mpg vary based on driving habits and traffic patterns.

You do not need to draft other cars. It's just too risky. For the average person it will take about 45 feet to react to a change in front of you. If you are closer than 45 feet when traveling at about 40 mph you may not have enough time to avoid a collision.

Heavy urban traffic and idling in rush hour isn't going to be good on ANY car's mpg. So if this is your type of driving pattern then your best bet is a small engine car or hybrid with electric engine. The FIT is OK but not perfect for heavy traffic.

Hard acceleration is very bad onn mpg, learn to be smooth and not waste gas by stomping on the gas pedal. Never get up to a speed that requires you to brake hard a few moments later. Keep a safe distance and keep your speed as constant as possible. Use the cruise control.

Fun to drive cars are really difficult to keep under control enough to get good mpg numbers. It is possible but you have to show some restraint.

Make sure you are not carrying around excess weight- a lighter FIT will get better mpg. Same with keeping the air filter clean and keeping tire pressure up in the correct range.

 

You don't "have" to draft cars to get good milage. I average about 30, highway, city... stop and go... But you get ultra-high milage if you do draft... (I say 1-2 second behind is about as close as you should ever get.)


In a real city, 22MPG, thats awesome milage. Can't go more than a 10th of a mile before stoping, waiting 30 seconds then flying away... Just remember, new cars need to be broken in. Heh, and I dout anyone has a Fit that is more than year old. PS: I'm starting to average about 25MPG in real city driving... and thats with fast starts. (I kinda said screw the gas savings... since gas has dropped a buck since I've bought my Fit. It actually came out to me only saving 2 bucks a week... and its more fun driving like gas is 99 cents.)

 

I drive aggressively - at 12K it's never changed
Still 31mpg at 80-85mph ain't bad

 

Glad to see that some of you got the idea and that you agree. Yes drafting will increase your mpg. After all walking after your car is wrecked gets great mpg too that is if you survive and can still walk or you may qualify for a new set of wheels called a wheelchair.

Ever see the commercial that says "If a trucks tire blows, where will it land?" The answer is anywhere it damn well pleases!!! You all see the tread that has come off trucks tires along the roads. Stop sometime and pick one up, get a hands on feel for what could come flying thru your windshield.

It's pointless to try and convey the real and eminant danger your placing yourself in tailgating a truck or other large vehicle. You would never be able to comprehend the things I have seen happen without being there and seeing them youself.

But don't fret if you don't understand. We will even give you an award when it's all over and you can join an elite crowd of people that went before you. You may even qualify for your own page in history and this is where it will be.
http://www.darwinawards.com/

Good luck.

 

I am in stop and go, heavy traffic for a long commute every day. I use jackrabbit acceleration to get down the highway ramps to merge (which was scarey in a car that couldn't accelerate rapidly -- another reason why I love my Fit). Also like to get ahead of the pack when they all cluster together, tailgating one another, or when they poke along when the light turns green -- you can almost always tell who is going to doze at the intersection or chug up the highway overpass at 20 mph. You'd think it was a mountain. Quick acceleration works in the morning, but in the late afternoon, traffic is a slow-go the whole way home, so I take it easy in hopes of arriving alive. The jokers who weave in & out of heavy traffic get nowhere -- I always see them later on down the highway, still trying to fight their way through (and brake lights going on all over the road because of them.) The people who drive slowly in the left lane, forcing people to pass on the right, are no help either (and it's against the law in Florida, but it's not enforced. How can it be?) I don't know how truckers can stand driving for a living!

Once my Fit's odometer reached about 9500 miles, I started getting better mpg. It's been pretty steady at between 30 and 31. I use the cruise control as much as possible, which typically is only during the morning commute.

 

I don't draft. I don't baby it. I take off fast and I get out there and leave the pack at lights. I set the cruise at 70mph and enjoy the ride. I do a little hypermiling (slipping it into neutral and coasting) when going down big hills and when I'm close to my turn off the hwy. if it's clear and safe to do so.

I buy my fuel in the mornings at the pumps on the shady side of the stations. I get better mileage from Exxon than Kroger. I do approx. 90% hwy. and 10% city, have between 7,500 and 8,000 miles on my Fit (without going and looking).

I use the A/C if it's hot, always have it set to fresh air unless I'm comming up on the 1.5 mile hill (they call it a mountain, I'm from the west it's a hill to me) when I get it cool inside before hitting and set it to recirculate at fan speed 3 and cut the A/C off at the bottom (more torque, less drain on the engine) which keeps it cool 'till I get to the top then set it back to fresh air and max A/C. And I always keep my window partially down since I smoke.

As for when to upshift...lol. Hell, I shift whenever I want. I'll run it up to 6,000 rpm shift and do it again.

