I've had my Fit CVT for almost 2 months. When I took my test drives and when I pulled it off the lot I had it in econ mode. Never took it off until today. I figure my driving style actually harms my milage by using it (I prefer hitting cruising speed asap, not quite a jackrabbit start, and using cruise control) and I drive mostly nonstop highway miles.

So econ is off and...is it just me or does it really make a huge difference in accelleration responsiveness? I mean its not a sports car but it sure seems like a noticeable difference between econ being off vs on.

Anyone else think the same?

 

econ lowers throttle response. so yes.

 

Muted throttle response is one of the ECON button's primary reasons for existence, so it will feel more responsive with it off. Just depends on what your priorities are. I turned mine on before I drove off the dealer lot and it hasn't been off once since.

 

If I drive short distance, econ does not give me better fuel mileage. Longer drives each day, it might. Your call...

 

I wouldn't want delayed or a dull throttle response anymore than I would want the car to have delayed steering response.

Not a fan of econ mode except for maybe level highway and the decreased a/c cycle if I was feeling too cold. (I never like using the heater to warm up cool air).

 

Understandable, but you can still mash the gas for "emergency acceleration". It only really mitigates the lower throttle inputs in my experience. Also, in a car with 130 hp, acceleration is way down the safety list below steering and brakes, IMHO.

Econ mode has a noticeable impact on fuel economy (10%+), depending on your driving style, so it makes sense there. OTOH, $20 a tank means only $2 a week in extra gas to have an arguable more enjoyable and responsive driving experience.

I turn on Econ for long trips, and off for around town driving.

 

I leave it on, in Uruguay the traffic is slow when starting from a traffic light and with econ off I usually have to brake to avoid tapping the car in front, no matter how little I depress the accelerator.
I did turn it off in the hottest summer days (we're now in Autumm here) as it affects how the automatic climate control works, too much fluctuation in temperature.

 

I found ECON mode to be helpful in Winter (snow and ice) - the muted throttle response is helpful there. Haven't really noticed much of a MPG difference with it on, maybe 1 MPG or so? Hard to say.

es

 

While I knew that econ would affect the acceleration I am still surprised by how much.

Why would using econ on long drives be better than short drives? I mean assuming by long we're talking about highway miles that should mean a stable cruising speed. Something that the econ button shouldn't help with. Isn't it more for when you're increasing accelaeration? If so then when you're at a cruising speed you shouldn't be messing with changes in acceleration (in theory).

For the record... My drive to work with econ off ended up over ~43. So very similar to my normal drive with econ on (though I did hit 47+ once last week).

 

I've notice Econ is much more effective in stop/go city traffic. Barely puts a dent in MPG at cruising speeds.

 

ECO on most of the times
ECO off in the mountains
ECO off when I need the cold air quickly

 

I think am back to using the econ button again.

Prior to turning it off I had been getting 41+ according to the computer and 40+ according to real world fill up math (off by about less than 1 mpg between the two. I just finished a whole tank (9.122 gals) with the econ button off and the results were disappointing: 41.3 according to the computer and 37.1 according to math. Crazy. Just crazy.

Now I will admit that things were a little different this last tank. Besides the econ button being off I did run the ac way more often than in the past (was never warm before this last week). I also messed around with the paddle shifters and S mode (OMG I am horrible at that). I did have a lot of trips to and from work (29 miles) where the computer said I was getting 45-47 mpg but I also had a lot of short trips that got me well below 30 (its rare that I normally do such a thing...I normally plan things better). But even with all that why would the computer and real world math for mpg be so different this one tank?

Is ac not taken into consideration when the computer calculates mpg?

Does the computer have a hard time with a combination of really inefficient trips + very efficient trips?

One final thing...this is the first tank where my fill up was over 9 gal. I was on the last bar with 19 left on the range. All previous tanks were filled up at about the same thing (last bar and less than 20 left on range) and the most I ever filled up before was 8.7 gals.

 

Does econ on/off affect mpg while using cruise mode (auto pilot acceleration).

 

In most cases...no. If you have cruise control on and you're not facing inclines econ should not matter at all. Now if you're going up hill and CC is on the econ might impact mpg as it could affect the automatic throttle response. Meaning...with CC on and you're going up him with econ on you might use slightly less gas since it is not allowing the throttle to go as string as it might without econ on. But on a flat surface econ wouldn't matter with CC on.



Edit: of course if you're using your a/c econ will have an impact no matter if CC is on or not