Gas mileage

[lyerby]

462 miles on car, getting 33 mi/gal. Will it get better??

[fpage77]

Hmmmm I calculated that if you get 316 miles per tank you would average 36 MPG over course of tank. I drive about 60 highway 40 city so I am hoping to get 36 overall.


316 miles you want on tank to get combined mpg / 8.72 tank size in gallons = 36.2385321

[NCC1701]

Mine has improved slightly (over 10K now). HOW you drive has a huge impact on the mpgs you can expect though. As with any car, heavy foot means lower mpgs. I have a lead foot, but 33 is on the lower end of my tanks.

[Duckhunter]

Is it city driving? Mine gets around 39-40 50/50 city highway and in manual mode. Might get a little better if I shifted lower.

[Bum-bling-B]

In a word - YES! Give it time for the car to break in - loosen up. It's still brand new so things are a little tight. The question you've asked has been asked here many times by discouraged people who jumped in their brand new car and expected phenomenal mileage. The good thing about the Smart is most people see a return of BETTER than the advertised EPA averages.

Check out some of the other Smarts on Fuelly to see what they are getting. I've included mine too as I am a fanatic about keeping logs. Hope this helps.

[smcnally]

I've been using Fuelly too. Here's mine:

[John_H]

If your trips tend to be short trips, your mileage will suffer somewhat. The engine is most efficient after it's warmed up. If the engine's just getting to where it wants to be when you're shut down, don't expect 40+mpg.

What is your typical driving?

[kwagar]

Originally Posted by lyerby

462 miles on car, getting 33 mi/gal. Will it get better??

I can't pass up the opportunity to suggest you haven't given enough info for any of us to really help you.

Most owners do see an increase in MPG over time.
Some are getting worse mileage than you. Some about the same and most are getting between 38 and 42.
BUT it depands a great deal on a number of factors such as city or highway, heavy A/C use or not, Lots of stop and go and traffic lights or very few, speed, shift points etc.

What was your previous car and under similer conditions did you meet or exceed it's mileage rating or were you consistantly below the epa ratings? This could provide a hint as to what to expect from your smart relative to it's ratings.

Under my driving conditions I would be very dissapointed in 33 MPG BUT if I were driving in the city frequently with lot's of stop and go and traffic lights and heavy A/C use it would be about as expected.

[forestacademy]

Originally Posted by Bum-bling-B

Looks like you need to go change photos on Fuelly Bum

Yes, we are now getting about 40mpg and our distance per tank has definatly improved. But know that a couple of 10ths of a gallon in this car can make quite a difference in MPG, So keep track over time to realy get an acurate estimate like those Fully folks do

[Carlarm]

I have 7,000 miles on my 2009 passion and my experience is that if I go no faster than 60 mph of freeway-only driving I'll get 44 mpg. If I do 80 mph of freeway-only driving it drops to 40 mpg and if I mix in city driving it can go as low as 36 mpg.

Mileage improved between 0 and about 2,000 miles. The car also seems to have more pep now then when new.

Side note: I got a Tom Tom GPS Navigation unit a month ago and one of the features that can be enabled is to give you a warning when you go faster than the posted speed limit. This has helped my gas mileage somewhat.