My son went to the store with me one day that's 15 miles away. He kept wanting to race me with his cavalier that has a 2.2L in it. Once we got to the bottom of the mountain and turned onto the flat ground from the stop sign I pushed it just a little (never floored it mind you).

He looked over at the speedometer just as I was about to shift, it was at about 60-65mph and I was just comming out of 2nd gear. He said "Shit you're still in 2nd!!!". About the time he said it I hit 3rd and swoosh we were off. He said "Nevermind, you'll smoke my car.".

I don't do that all the time but if my foot feels a heavy moment then look out I'm comming thru. I do leave everyone at the light every day getting on the highway. I don't beat the car to death but I do make good use out of the little monster it has under the hood.

I kinda hate to say it considering the people having mpg issues but I'm averaging 38mpg these days. It was only averaging 34mpg babying it when I first got it.

So wind it up once in a while and get those rings broke in and seated good then see where your mpg is. Hell it's limited at 6300 rpm's so if the engine blows and you were getting poor mpg maybe the new engine will do better. Warranty that sucker.

 

i get 28-30mpg driving 75-80 to work mainly.. this past week i tried driving 65-70 and I got 28mpg... i dunno... if i'm getting the same milage even when i try to drive slow and the same route everyday.. i mind as well drive fast...

 

The range of reported mpg's is quite large. I think it'd be more useful to get a comparison of the Fit's mpg to another car's mpg subjected to the same driving conditions. Typically this means reporting your previous car's mpg before you transitioned to the Fit.

 

Well I was averaging around 30mpg in the 1992 Accord M/T 5sp that the Fit replaced since I gave it to my Daughter for her 16th birthday.

 

20-25 MPG, MT, '93 honda accord station wagon (puke green color)

in my fit, 30-35 AT sport... life time average, 32MPG

 

I notice that many of you who are claiming pretty decent gas mileage are from Canada...are you computing your mileage in Imperial or US gallons...?

 

In US gallons I am averaging 38 mpg in the great white north, 50-50.

 

Yes glockster: my 92 Accord 4dr in line 4 (a lot heavier) gets better mileage around town than my 2500 lb Fit go figure... and I have taken to babying this new car unline my V6 Accord which gets upwards of 32 mpg on highway and about 18 to 21 around town... look at the ads on TV and GM & Ford claiming that more than X% of their cars get above 30mpg like it isn't being done by anyone else!

 

My last two tanks were 31.8 and 30.7 for mixed city/highway driving (with a great amount of the highway driving being of the stop and go variety). You might as well round those up to 31 and 32, heh. Usually, I get in the upper 20's. The only thing I changed about my driving on those tanks was that I accelerated less aggressively when I didn't have the need to (ie - another light was coming up right after the red one where I was stopped). Otherwise, it's been the same. I'm quite happy, especially since I'm only spending about $20 to fill up

 

Fit Sport Silver: Never let the oil go below 70% (~3500 miles)
Average 33 mpg with intermittent A/C & Fog lights.
Average 35 mpg with no A/C or Fog lights or manual transmission use (+ - Lever shifting).
peaked @ 42 without going above 70MPH haighway.

 

I went home to Nashville this weekend, so I filled up again after 95% highway driving. I did 80-85MPH most of the time and got 29.79 MPG. I hope the highway mileage improves, even with me doing 80, but I'm happy with what I got.

However, overall I'm VERY unimpressed with the Fit's gas mileage so far. I came from an automatic 95 Civic EX that leaked oil all over the place. No matter how hard I drove it, city or highway, I always got 30 - 33 MPG. I just hope the Fit can give me the same (or better) MPG once it gets broken in.

 

I have given up on my gas mileage. i have stopped looking at the rpms. I have stopped looking at the darn speedometer, cause i am going to get killed soon trying to get better gas mileage. its just not worth it. i need to accelerate when the light changes, meaning the rpms goes up to 4000, nothing i can do about it - the car doesn't move quick enough and i lag behind the pack if i dont.

i have to live with the 20-25 mpgs as what it is going to be. there is not a day that i dont sit in traffic because of some idiotic garbage going on on this island; either an accident or police barricades or construction so i really have to stop blaming the car.


BUT: the car seems to drag when i hit the peddle - i can hear it go through the shift process, really sounds like a standard car. is that normal?

 

I know how you feel...I left the island 30 years ago because of traffic. Of course now the traffic *here* is a royal PIA and I've given up trying to get decent gas mileage. I really wish that someone would figure out what the problem is. Honda certainly isn't addressing the fact that some of us just can't get decent gas mileage out of these things.

 

Duplicate post

 

i think the agency that figures gas mileage isn't doing their job either. they dont take real life traffic into account and gas additives. then the auto makers latch on to these figures and sell us on them. i learned a lot from this purchase. dont believe that big sticker. it lies.