CX-5 Miles Per Gallon (MPG)

[Liddy77]

Just bought a new CX 5 Grand Touring with every conceivable bell and whistle. Trying to get use to the driving experience and all the features on the vehicle. What I'm concerned is when I press "INFO" button on the steering wheel, it says that my average driving speed is 14 mph and my mpg is 18.9. This better not be true because I bought this baby for the MPG as compared to other similar class vehicle. I was told when I bought it and per advertisement and stickers on the vehicle, its suppose to give 28-30 mpg.

I called the dealership I bought my vehicle from and asked them how come I'm getting these ridiculous numbers and was told that this is normal for a new car. That I needed to have at least 1000 miles on it to get a proper, more accurate reading.

Is this true from everyone's experience or do I have a problem child here? Please advise asap.

 

[petes_deli]

Hold down the info button when your in the avg mpg screen and it will reset. I do this every time I fill my tank.

 

[Liddy77]

Thank you. I'll try that. What about MPH? I'm sure I do more than average 14 mph.

 

[Caliche]

Same thing, cycle through each reading and reset the values (AVG MPG & MPH) by holding the info button "in" for a couple seconds. You're probably seeing the average values from when it was driven very short distances in parking lots at port, into boat, out of boat into transport truck, and in lot at dealership. Just reset them.

 

[Liddy77]

Thank you. Appreciate your help.

 

[taran1900]

Ours with about 14 thousand is getting just a tick under 29 mpg all around. Highway is generally 32 to 34 mpg but you have to take into account the wind and your speed. I got about 28 on the southbound leg of a recent trip to Houston from McKinney TX. This was against a 20mph+ headwind running about 80. The return trip was about 36 mpg... with the wind and again running around 80. Last year on the way back from Marlow OK in that Christmas winter storm we got 46mpg... only averaged about 45 mph.

 

[Caliche]

Did it work for you? (the resetting...)

Thank you. Appreciate your help.

 

[MikeM.]

Is this true from everyone's experience or do I have a problem child here? Please advise asap.

In colder weather I've been seeing 29-32 mpg but much better during warmer summer weather, 33-37 mpg. In the 11,000 miles since the car was new I've averaged 32.5 mpg. This is with the 2.0L engine. The 2.5L will get less, all other factors the same (same cruising speeds, same rate of acceleration, etc.)

 

[Liddy77]

No, it is still giving me ridiculously low mileage. It's now reading 16.6 mpg and 14 mph.

 

[robertmazda]

First, can you confirm that you actually reset the MPG readout? Did it go to --- right after the reset?

Second, I don't think you've mentioned how/where you drive. You should realize that the advertised MPG occurs under specific conditions. If you always drive in stop and go traffic, or all highways at 75 mph, or lots of hills, or a heavily loaded (weight) vehicle, etc. then your actual MPG will be lower. Or if you like hard acceleration, short stops, etc.

Having said all that, 16.6 MPG does seem way too low, regardless of how you're driving.

Have you done it the old fashioned way? Fill your tank, drive till close to empty noting the mileage between fill-ups, then fill-up again. Do the math of miles/gallons. You could just have a computer problem and be getting better mileage than the display says.

 

[Liddy77]

Driving in normal residential area. Yes, everything was reset showing ---. On my first fill up of gas (topped) it says I have 271 miles to next fill up. Which coincides with what the meter says 18.6 mpg.

I've logged in 368 miles to date and it still says my average miles per hour is 14 miles. That's so ridiculous.

Should I take the car back to the dealer or wait till I at least have 1,000 miles? If the gas problem cannot be fixed, has anyone tried the GForce Chip that guarantees 10% better mileage.

 

[robertmazda]

I'd suggest not relying on the gauge and doing the math manually to find your MPG based on at least 3 fillups. Then you'll know for sure if the car isn't getting appropriate MPG, or if it's an instrumentation problem. Personally I don't see a reason to rush to the dealer before having this info.

And if there really was a chip to increase gas mileage 10%, then lots of people would use it. Heck, the manufacturers would use it since mileage is such a selling point.

When I think of driving in a residential area, I think frequent stop signs and thus frequent accelerations. If that were the case, they you're not going to get the advertised MPG. Have you tried resetting it, then taking a highway trip (with no traffic) to see how that turns out? Or just watching the instant MPG readout to get a feeling for where the average is going to be?

 

[Gio26NJ]

Wait, you drove 368 miles on this last tank of gas? Say you filled up about 12 gallons you're already looking at a number in the 30's MPG wise. Either you're not recording something right or not resetting properly. On your next fillup record how many gallons you filled up and reset your tripometer to see how many miles you get our if that tank and get back to everyone. Pics of your gauge would help too.

 

[Buger]

Driving in normal residential area. Yes, everything was reset showing ---. On my first fill up of gas (topped) it says I have 271 miles to next fill up. Which coincides with what the meter says 18.6 mpg.

I've logged in 368 miles to date and it still says my average miles per hour is 14 miles. That's so ridiculous.

Should I take the car back to the dealer or wait till I at least have 1,000 miles? If the gas problem cannot be fixed, has anyone tried the GForce Chip that guarantees 10% better mileage.

If you did what Caliche mentioned, reset your average speed, saw it go down to 0, then saw it go back to 14 MPH after a tank, then you must be spending a lot of time idling while not moving or going very slowly. The EPA test for "city" fuel economy averages 21 mph so if you are really averaging only 14 mph speed then you should not expect to get anywhere near the EPA city MPG figure. If you are expecting to get the EPA combined MPG, that is roughly calculated as 55% of the EPA city driving profile (avg 21 mph) and 45% of the EPA highway driving profile (avg 48 mph) so the EPA combined MPG would be if you were averaging about 33MPH speed for your tank.

Click on my fuelly signature and you can see I try to track the average speed for each tank (even if my wife forgot to note the average mph sometimes) along with the average MPG. Note also that we have the 2.0L sport with 6MT transmission for comparisons sake.

 

[erhayes]

Gads, Just read and study the owers manual.

 

[Liddy77]

No. the 368 miles was 1 and 1/2 fill ups. Yes, I'll wait till next fill up and do the math the old fashion way. Thanks.

 

[HelloMello]

I get 20 mpg but don't really care since it's only for local driving and will soon be wrapped to help my friend for some car shows. I hope things work out for you Liddy.

 

[rcs914]

I am getting about 400+ miles on a single tank these days. Fill ups are around 14 gallons. One note about filling - every time I fill up, regardless of the station, when the fill sensor first clicks off, there is about 1.5 gallons more to add. It takes 5-6 additional squeezes of the pump handle, waiting at least 5 seconds each time it shuts off to fill the tank.