Horrible Gas Milage!

[BigWarpGuy]

Not having AC might be helping my Herb; Smart Fortwo. I seem to be averaging 37 mpg and it is mostly city. It might be higher but I like to drive with the windows down.

[Redwarf]

Any new car has an adjustment period to go through. If you listen to your dealer they would have said just that. They did say it takes time for the computer to set .. We have good and stretched awesome gas mileage between 35 and 55 mph.. we also switch between auto and manual for the best use of road conditions. We are still experimenting for the best mph in use of fuel..high grade is recommended but not all high grade are the same. therefore check them out.

[ms bea]

27-28ish in San Francisco and 36-37 freeway at 60 mph and no A/C. 3K miles on the cabrio now, like I've posted before, love my bumble bee but am sorely disappointed in the mpg, especially not being able to do better on the freeway.

[spdickey]

33-35 around Los Angeles with the AC on, 36-38 without the AC. With that big patch of plastic over my head, the AC comes in VERY handy.

[SeaDoc]

Try it without a/c for a week, if you can stand it - and see what you get - without a/c improved my mileage nearly 30% - fall and winter is just around the corner...

[bones]

At first I wasnt impressed with my milage....
I always drove in "D"... bad mistake.
I was only getting 31-32 mpg.
I then started using the paddles exclusively.. and driving it a bit harder.... I'm no "hypermiler".
Now, I get 37+MPG. Not too shabby, all city driving with the AC always on... I'm in AZ too.
All in all, it's been good, but I'm still selling it, just too small.

[MD85255]

I've talked with several other Smart owners in AZ and all of them have had between 35-40's MPG from the get-go. I know there's something not quite right with my Smart, but how do I get the dealership to agree to have a look at it? I barely drive 50 miles per week since I work from home. So for me to even get to 3-5K miles may take me another 7 months.

Very frustrated!!

[Kermit]

AH-HA!!! THERE is your mileage killer!!! SHORT TRIPS!

[jefferios]

Yes I can take a first hand look at the short trip vs long drives in my smart and MPG. Over the summer I drove 24miles roundtrip and got ~45mpg. Now the trips to target are <6 miles round trip. My first fill up was a nice 39mpg. This next one could be 30mpg. (I am sensing a bad number. Anyway, its still 30's!!!

[SuperGeek]

Originally Posted by Bum-bling-B

AH-HA!!! THERE is your mileage killer!!! SHORT TRIPS!

Yes, and I'm in total agreement. If anyone drives all of 50 miles per week, you're talking about $30/month in gas (2 gallons per week x 4 weeks). Whether you're getting 25mpg or 40mpg still only makes about a $15/mo difference. You paid $12-20k for a car that you're only driving 8 miles a day... your car payment alone is about ten times the gas price, and the benefits are focused on bragging rights and/or the cool/cute factor of the car. That's my guess based on your profile mention of other cars: Carerra, H1, Escalade... classic bragging-rights vehicles best driven with a lead foot. Take a long trip (or use a Scangauge for a short 20-mile trip) at 55MPH in your smart and test the 40mpg highway theory. If you get at least 38MPG on the highway, your car is fine.

Keep things in perspective when you feel angry about not getting high MPGs. If you bought an all-electric car and the battery only lasted four days instead of five, you'd still have spent 40k on a car that's only saving you about $75/year in fuel cost. Focus your energies on bigger issues and you'll feel much less angry. It's not the fault of the car or the driver, but the situation... combustion engines simply suck until they heat up thoroughly.