Average MPG on first couple of tanks of gas?

exzachtly1 · Dec 28, 2015

I got my CX-5 last Saturday. I'm extremely happy with it so far! There is one thing I'm curious about though and it's part of the reason I joined this forum. So far my average mpg has not been good - I have about 300 miles on the odometer and am only averaging about 21 mpg. This was about 1/3 highway and 2/3 city driving.

Is it normal for it to be this low during the break-in period? Should I expect it to go up soon? My driving habits can be described as pretty aggressive generally but I have been trying to go easy on this car during break-in. Have others had a similar experience?

Thanks!

bmninada · Dec 28, 2015

Mine is 3 weeks old. It'll take up to 2k to 3k miles and then you should see a MPG jump. I get, BTW around 24.5 with your proportion and got 28.5 full highway.

banjos-n-beer · Dec 28, 2015

For the first few weeks I was getting around 26 MPG, and have been averaging 28 ever since (~80% highway).

I'm surprised the winter blend hasn't eroded my performance yet... but when we get into the deep middle of winter I expect it to drop down a bit.

For reference, I got about 34 MPG during the winter and 38 MPG during the summer in my 2014 Mazda 3 Hatchback.

exzachtly1 · Dec 28, 2015

Cool, I'll try not to sweat it too much then. Hopefully it will start going up soon. Does seem weird that you guys are getting closer to 24-26 though... like, the first couple hundred miles I did was mostly city and it was at 17 mpg. It was only after I did some highway miles that it went up to 21. Maybe I'll reset the counter now that I'll be back to my regular work commute. I was on vacation for the holidays... so lots of driving around Christmas shopping, with frequent starts and stops, etc.

inlinev · Dec 28, 2015

how are you calculating your mileage? Or are you simply reading the average readout? If you are going by the average, ignore it unless you specifically reset it after a full fill up.

Lbear · Dec 28, 2015

Let's not forget that a 5MPG difference over the course of 50,000 miles =

50,000miles / 30mpg = 1,666 gallons of fuel
50,000miles / 25mpg = 2,000 gallons of fuel

334 gallons difference x $2.75 per gallon = $918

So we are taking about $918 in additional fuel costs over the course of 50,000 miles. When you reduce that to 30mpg vs 27mpg, the difference in price gets smaller and smaller.

MikeM. · Dec 29, 2015

Lbear said:
Let's not forget that a 5MPG difference over the course of 50,000 miles =

50,000miles / 30mpg = 1,666 gallons of fuel
50,000miles / 25mpg = 2,000 gallons of fuel

334 gallons difference x $2.75 per gallon = $918

So we are taking about $918 in additional fuel costs over the course of 50,000 miles. When you reduce that to 30mpg vs 27mpg, the difference in price gets smaller and smaller.

Good point! And just to illustrate how counter-intuitive our method of measuring fuel economy in the U.S. is, that same 5 mpg difference when applied to cars getting 17 mpg and 22 mpg:

50,000 miles/ 22 mpg = 2273 gallons
50,000 miles/ 17 mpg = 2,941 gallons.

668 gallons difference x $2.75/gal.= $1,837 more expense for the same 5 mpg differential.

wlong01 · Dec 29, 2015

exzachtly1 said:
I got my CX-5 last Saturday. I'm extremely happy with it so far! There is one thing I'm curious about though and it's part of the reason I joined this forum. So far my average mpg has not been good - I have about 300 miles on the odometer and am only averaging about 21 mpg. This was about 1/3 highway and 2/3 city driving.

Is it normal for it to be this low during the break-in period? Should I expect it to go up soon? My driving habits can be described as pretty aggressive generally but I have been trying to go easy on this car during break-in. Have others had a similar experience?

Thanks!

If you're using the avg mpg on the trip computer remember to reset it back to zero using the info button on the steering wheel. If you don't avg mpg will be calculated on the total miles driven so far and it will stay low since it will be averaging from all the lower mpg.

Also the mpg will slowly go up as the car breaks in. I'm averaging around 26 in mostly suburban driving with mostly short hops but in the beginning I was only averaging around 23. on a trip with highway driving (not interstate) I was averaging 32.

bmninada · Dec 29, 2015

wlong01 said:
If you're using the avg mpg on the trip computer remember to reset it back to zero using the info button on the steering wheel. If you don't avg mpg will be calculated on the total miles driven so far and it will stay low since it will be averaging from all the lower mpg.

Also the mpg will slowly go up as the car breaks in. I'm averaging around 26 in mostly suburban driving with mostly short hops but in the beginning I was only averaging around 23. on a trip with highway driving (not interstate) I was averaging 32.

W_Long is correct. Furthermore, there's a setting which says to sync up the avg as per trip-A. I don't know if it's set to Yes by default (in mine - it wasn't). After doing that and religiously resetting the trip computer, I have found the avg to be off only by +/- .5 mpg max.

exzachtly1 · Dec 31, 2015

inlinev said:
how are you calculating your mileage? Or are you simply reading the average readout? If you are going by the average, ignore it unless you specifically reset it after a full fill up.

I have been calculating it by reading the average readout on the computer. I did reset it after I filled up and have been tracking this tank during my normal work commute - getting much better results now, around 25mpg.

wlong01 said:
If you're using the avg mpg on the trip computer remember to reset it back to zero using the info button on the steering wheel. If you don't avg mpg will be calculated on the total miles driven so far and it will stay low since it will be averaging from all the lower mpg.

Also the mpg will slowly go up as the car breaks in. I'm averaging around 26 in mostly suburban driving with mostly short hops but in the beginning I was only averaging around 23. on a trip with highway driving (not interstate) I was averaging 32.

Yes - I figured out how to reset it thank you! Good to know that it's somewhat normal for it to be a little lower in the beginning. Seems to be the experience I'm having.

bmninada said:
W_Long is correct. Furthermore, there's a setting which says to sync up the avg as per trip-A. I don't know if it's set to Yes by default (in mine - it wasn't). After doing that and religiously resetting the trip computer, I have found the avg to be off only by +/- .5 mpg max.

I'll have to look for that setting. That sounds perfect.

sTuKat · Jan 1, 2016

Grand Touring with 450 miles on it. Presently getting 24.7 on all suburban driving.

Average MPG on first couple of tanks of gas?

exzachtly1

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bmninada

banjos-n-beer

exzachtly1

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inlinev

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Lbear

MikeM.

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wlong01

bmninada

exzachtly1

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sTuKat

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