Poor gas mileage?

[loumfong]

Hi All,

New to the scene. Got my smart a three weeks ago. Love it, but it gets terrible mileage, around 22 mph. How's everyone else's mileage?

[Duckhunter]

Lowest I have got from mine is 38. Usually get 40-41 and that is around 60/40 city/highway.

How many hills, are you driving in manual mode?

[NuBiker]

We are getting 33mpg, makes no difference whether we shift or leave it in automatic, mostly city streets.
We fill the tank at around 275 miles on the odo.

[Wdhitch]

Originally Posted by loumfong

Hi All,

New to the scene. Got my smart a three weeks ago. Love it, but it gets terrible mileage, around 22 mph. How's everyone else's mileage?

What grade of gas are you using? If you're using premium as directed then I'd take it to your dealer... 22 is waaaaaay to low... it could be a problem with the engine.

[Bum-bling-B]

Smart #1 - 43.26mpg over 20,200k miles
Smart #2 - 42.41mpg over 4700 miles

Every tank logged and calculated at the pump.

Do you leave it idling while you go in stores and shop?
Do you have a lot of time spent idling at all?
Did you check your mileage on other cars you've owned and did you get near EPA with them?
Do you drive like a maniac? (aka as a step above jackrabbit starts...)

[SuperGeek]

Idling in a Smart makes a big impact. It uses between .2 and .3 gallons per hour idling and about 3-4 times that in normal driving. Double that higher number during acceleration. So if you spend 2 minutes at each stoplight, times 10 stoplights in 10 miles, that's about .15 gallons used idling, .3 gallons driving at 40mph, and maybe another .1 gallons used to get back up to speed aggressively. That's about 20 MPG.

Change your driving habits so you don't have to hit the brake and gas nearly as hard, and you can shave off the .15 to .05 and the .1 to nearly zero, bringing your MPGs up to the 30 range. These are rough numbers to show how the gas pedal makes such a huge impact. I can get my 10MPG SUV up to 14MPG using the same techniques. Don't try to compete with the cars around you, but if your speed limit is near 50MPH, get up to that speed within 15-20 seconds and maintain it as long as traffic allows. That's a good balance of speed and economy.

Some city traffic just won't allow much hypermiling technique, in which case your best option is to move out of the city. Even a hybrid's battery would deplete in those cities.

[SmartCard]

Let's not fail to mention that it appears to be his first (and only?) fill up so far.

Originally Posted by NuBiker

We are getting 33mpg, makes no difference whether we shift or leave it in automatic, mostly city streets.
We fill the tank at around 275 miles on the odo.

Ditto....still low 30's around town, now even with A/C being off. I was hoping to see a 2 mpg bump here in the colder weather, but it hasn't happened.

But it still fun to drive!

[nonuro]

Check your tire pressure.My mileage can drop into the low to mid 20's when the tire pressure is down even slightly. My mileage suddenly drop to 22-25 mpg and all 4 tires were down 2-5 psi. Filled them up again and now I'm back in the mid-upper 30's around town. This is twice my tires have lost air in 6 months and both times my mileage dropped and then went back up after re-filling them.

[smark]

Originally Posted by loumfong

Hi All,

New to the scene. Got my smart a three weeks ago. Love it, but it gets terrible mileage, around 22 mph. How's everyone else's mileage?

You have nothing wrong with you engine. Don't let any one scare you on this site. It's a new car. Fill it up, set the trip odometer, to 0 miles. Drive the car till the tanks almost empty. See how many mile you got on the odometer. Fill it up again. Divide miles driven, by gallons of gas. Cars break in between between 3,000 to 6,000 miles. Good Luck

[scdaf]

Originally Posted by loumfong

Hi All,

New to the scene. Got my smart a three weeks ago. Love it, but it gets terrible mileage, around 22 mph. How's everyone else's mileage?

Try doubling your speed to 44 mph, that may improve your fuel consumption.