This is not entirely true. Unless you need to shed speed neutral lets you go farther. Coasting in gear is engine braking which slows you down.

If you need to slow down or stop then coast in gear, but if you are going down a hill or will otherwise need to pick up speed again, then just coast at idle, as the distance you gain by not engine braking offsets the trickle of fuel used to keep the engine idleing by quite a bit.

 

That guy is nuts!! Oh well, I guess 500+mi/tank is my next goal.

 

Gotcha, I guess it depends on the situation.

 

Just finished my second tank on my 2008 Fit sport 5-speed. On this tank, we were loaded with about 400 lbs of stuff. We drove half in town, with lots of construction.....and half on the Hwy.....at speeds of 55 and 60. Part of the time with A/C on.....the result was 41.8 mpg.

Our first tank was all city driving, and we got 37.6. I believe that the high elevation (7300 ft in NM) is helping. Gas here has only 86 octane...it still burns fine. Right now we are paying $3.71 at the pump.

I have not yet attempted any hypermiling techniques, but I believe I will and report back.

 

Hotter than HELL here today.
SG air in was reading 109F .
Turned on the A/C... screw it.
That cost me 3 to 4mpg

SG numbers no AC AM
avg 62mph, 1 sec drafting an 18 wheeler 46.6 mpg
On the flip PM with AC 60mph 42MPG

 

i hear you there Paul, I broke down and turned on the A/C too when I was on I-95 and on I-26 driving to Charleston. I know I won't see 55mpg on this tank! I was literally sweating when I said, what the hell am I doing! The dirty south is hot already!

 

im pissed. i only averaged 38.2mpg on the way home from work. while i got 40.1 TO work

 

What he said.

I tried coasting in gear on the neighborhood roads around my house and on the highway. In the neighborhoods I could stay in third gear and keep my speed at a sufficient level for the distances I coasted. On the highway the car slowed too much when I coasted in fifth gear even down the steepest hills I travel. So I'm going to start trying to coast in gear in the neighborhoods, but still coast in neutral when I'm on the highway.

 

Stock US MT. Trip from Kansas to Dallas and back this weekend got 38.8 mpg and 35.4 mpg on the two tanks. AC on the whole way, four people in the car, coasted on hills when I could, speeds 70-85 on the 38.8 mpg tank but no winds, a slight wind on the way back which is why I believe that the second tank gave slightly less mileage.

 

Those of you that read what I share on my SG data know that I have mentioned 1 sec drafting is good for around 5mpg.

The last two days I had a different commute and longer ride. Close to 100m RT

Both days I 1sec drafter 18 wheelers on this 90% freeway drive
Tuesday I wimped out and used A/C on the ride home. Man it was smoken steamy hot.

Today the eng air in was only 105F so I roughed it out with no A/C. I also had a host that when slow today and that was great. Real slow on the way home like 55.

Anyway my SG says I'm 46mpg to 1/2 tank and at 1/2 tank 260miles

The rest of the week is back to a shorter normal 50m RT with 60% freeway, but will be interesting to see if I get a new best

 

WOW 260 at half a tank that is good for over 55mpg if you can maintain that rate of fuel consumption. Also, remember to stop filling the tank at the first auto stop. Any extra will through off your fuel consumption data because it will be like taking another measurement and introducing error from that measurement. Therefore having more measurement error.

So, if we do the math:

Fit gas tank holds 10.8 gallons
Gas light comes on at 1.7 gallons left
Actual gallons used when gas light comes on is 9.1
So, half a tank is 4.55 gallons
260 miles/ 4.55 gallons = 57.14mpg
Ok, it may not be exact so lets use 4.6 gallons you still get 56.52mpg

Remember when I said I had 240miles at half a tank, well I was a little off, because I was actually on the right side of the half tank mark. I actually achieved 250miles at half a tank and you know I calculated 55mpg when I filled up. So, if we do that math at half of a tank at 250 = 54.94mpg and you can't get much closer than that.

Of course, if you don't believe me you can always fill up now and calculate the mpg.

I think either your SG is not calibrated correctly or your fuel gauge is not calibrated correctly. Something to think about though.

P.S. I am not giving you a hard time, I am just merely stating my logic which is based on the experience I have had with my fit.

 

Except that you can't go off of your fuel gauge for an accurate "half tank" claim. The fuel gauge is an approximate reading, you really have to go by gallons pumped and miles traveled. However, I agree, 260 at half tank is amazing.

 

Well it was actually 270 before it came off 1/2 tank today. see pic below.

On this fill I have some differences, so it looks to be 3 or 4 better than my normal 43 to 45, but will not even be 50. 50 is not possible on my commute and how I drive. I can tell that from SG readings as I drive. I also went back to killing the eng at long stops and some eng off coasting into the stop. That was based on Wayne's video on the Chicago report and the 5 to 7 sec comment.

