I filled up yesterday, the gauge had just dropped down to one gallon. I set the trip odometer before pulling out of the station. I drive a blend of highway and city everyday. On the way home, as I pulled in the driveway, the trip odometer just turned over to 49, and my gauge still says full! Compared to what I was getting with my F-150, that's great!!
maybe this is just funny, but I regularly go 80 miles before the FIRST fuel bit is gone. Makes no sense
Two days in a row, I've managed to get awesome city mileage: Saturday, 43mpg basically hypermiling/coasting on straight roads for 6 miles, a couple of stoplights, freedom to accelerate lightly (but not absurdly light). Today, to my surprise, I didn't have the luxury of starting off real slow from a light, yet I got 39mpg to work ** same route. Per Scangauge, of course.
I don't live in S.F. with all the killer hills and crazy Californian drivers. If I did, I'd expect lower mileage, but I agree 22mpg is suspect. The smart doesn't do really well at 4,000rpms for mileage, so if you're going up a hill in 3rd or 4th, it's gonna suck gas. It depends on your terrain, and I think it's in the regional manager's best interest to do some scientific-method testing to determine if those hills are a problem. I'm pretty sure from my own experience that on flat highway, 70mph you should be getting over 40mpg.
First of all my dealer suggested that you wait until you've driven 3000 miles before you start measuring it. I saw a big difference once I was over 3000. I am now easily getting 38mpg combined, and with some conservative driving habits I can average 40mpg. I've done a number of pure highway tests and I am getting 54 mpg, driving conservatively at 55-60 mph. Driving faster than that quickly reduces mileage down to 40 or so. Still not bad.
We were regularly getting 33-34mpg on fillups of over 4 gallons during the first 1,000 miles of driving. Since then, however, our mileage has dropped to 27-28mpg (based on two fillups and 350 miles of driving). Same route, same car, same general weather.
Our one highway adventure so far was 136.4 miles on the trip meter, for which I tanked up just before we hit the road and just after (at the same station). 4.299 gallons, or about 31.8mpg on the freeway. Admittedly, we had the top down on our cabrio, and it was the Columbia Gorge, with a stiff headwind on the way back into Portland.
I've found the gas gauge on the control panel fairly reasonable as an approximation of what the rate of gas usage is.
We were regularly getting 33-34mpg on fillups of over 4 gallons during the first 1,000 miles of driving. Since then, however, our mileage has dropped to 27-28mpg (based on two fillups and 350 miles of driving). Same route, same car, same general weather.
Our one highway adventure so far was 136.4 miles on the trip meter, for which I tanked up just before we hit the road and just after (at the same station). 4.299 gallons, or about 31.8mpg on the freeway. Admittedly, we had the top down on our cabrio, and it was the Columbia Gorge, with a stiff headwind on the way back into Portland.
I've found the gas gauge on the control panel fairly reasonable as an approximation of what the rate of gas usage is.
I drove my smart cabrio yesterday with side bars off top all the way down and windows down. For the first time. Heading east in the morning. no difference. On the way back west into strong head wind. Car would hardly pull 70mph. Had to down shift several times to maintain 70mph. Never had this happen with the bars on
in much stronger head winds. I didn't think the side bars should make that big of a difference. But they seem to.
I drove my smart cabrio yesterday with side bars off top all the way down and windows down. For the first time. Heading east in the morning. no difference. On the way back west into strong head wind. Car would hardly pull 70mph. Had to down shift several times to maintain 70mph. Never had this happen with the bars on
in much stronger head winds. I didn't think the side bars should make that big of a difference. But they seem to.
We did both directions with the bars off, but we were able to do 80 even into the headwind (that was prevailing traffic speed, didn't try to push it up to the magical 92).
Some of our worst (sub-30) mileage was with the roof up, however, since it's been raining a bit here in Portland the past couple of weeks (it is Rose Festival, it's tradition).
I just tanked up with gas from a different dealership this afternoon, went across a very windy high bridge across the Columbia River with the top down (rails up), and had to roll the windows down to keep from getting picked up by side winds. Still, the mileage from that trip looks rather promising.
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