i had a about 3/4 of a tank left and i shift into s mode. Then i drove to get the mail which isnt even a quarter of a mile away (i live in a subidivision. mail box isnt in front of my house) and it went to a little bit about half. does anybody have this problem? is it suppose to do this?

 

I think you'll need to elaborate on this statement if you really want solid responses.

 

wat i mean is that i wasted about a quarter tank of gas when i was in s mode even though i didnt even travel a quarter of a mile. is that normal for s mode? does it suck more gas then d mode?

 

is the car parked flat? The gas guage might be deceiving you with being on a hill.

 

the car is always parked on a slight incline because my driveway is inclined. but i drive it on the flat road and it still does that. any ideas wat could be wrong with it?

 

Sport mode did limit your upshifting but don't ever trust a gauge over short distances or even a full tank. The only way to judge MPG or fuel usage is filling it up and checking against mileage. The gauge is a worthless indictor for mileage.

 

the only way you used 1/4 of a tank in 1/4 of a mile is if your fuel line was leaving a trial to show you how to get back home. the sending unit was mis reading likely due to angles and the fact that it moves around quite a bit. i hate the fact that every thime i come to a stop i can hear the gas in the tank since its right up front.

 

I'm pretty sure it's an incline. One time I freaked out, cuz I had 2/5 remaining, and as i was climbing a hill in a wilderness, it went almost zero. The tank icon lit up, and it was 240 miles. The lowest miles for a tank is 270 for me. So I panicked, but it turned out it was the incline that makes it seem i had less gas.

 

interesting. i gotta pay attention to that next time

 

I doubt 's' v. 'd' makes a huge difference but in most cases almost by definition 's' will burn more fuel. It is designed to help accelerate the car more quickly and since F=MA that means it must be using more force and expending more energy. Energy comes from fuel q.e.d

The only time it might not is if the gearbox provides increased engine braking and the driver avoids making use of the increased acceleration whilst taking advantage of the braking effect. I suppose in that case that if the driver doesn't normally use the weak braking available in 'd' then 's' might save fuel.

OTOH I think that driving carefully in 'd' is always going to burn less fuel than exploiting the advantages of 's'.

 

wow thanx for the explanations. it really helps a lot