200 mile fuel report

[Bill Marshall]

I picked up my new Rally Red fortwo Pure on Monday & just gave it its first gas refill after 211 miles of driving. I calculated the mpg at 32.1. A little disappointing but MBTE in the gas around here lowers the mileage on my Prius by about 5 mpg in the winter.

I'm hoping for better in the future. Otherwise I just love this little car.

A couple of other firsts. I fit into my first "parking spot that no other car could fit into" this morning when I went to the gym. I had a couple of feet to spare at either end.

My first big "payload" in the fortwo . . . I bought a couple of new 32-gallon trash cans at Home Depot this morning that my wife - who is a complete skeptic about this car but very "smart" otherwise - thought would never fit into it. They also fit with room to spare.

Cheers to all. Happy diriving.

[smartah]

I've got 10000 miles on mine and have to say that I'm only getting about 34mpg at the moment, but it's been very cold here. Last Wed went to work and it was -25F. Also, warming up, heated seats on, idling, wind all use gas. Try to minimize these as much as possible.
Summer fills I've averaged 46mpg.

[smartHHO]

Well Bill, my Rally Red Cabrio just made 251 on her first tank from the dealer. I just filled her up, but I did not know if they set the trip OD due to I personally did not fill her up. So, I am starting out with a fresh tank. I know I let the gas pump click off and I still had a bar to go on the 8 bar scale. But, when I did fill up with the click, I only had 6.3 gallons with it showing 251. So, not sure if that is accurate or not. If it is, then I got 39.84mpg. But, again, not sure. Half of my driving was non padel, the other half padel. But I also had my Throttle body replaced at 200 miles due to it was defective. So not really sure about my MPG. Going to look at this tank, which has been mainly padel shifting. Going to do 3rd fill up strictly car shifting on it's own. See what the difference is. Good luck with your Red and happy motoring.

[jefferios]

Remember, your mileage will improve after roughly 1000 miles of break-in. You may see improvements (at least in the summer months) by 5-8mpg!

[SuperGeek]

Your first 5 fillups will vary wildly. The first one, the dealer filled it to whatever they chose - maybe full, maybe not. Any test driving in the first 50 miles will be full of jerky learn-the-driver motion, horrible on gas mileage. So you can knock off a gallon or two t here.

Second and third fillups, your car is still breaking in and you're still learning how to drive it smoothly. Pay attention to that transmission - if you're getting whiplash, you're driving it wrong and probably getting bad MPGs. Small car, lightweight, you're going to feel it more. It takes 500 miles or so to really get things smoothed out - both driver training and mechanical.

My first tank of pure city driving (after 600 highway miles), I got 27MPG, and I in bumper to bumper traffic I looked like a 15 year old driving a standard. Now I'm up to 35MPG average city (including stop and go traffic), crediting the Scangauge for showing me how even though I'm not going any faster when I put the pedal down, I'm still using twice as much gas. Some days I get 30, some days I get 45+. It depends on how many red lights I hit, and is somehow also linked to how angry I am that day.

[JD10367]

Bill: I'm down in RI and have had my '09 since after Thanksgiving. Everyone obsesses about the fuel mileage, but the long and short of it is, it's pretty dead-on with the estimations. In the city, I get 32-36 MPG, depending upon how much I idle it to warm it up in the cold. On the highway, I get 42-46 MPG if I'm doing nothing but highway.

Everyone raves about the Prius, but IIRC the Prius gets around 47 city but its highway MPG is actually lower. So, in the city, the Prius is the car to have, but on the highway the Smart actually equals or beats its MPG. Once the winter's done, and we're not idling our cars to warm them--not to mention the engine will get to operating temp a bit quicker--I'd bet the MPGs will rise a bit.

Bottom line: 32-36 MPG city is still the best thing you'll get without using an electric car (which the Prius is, for city driving).

[The Rigger]

FWIW, my first tankful (topped up the tank after leaving the dealer, just because) ran 31-and-change mpg (260 miles, 8.2 gal, my second tankful 34-and-change mpg (238 miles, 6.75 gal), both mostly highway averaging ~75mph.

I'll refill tonight when I get back home from work - 90-mile commute, three bars showing on the gauge at the moment - and from what I'm seeing now, I fully expect to go above 36-37mpg.

~800 miles on the clock in the five days since picking up the car, and both the ride and the fuel economy just keep improving.

(now if only the damned car would tell me what it's name is going to be...)

[SubSlr88]

Originally Posted by Bill Marshall

A little disappointing but MBTE in the gas around here lowers the mileage on my Prius by about 5 mpg in the winter.

Some how I was under the impression that MBTE had been dropped as a fuel oxygenator because of environmental and health concerns. It was widely used in Denver in the '80s to combat the 'brown cloud' along with ethanol. But I believe it was later turning up in ground water samples and discontinued from use.

Or maybe my memory is really going to hell~!

Nope - just located this on Google - (Google is our friend)


"Unfortunately, because of leaking underground storage tanks or spills and because MTBE is soluble in water and does not biodegrade easily, there have been increasing detections of MTBE in ground waters and reservoirs.
Because of the occurrence of MTBE in water supplies, the EPA formed the Blue Ribbon Panel On Oxygenates in Gasoline. In September 1999, the Panel issued its final report that included the following recommendations on MTBE use:
"Reduce the use of MTBE substantially (with some members supporting its complete phase-out), and action by Congress to clarify federal and state authority to regulate and/or eliminate the use of gasoline additives that threaten drinking water supplies."
"The current Clean Air Act requirement to require 2 percent oxygen, by weight, in RFG must be removed in order to provide flexibility to blend adequate fuel supplies in a cost-effective manner while quickly reducing usage of MTBE and maintaining air quality benefits."
In December 1999, the California Air Resources Board approved the California Phase 3 gasoline regulation, which prohibits the formulation of gasoline with MTBE after December 31, 2002. Governor Davis has also asked the U.S. EPA to waive the reformulated gasoline oxygen requirement. A decision from the U.S. EPA is pending.

Ahem, what is taking so long??
Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your post. . .

[Bill Marshall]

Just refilled the tank for the 2nd time after another 200 miles (actually 191). We did better this time 37.0 mpg, helped by the fact that this was almost all highway diriving.

I tlooks like I was wrong to blame M'BTE as the culprit for poor winter mileage. I'll re-check next time I go to the pump.

[smartHHO]

Originally Posted by Bill Marshall

Just refilled the tank for the 2nd time after another 200 miles (actually 191). We did better this time 37.0 mpg, helped by the fact that this was almost all highway diriving.

I tlooks like I was wrong to blame M'BTE as the culprit for poor winter mileage. I'll re-check next time I go to the pump.

Since I was the one that filled my 2 nd tank, going to top her off, but not literally, before our poker run. I will post on your post what she is getting. Been using the padals the whole time and it has been more city then highway for me. So we shall see.