200 mile fuel report

[The Rigger]

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.

306 miles, 8.27 gallons, just a breath over 37mpg... Shell 93-octane, averaging ~78mph. I'll take it.

Just crossed 1K miles on the clock today, on the way back down to Detroit for work. Will have to refuel on the way home tonight; I doubt the trend will continue, as I had to drive back and forth a little more, er, "emphatically" the past couple of days, if you see what I mean...

[Desert_Friar]

My Passion has just gone over 6.5K and for the past 3K has been consistently getting around 42 mpg around town and 53 mpg on 55-65 mph highways.

[Bill Marshall]

Third fillup after an additional 353 miles = 36.8 mpg.

[chieftmc]

Very first fill up; 262 miles; 7.231 gallons = 36.23 mpg. And I drive it like I stole it
Manual, most of the time

[texastim]

of course i am preaching to the choir. you guys/gals realize that where you are at (location, location, location) and the weather makes a whole lotta difference.

two weeks ago, i had to have this one car that i had to get via ebay. i could not reason why to wait a year. the car had 160 miles on it. so i flew from my home in dallas to reno to meet the seller, and to meet my new beauty. while breaking it in, within the high dry clear desert of nevada, i know that none of you are going to believe this, but i averaged over 52 mpg. it was straight bfe road driving between reno and vegas. when i hit the high hills in arizona and new mexico, and the _ellish 35 mph winds in the texas pandlehandle, the mpg deceased. overall, i averaged 47mph over the 1600 trip. folks, if you can, get your cuties out on the road and do not be afraid to stretch it within reason. you will do it good. you will not break them. i am no mechanic, but i feel that if your car is new, and if you only drive within your city limits, you are not allowing the motor to stretch. btw, did you see us making the top 5 list for the mpg? hopefully that will help our resale values. but who can guess the future with our current economy.

[Kermit]

Winter is killing my mileage. I normal do around 43-44mpgs. I'm doing around 37 now. FYI - I have almost 22k miles on my car so it is broke-in. Give it time and apply your Prius driving skills to the Smart; once spring hits you easily get well over 40mpgs.

[bparkin]

We have a wonderful Diesel Smart. We drove her from Regina Saskatchewan down to Duluth, MN last September. We only tracked mileage one day while doing a casual bit of driving up and down the Lake Superior shoreline. We got nearly 80 mpg that day driving at around 50 mph. We love our car and often take long trips in her. From a Canadian perspective, it's too bad they are all gasoline powered now.

[WhiteNBlack08]

Originally Posted by Bill Marshall

Third fillup after an additional 353 miles = 36.8 mpg.

Not trying to start up the whole " how big is the tank" debate again, but this doesn't add up. Your numbers mean you put 9.6 gallons in your tank?
The only reason I even looked twice is because I fairly routinely get 350 miles on a tank, but I'm usually averaging 42-43 mpg doing it. I usually fill up when the gauge reads .8-1.0 gallons, and rarely ever get more than 8.0-8.2 gallons in it.

[sk8ndad]

Well, just put in my first tank after abusing Lil' Red. I drove through the Santa Cruz mountains and then up the coast on Highway 1 then back over the mountains. Put 264.9 miles on him and put 7.801 gallons, so just shy of 34 mpg. One other note, after the fill, the 8th indicator wasn't lit on the gas guage.

I will say that I get more joy out of driving this car than any I have owned. I absolutely love the transmission and my left leg appreciates it (not using a clutch).

[The Rigger]

Originally Posted by sk8ndad

One other note, after the fill, the 8th indicator wasn't lit on the gas guage.

That happened to me on the last fill-up, but the 7th indicator didn't go out 'til I'd put ~78-80 miles on the tankful, so I suspect it was just a self-healing hiccup or something. We'll see next fill-up...