. I did watch the instant mpg again when we were driving home from errands downtown today. It barely hit 10 when we were having to go stoplight to stoplight.

I'm thinking 4-ish might be right.

Sun Dec 22, 2013 5:31 am

SamirD wrote:I'll do that. And just to experiment, I'm going to try to avoid idling. I did watch the instant mpg again when we were driving home from errands downtown today. It barely hit 10 when we were having to go stoplight to stoplight. I'm thinking 4-ish might be right.

4 mpg is worse than a Ferrari on a track. 4 mpg is worse than a bus-sized motor home. Either your numbers are seriously off or you idle around constantly like a NYC cab.

I drive in bumper to bumper city traffic in DC where they don't even time the lights so you basically catch every red light in this damn city. Even then, my MPG isn't below 20.

I've discussed this in another thread, but idling and warming up the car is really a total waste of fuel. It's not even good for the car anymore as motor oils are multi-grade and protect the engine even when cold. Just leave your jacket on in the car.

A lot of people complain about the Kizashi's fuel economy, but neglect the #1 factor about fuel efficiency: How you drive and your driving conditions have the far greatest effect. Even more so than a faulty O2 sensor.
My Kizashi is larger, heavier, and has a bigger engine than my former Mazda3 2.3 liter, yet gets around the same fuel economy. While rivals now may have better MPGs, back in 2009, they were comparable to the Kizashi's.

SamirD · Sun Dec 22, 2013 2:41 pm

I know that 4mpg is really, really bad. That's why I'm concerned. But when the car itself is saying it doesn't get up to 10mpg from stoplight to stoplight, that's an indicator of the extreme stop and go that makes up the downtown streets here. It doesn't help that we rarely get above 30mph. You have to have speed to get an economy (like on the highway), and I think that's the heart of the issue along with stop and go.

The idling may have a lot to do with it as well since my wife is regularly an hour late to leave work from the time she tells me to arrive. So there's a lot of idleing right there. This is a big part of whta I'm going to cut out since I always have my jacket and gloves on anyways. We'll see what happens.

bkcheong · Mon Dec 23, 2013 4:53 am

murcod wrote:Reset the trip computer and it will start working out the average again from scratch.

Excuse me if I'm asking the bleeding obvious, miurcod, but how do you reset the trip computer? I'm only getting 10.6 litres/100 kms after having done 32,000 kms.

Mon Dec 23, 2013 5:17 am

bkcheong wrote:
murcod wrote:Reset the trip computer and it will start working out the average again from scratch.
Excuse me if I'm asking the bleeding obvious, miurcod, but how do you reset the trip computer? I'm only getting 10.6 litres/100 kms after having done 32,000 kms.

Tap the "DISP" button until you see your average fuel economy. Then press and hold "DISP" until it clears the data. You will then have reset it.

Also, you can change settings in the car by pressing and holding the "DISP" button for about 10 seconds. A menu will show on the screen. You can also opt to have the trip meter synced with the fuel economy calculator. This way, when you reset the fuel economy, it automatically resets the trip meter of your choosing. This allows you to see how far you travel per fill up while the car calculates the fuel economy.
Keep in mind that the car's calculations can be off. Mine is consistently 2 MPG off from gallons consumed divided by miles driven.

SamirD · Mon Dec 23, 2013 6:25 am

Cool. I'm going to have to see that menu. I don't remember reading about it in the manual.

Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:33 am

SamirD wrote:Cool. I'm going to have to see that menu. I don't remember reading about it in the manual.

Yeah, I learned about it here on the forum too.
You can change Fahrenheit to Celsius, Miles to Kilometers, MPG to l/100km, etc.
You can also set the footwell lights to come on with the headlights, etc.

Pretty cool stuff.