I got a 2010 Fit with a 1.5Liter engine manual transmission and I'm getting 39 mpg...I usually drive with my A/C turned on since it's real hot where I live. is it within normal range or am i doing something seriously wrong here?

Oh also, my car is stock, just the way it came out of the dealership. We have to types of gas here in Mexico:

Magna with 87 octanes

Premium with 92 octanes <--- the one I use!!

I always fill up with the second one. My car just passed the 1000km mark, roughly around 621 miles.

 

thats awesome!
i dont know about the 2010s, but the 09s had a mpg meter that was usually off by 10%ish... either way that'd put u at 35ish... which is still good

 

i just did 40mpg on about 100 miles the other day. I also have a 2010 in manual transmission i was using air condition AND i was raining and the temperature here is hot as well. almost 9k miles on the car now.

but.. iam using 87 octane tho.. theres a huge debate on weather or not premium gasoline will help with gas mileages as in our manual it says 87 octane and higher.. and it does not clarify if the car can take advantage of 93 octane like how a Civic SI manual would clearly say 93 octane and higher.

 

The common belief here is that if your car is turbocharged or supercharged you need to use the better gasoline the one with 92 octanes. If not then you can use the other one. I always use the premium one because I think it its better for the engine. But that`s only a personal opinion.

Another thing that affects fuel consumption is the fact that here in Monterrey the streets are all cramped up. In general driving conditions are worst here so that means more braking and accelerating so i guess that means burning more gas.

Anyways, I'm seeing a HUGE difference between my fit and the pickup truck i used to drive...

 

You're wasting your money on premium gas. Use the recommended octane and you'll be fine.

 

100% correct. The higher the octane the more advance you can run in the engine. You would have to alter your timing to take advantage of the higher octane gasoline, more advance also means more power to a point. Higher octane gasoline is less prone to detonation which is why its used for high HP and turbo applications.

Now if the fit had a second table and intelligently changes based upon testing detonation (which I'm almost 100% confident it doesn't) you could use it.

Putting anything higher than 87 in your fit is throwing money away, physics and chemistry make it so.

 

Wow thank you guys!

I saved 15% on gas money by asking FitFreak.net HAHAHAH

have a good week!

 

I recommend checking your owner's manual for what octane it recommends.
A recent thread indicated that the european jazz manuals require premium.

 

US based regular at 87 is about 2 or 3 octane lower than regular most other places, at least here in Japan. Remember the L15A engine is a somewhat high compression motor at 10.4:1. At least this was high back when the B16A was introduced at 10.2:1 stateside and 10.4:1 in Japan. And those motors would not run very well on less than premium (about 96 here when converted from the 100RON rating).

It might say regular in the owner's manual, but mid-grade stateside is like regular here and considering the engine is designed and built in Japan, I'm pretty sure since there is no 87 octane here, one might look at using at least mid-grade (89). Hook up a knock meter reader and see if your engine is getting any type of knock, I believe there is a factory knock meter (at least on the JDM model). If so, your engine is being retarded back and your engine is not running optimally.

Then again, maybe depending on the person and how they drive, the 87 will work just fine. If I were living in a climate with high temperatures, I would definitely be using a better fuel than the minimum offered as well as going a step colder on the plugs. For somebody to shout out that someone else is just wasting their money because the owner's manual says 87 at a minimum and no benefit gained by going better is opinion and not fact.

 

I don't know why anyone would recommend anything other than what is in the manual.

 

I remember hearing something about how we calculate octane nubers with a different formula stateside. Anyone know? I for one will continue using mid grade until the debate is settled.

 

I don't know much about all the techincal stuff but to me I think is real simple. Higher octane gas burns cleaner, increases power, reduces impurities and thus increasing the engine's lifespan. Or am I wrong?

 

don't you think honda is aware of how our gasoline is manufactured, and builds the car, and owner's manual, according to where it is shipped?

That seems more reasonable than any of us here trying to outguess honda engineers that spend their entire career making these decisions.

 

i hate how people bring all this compression bulls**t into why our cars are ment to be ran on 93 octane... there are SOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many cars that have higher compression then the honda fit and only require 86 octane... and for some reason everyone on this forum thinks our motors are so special that its different...

check out ford's and chevy's compression... nobody has 9:1 compression anymore.. maybe toyota (to think off of my head) but many cars these days are super high compression running low octane.

and i think i trust honda enough to say that if Ford and chevy can do it... honda can too... so i am putting the fit to the test to see if it can do what so many manufactures HAVE been doing.... which is running 87 octane at super high compression.... higher then the fit's compression.

 

I'm with ya Vash 99%. It's the if Ford and Chevy can do it that gets me. I'll put the HONDA engineers in front of them any day. F/C are playing catch-up. Well except for that NorthStar engine.... K_C_

 

Well since your mind is set to what you believe in. Why did you come here to ask? Use the grade of gas that you want to use and don't bother asking and just be happy with it.

 

Word.....

Honda Engineers > Anonymous Forum Opinions

I am pretty sure if the engine knocked and ran like crap on 87 octane, they wouldn't reccomend it

Becides, the cost of a mid-grade fuel over regular is like 6%.... considering I can get highway mileage 44mpg in my car on ol' crappy 87 octane (while not exactly taking it easy I might add) I don't think people will start getting 47mpg just by switching to a mid grade.


My $.02 anyway

 

Here's a rather straight forward explanation of OCTANE:Octane Facts You can go deeper into it, but I tend to follow two basic principals in life KISS and RTFM. K_C_

 

Did you notice how Ford lists their Mustang with power/torque numbers for both regular and premium fuels? Again, your manual doesn't state not to use higher, it says don't use below 87.

Again, if you reread what I said, it also depends on how a person drives, if you are putting around the 87 should be just fine, a person who likes to beat on their car, keeping it in the higher rpms (not that the Fit gets very high, 7000) they may benefit by running a fuel that will decrease the chance of knock. Never did I say, the L15A is meant to be ran on 93, maybe you were just generalizing, but you quoted me. I also said, that 10.4:1 was high back in the day and is still somewhat high. Just because other manufacturers now have 10.3 ~ 11:1 in some of their engines and list regular as choice of fuel, doesn't mean the engine will not run better with a higher octane fuel. The fact that even Ford lists their Mustang with 2 different power ratings based on octane, kind of throws that PDF file from Minnesota somewhat out. So would whoever published that tell Ford a brand new car off the line has electrical or whatever other problems because it gets better power with a higher octane fuel. That engine is running 11:1 compression by the way.

I just presented that 87 octane is not even available in Japan or some other parts of the world and the regular here is like mid-grade in the US and the Fit here also states at a minimum use regular.

Here is another for you, delving into conspiracy theory just because, but imagine somebody shopping for a new vehicle, car A and car B are priced equivalently and shopper can't really make up mind, but car A required premium fuel to run. How many people would then choose car B because it only required regular? So don't you think it is possible that they list regular even though the engine might run better with a higher octane fuel?

Does the manual say, "run 87, if you run higher you are a moron and throwing money away, so just buy 87"?

 

yeah but if that was the case then the civic SI can use 86 octane... which it can't.. you have to put in 93 in it...

its not going both ways..... only 1 way... 86 octane or HIGHER for the honda fit.. civic SI... 93 octane and higher.. not lower.

its true that ford can recently NOW use 2 fuels but the manual blatantly tells YOU that the ECU has 2 tunes for regular and premium gas... our user manual does not.