Hello all, this is my first post of hopefully many more as I'm the new owner of an 08' Honda Fit. I've wanted to buy a fit for years now and it's finally happened and I can't be more excited about it, but I've got some questions.

The biggest one is the gas mileage in my vehicle. I went from driving an 04' Saturn Vue to this, the Vue was a 4 cylinder and got decent mileage but I thought the Fit would be even better but so far it seems like that's not so true.

The car has 67k miles on it, had one previous owner who was an old woman from Georgia and the carfax checks out clean. I've replaced the air filter, got a fresh oil change, tire pressure checks out and everything seems to be pretty solid. I'm getting used to the touchy gas pedal (at least compared to the Vue) and so I marked up my first tank or two of bad mileage to that but I've gotten that under control now and it's all smooth driving. I do a lot of city stop and go driving so I know that's a factor too but it still doesn't seem to be adding up.

Is there anything notorious in 08' Fits or Fits in general that could be causing this? I've got a new set of spark plugs too but I've yet to replace them (still looking for a good tutorial online) because I figure that might help. I'm not a car guy by any means, but I know enough to not be hopeless. I'm currently still covered under the dealerships 30 day warranty too if that helps. Anything you guys/gals could throw my way would be much appreciated!

 

I read through that five times to be sure... you left the most important part out.




What kind of gas mileage are you getting?

 

*facepalm*

I'm averaging between 20-23 MPG city. I think Highway is around 27.

 

How many miles have you driven?
How have you calculated the actual economy?
Where in Indiana do you live?
Do you have a number of stop signs to go through? What's your regular commute you are basing this off of? (tyep of driving, distance, etc...)

20-23 is definitely not in the norm for the fit and 27 for highway seems a little low (unless your definition of highway is 80mph or higher)

i use a smartphone app for calculating/tracking my economy which makes it real easy since I go by amount of fuel at every fill-up and the odometer reading.

FYI, the 08 fit is a different Generation from the forum you posted in... I believe only in Japan was the current generation of FIT sold as an 08. 08's everywhere else are known as a GD(3) and not a GE(8). you might have more luck on the GD section.

~SB

 

Specboy, thanks for all of the info. What app are you using to track all of that? Android or iOS? Are you using a cable to interface with the car to pull info from its computer to do that?

I'll post this over in the other forum, I had no idea (as stated, not a car guy by any means) but thanks for your thorough response anyway.

To answer your questions: I've only driven about 250 miles so far, I live in northwest Indiana in Porter county. I've calculated the economy just by resetting the trip meter on a fill up and dividing the total miles I get before hitting E by 10 because it has a 10 gallon tank. My definition of highway driving is 60mph, 65 tops. I've got 2 stop signs on my trip to work, which is a whopping total of about a half mile.

 

i will assume his app is just a mpg record-keeper (take a look at fuelly). When you fill up your gas, he inputs the odometer or tripmeter and fuel added, then it keeps track of the math and statistics for you.

Your method has a huge flaw unless you have confirmed when you go to the gas station you are filling up with 10 gallons.

Try a few full tanks from the same pump at a gas station (hopefully a brand name station) and take some precise measurements of fuel consumed vs miles travelled before coming to a conclusion.

 

I use Android and the app is "MyCars" I changed the settings so I input the odometer instead of trip miles.

Manually you can do the same. record the trip mileage and then divide it by the amount of gallons you put in the tank. that will give you a more accurate rating.

The current Gen Fit has a 10.6 gallon tank and the low gas light comes on with about 1.6 gallons left in the tank. If your GD Fit is about the same and you are always dividing by 10 instead of by the actual amount of gas put in the tank, you will likely always be showing low fuel economy (especially if you are filling before the light comes on.

I'd recommend using a smartphone refueling app as you can see trends or fuel economy over time in graphical format. If you want to wait a little, take the info down or a notepad with pen/paper. like I said above, make a few columns and jot down the info:
Date | Odometer | Gallons | Price/Gallon | MPG
The second three are directly input from the car or pump, the last is calculated by doing the following:
(Current odometer - previous fill up odometer)/Gallons = MPG

Of note, you'll want to use at least half a tank of gas before attempting to calculate the mpg. the lower the tank is when you refuel, the more accurate the actual mpg rating will be.