The reality it looks like my fuel gauge is different than yours. Remember when I said yours would be less based on the 1/2 tank and it was not? Also my scan gauge too is pretty close maybe 1 mpg behind actual on every fill.

I wrote a note on here, but no one read it and/or responded a month ago. My feeling is if we all could report the Miles between the 3 fuel gage marks, we could better understand it. To me for a given mpg on a tank, they should be the same. But I really do not have enough accurate data to prove that just my data. I have a log book and I record the miles at the F,1/2 and E light marks on ever tank and of course what SG said the mpg was and what the MILES/GALS says. What we need is the difference between ponts in miles.

The amount of tank fill makes a big difference in the miles to any point, but should not effect the miles between the marks. I was trying to do that for non SG owners. A map so a user could see the miles from F to 1/2 tank and have a good idea what MPG that tank was on the way toward.

Regarding fill up. With the way the inlet line is pumping at high speed (high flow) till 1st cut off is way different than med speed till cut off. I messed with this a great deal. I go on med speed to the 1st cut out than at med speed for one more. I checked with a dip stick thing I made and my tank is full and the filler neck is not. Better it's repeatable evey fill. I have been doing that for the last 4 fills and see way more consistent fills. Before it was all over the place. The big why (in case you want to look) is the very small filler pipe to the tank. When filling up gas bubbles and foam at the end of a high speed (and depending how the car is sitting) will make it cut off different. Next time you fill and it clicks off pull the pump out and look in real quick with a light and you will see that.

 

New update for the latest fill up (I had to fill up early, i.e. before the tank was empty, due to holiday plans):
That's seven 40+ mpg tanks in a row now. As always, I filled up one click past the shut off. Again, I did quite a bit of drafting, kept my speed under 65 mpg, but over 55 mpg, a lot of downhill in neutral gliding on the highway, some pulse and gliding and shut off the engine at long traffic lights. As suggested above, I started gliding in gear in the hilly neighborhoods around where I live. I managed to only us the AC during the drive home one day and then I did a "pulse and glide" with it, that is turned it on too cool the air off, then turned it off with only the fan running always in recycle mode. Finally, about 10% of my driving is "around town" with the other 90% on the highway.

Just adding up the total gallons and miles gives: 206.941 gallons over 7829.4 equals 37.83398 miles per gallon.

Finding the mean mpg of the fillups listed above gives 37.83286 mpg with an error on the mean of 0.6113706.

Either way it looks like the lifetime average for my Fit is 37.8+-0.6 mpg.

My CleanMPG chart is looking nicer all the time:


I'm waiting for the inevitable plateau to come in my mpg vs. date plot, but I'm hoping it won't be for quite a while.

By the way, what do I have to do to go from "skilled" to "expert" on CleanMPG.com? I'm already getting higher mpg than some "experts" on that site.

I'm working on an elevation profile for my daily commute. I live at about 1100 feet and work at about 500 feet. So on the way to work the mpg is higher, and on the way home it's lower. I'll have a plot to show in a few days. The plot will also give more detail about the amount of city vs. highway driving I do on my daily commute.

P.S. On the way into work I happened to follow a gray fit with a "FitFreak.net" sticker in the rear window. It was fun to see another Fit Freak.

 

JB, there's a site that uses google maps to give you an elevation plot of any route. Here's my plot:



Guess which section I can glide for 2.5 miles on?

As soon as I find the site I will post it.

Edit: http://www.toporoute.com/routePlanner.html

 

Thanks. I'm happy to get another measure of the elevation profile of my commute. I used MapMyRun.com to do it. That's a site I use to (obviously) map my running routes. It gives elevation profile information that I downloaded for my commute route.

 

Paul and Rich great info.

Paul, I think the problem with everyone getting mileage data at certain intervals is the variability with different driving habits. You are the first that I have seen with 270miles at a half a tank. Not everyone can achieve that(you better believe I am going to try though!). Also, I really think you should fill up at this point to calculate your mpg because it has got to be over 55mpg.

I plan on filling up at a different gas station this time from what I filled up with and we shall see if the variability is great. I will continue to use this new gas station for the next tank as well. I think I am looking at mpgs close to 50 now. We shall see in the morning

 

I got back from a camping trip and was interested in the mileage. I still had an indicated halftank, but I filled up to the first autostop with 5.523 gallons for 248 miles. Calculated mileage was 44.90 mpg. Some interstate but mostly two-lane and some gravel roads. Manual base Fit. Still just over 2000 miles so maybe more breakin to come. Sad to have missed the magical 45 mpg mark.

 

I can't get the link to work The elevation button is grayed out???

 

I was getting error problems with it earlier and it wouldn't do a trip over 50miles. I need to break my trip up but it is not working right.