Fuelly Vehicle Comparisons: Part Two

[Chris Wurgler]

Fuelly says I'm getting 26.9 mpg

I haven't recorded all my fill ups and I am not unhappy with 26.9

Just an old Hairdresser in Seattle, still working and doing lots of SHORT trips. Not getting very good mileage for a smart, but it's a lot better than the 7.5 to 8.5 mpg the "86 Cad Fleetwood Broughm" got, doing the same schedule of short trip driving.

[rstewart28]

I have only had my car a week and after my last fillup of 5 gallons I kept up with it and averaged only about 28 miles per gallon. I must be driving too fast!

[saronian]

Commuter driving with California gas doesn't help my overall average MPG.

[Woody14619]

Reality is that your MPG numbers are going to depend more on how you drive, where you drive, and how long you drive than anything else. Short trips, quick starts and stops, and overly hilly environments will sap the MPG in any car. The EPA rating gives 2 numbers as markers just for this reason, one for short-trip intervals (city) and one for long-trip intervals (highway). Plus, for new cars you have the break-in period where you'll get under "normal" performance anyway.

The smart is the most efficient gas non-hybrid car on the market. If you had any other gas non-hybrid car in the same conditions your MPG would be lower. If you start throwing in EVs, hybrids, CDI, CNG, and the likes, then all bets are off. But for a gas car you'd be doing worse mileage in anything else. Just something to keep in mind.

For example, I live in a mildly hilly area of upstate NY, drive about 70% city, and drive on snow 5+ months of the year. My old 2001 Saturn got about 26MPG with the same driving patterns. My smart is getting:



Enough said.

[unicycle]

Based on this page alone, it looks like many Smart drivers have realized that the driving conditions have a lot to do with MPGs. These drivers are happy with #s that are great for any car given those conditions.

For too long, we've had ppl complaining that their cars weren't doing well (below 40 MPG), but these folks didn't take into consideration that they were driving under less-than-ideal conditions. I'm glad people are becoming aware of that and that they're happy with the cars.

[fenimorm]

Since October last year when I got my car, I've averaged 32.8 MPG. My drive is 100% city stop and go with trips less than 5 miles. My first few fill ups I got 28, my last few have been 35. Very happy with the car, can't wait for the electric.

[BigWarpGuy]

I think you will get a charge out of the electric Smart.

[fpage77]

Guys I know I may be nuts but I would so love to beat out the Prius on the top 10 car list on fuelly.com website. There are 159 Priuses and 146 smarts and we only need 14 more smarts registered to get 6th place. This top 10 list is just in numbers of car garaged at site not race of who has the most mpgs.

Browse All Cars | Fuelly

[fpage77]

Top 10 Cars

1. Volkswagen Jetta (800)
2. Honda Civic (666)
3. Honda Accord (407)
4. Toyota Camry (262)
5. Toyota Corolla (254)
6. Toyota Prius (184)
7. Honda Fit (165)
8. Smart Fortwo (165)
9. Volkswagen Golf (164)
10. Mazda 3 (151)

Please register and track as we're about to get bumped off the list by these s.

[rfernatt]

Latest update on cars found in the Fuelly top 10 that are the closest competitors to the smart and have a number of vehicles to compare. Again, 2008/2009 models, this time with at least 10 Fuelly recorded fill-ups to narrow it down to cars that are probably broken in and the owner probably does a decent job of accurate data recording. No minimum sample size this time, but most models have 50 or more in the samples.

Model (sample size): Average MPG
Toyota Prius (50): 44.6 mpg
smart fortwo (115): 38.1 mpg
VW Jetta TDI (127): 35.4 mpg
Honda Fit (89): 34.0 mpg
Honda Civic (54): 31.1 mpg
Toyota Corolla (14): 30.9 mpg
Mazda 3 (37): 27.5 mpg