~SB

 

Thanks for all the info guys! As for waiting for the tank to get emptier there's no problem there. I always drive until I hit E and my wife hates me for it!

 

Well, that assumes the E on the gauge means something. According to my ultra gauge, the E on my fit corresponds to a 10% fuel left reading on the fuel level sender. Of course, that could easily be non-linear.

Regardless, the best way to measure your per tank mpg is (miles driven)/(gallons pumped into the tank as measured by the pump). In theory, gas pumps are pretty well calibrated and thus accurate.

 

do you wait until the light goes on? if you don't see the light coming on, there's a good chance that you are calculating wrong. In the Case of the GE8 (current Gen FIT) if you didn't yet see the light come on, you would divide the trip mileage by 9 gallons or less because that's when the light comes on.

if you get 230 miles on a tank and divide by 10, that's 23mpg but if the light isn't on, that's 26 mpg or higher as the light comes on after 9 Gallons used.

If it is a nice day out, take her to the pump to fill her up until the pump clicks off for the first time, go for a nice drive, (take the wife out to a nice dinner a good 75 miles away from home Note how many miles of Highway driving you do), then take it back to the same pump and fill it back up to the first click. Do your calculations. Then take the total number of highway miles driven and divide it by the total number of miles. That will show you the percentage of highway you drove. Try not to fill up with less than 200 miles on the tank so if it takes a day or two, that's fine.

Report all of your numbers back here so we can see.

~SB

 

I think it comes on when there's about 1 gallon left, I only did a little driving after it had came on and the pump capped at 9.5 gallons so I'm assuming I used up half a gallon in that time from the light coming on until getting to the pump.

Regardless I'm going to try out these apps/methods you guys have suggested and I'll report back in the coming weeks. Thanks for such a warm welcome to the community and not hating me for being a car noob. Cheers!

 

Ive got myself signed up for fuelly and I'll be using the odometer to track my mileage. Also thinking about replacing the battery too because even with the preliminary cold of the winter I've noticed on cold days it cranks an extra time or two. Original battery is still in it too, someone here pointed me to a good DIY guide to battery replacement.

Everyone here is awesome.

 

do you have a smartphone? if so, check out some of the apps. if not, every time you fill up, write the odometer reading on the back of the receipt.

Also, for the amount of gallons before the light comes on, check the manual, usually it is about 15-20% of the fuel left. The GE is 15% and i'd guess the GD is about the same. if that's the case, your calculations are likely off by 10%.

Good luck and post a link to your fuelly account. (or put it in your sig).

~SB

 

Welcome to the forum. I know its tempting to try to get the most out of a tank of fuel, but i would not do this on a regular basis as it stresses the fuel pump a bit as the pump loses cooling that the fuel provides. For modern day cars, this may not be an issue and you may never have a problem but for me its better safe than sorry as I've had a fuel pump breakdown in one of my previous cars due to having low fuel. btw, the car was an 80's GM car and that vintage of american auto engineering wasnt the best. Anyway it was either the cooling issue or crap in the fuel that sunk to the bottom of the tank that messed up the pump.

 

Why not just divide the miles done on that tank by the number of gallons needed to fill to the first click?

 

Put it in my sig, no data yet though, waiting for my next fill. I grabbed the fuelly app for android too so it should be relatively painless. I'll probably wait until I'm at about 1/4 of a tank instead of on E as usual though. Considering I've been told by numerous people throughout my whole life to not always run a car down to E for whatever reason. Maybe I'll start listening now.

 

At least with the fit, because the fuel pump is inside the gas tank, the fuel helps to cool the pump. Lower gas levels is less of a heat sink.

 

Getting 30 average. About 27 city and close to 40 highway (39). PLUS i also drive pretty fast. BUT i don't play with the throttle, I see alot of people play with the throttle and not provide a steady speed/input.