Horrible Gas Milage!

[gadgets]

we drove to the rim just north of Payson on first tank of gas and got 43mpg. then the next tank driving 4 miles each way to work and got 35mpg. Air on but have not used the paddles. i suggest using auto mode and let it shift early. try this for a tank and see what the difference is.

[nprsmart]

Originally Posted by MD85255

I've have almost 1000 miles on my car now, but I'm averaging 25-28mpg. I called the dealership and the service dept told me I need to break it in for another couple thousand miles. Grante I'm in Arizona where we're running our a/c constantly right now...I still don't feel that my gas milage is even close to what others are getting.

I've been using the paddleshifter and I'm not an aggressive driver (not in the Smartcar anyway).

Anyone else experiencing the same in hot climate? Should I be concerned?

Pardon the pun, but my mileage "tanks" when I run the A/C hard here in Florida. With short trips and the A/C on full blast, I'm hovering just above 30, so your mileage isn't that far off.

OTOH, I figure I'll be getting the equivalent of 150 mpg this morning.... Five miles to my morning bike ride group, 40 miles on my bike, and another five miles home. 1/3 of a gallon, more or less, for fifty miles equals 150mpg!



Seriously, the heat is already starting to break a little here and I'm seeing my mileage creep up as I have to use the A/C less. Another month and I ought to start seeing the sort of mileage our northern friends have been seeing.

[JPaul]

At first, I use to get mid 30's MPG, driving mostly in Washington DC, about 4 miles commute - the worst, occasionally with AC on - plus weekly trips outside the infamous Beltway.
Now, at 2500+ miles, I regularly get slightly above 40 MPG with the same conditions.
My driving can be qualified as sedate, just keeping up with the traffic, and with very few kick-downs (merging).

BTW: noticed kwagar post below, it is appropriate to add that the car runs on premium (93) only. And I'm very happy too.

[cubefx]

Originally Posted by nprsmart

Pardon the pun, but my mileage "tanks" when I run the A/C hard here in Florida. With short trips and the A/C on full blast, I'm hovering just above 30, so your mileage isn't that far off.

OTOH, I figure I'll be getting the equivalent of 150 mpg this morning.... Five miles to my morning bike ride group, 40 miles on my bike, and another five miles home. 1/3 of a gallon, more or less, for fifty miles equals 150mpg!



Seriously, the heat is already starting to break a little here and I'm seeing my mileage creep up as I have to use the A/C less. Another month and I ought to start seeing the sort of mileage our northern friends have been seeing.

I'm not sure that AC will drop your MPG that bad. I'm in Florida too (Orlando area) and drive with AC most of the time and never been below 40 MPG (and I drive like a maniac most of the time too ).


CUBE

[kwagar]

I find this discussion facinating in terms of the variences in mileage being reported. While there are clearly a number of issues that can influence MPG the variences seem extreme from the mid-twenties to over 40MPG.

I have had my smart for 8 months, have about 6000 miles and have had 22 fill-ups. My lowest MPG has been 36 and my average over all miles is just more than 39 MPG.

I live in central Florida, use AC most of the time and the vast majority of my driving in trips of 15 miles or less in semi rural areas with a mix of 60 MPH roads and 35 MPH in town area's with frequent traffic lights.

I drive relatively aggressively, usually slightly above speed limit, I do nothing to hypermile and I have consistently used 91 and 93 octane fuel.

I am very happy with my results but would be very concerned if I was getting 30 MPG or less. Frankly I can't figure out what I could do to drive my mileage down to some of the levels reported. Some of the reported mileages just don't make a lot of sense to me. Very curious!

[jro6803]

My experience is that two obvious things adversely affect my mileage: traffic and using the A/C.

My commute is 2.7 miles each way and is the bulk of my 3,000 miles thus far. There are 7 traffic signals from my home to my office. Using my scan gauge as a guide, if I hit most of the lights green in the morning (less traffic) I can achieve nearly 50 MPG average for the trip. If I hit most of the lights red the MPG is in the high teens / low 20's.

Heavy use of A/C exacts a 5 to 8 MPG penalty in our hot Louisiana summer. My lifetime cummulative MPG is 36.98: best tank was 43 and worse tank was 29

Jim

[smartie]

1. A friend of mine has a Prius, and we have almost identical 25 mile (one way) commutes from the suburbs into a major metropolitan area. We both average about 47-48 MPG without AC on. With AC on 100% of the time my mileage drops to 43 MPG, and so does the Prius. I measure my mileage using a calibrated Scangauge and he uses the built-in gauge in the Prius.

2. On weekends I do much shorter trips, and my mileage is often more like 34 MPG, and my friend's Prius is little better. Using the Scangauge I see that I have to drive approx 2.5 miles for the engine coolant to reach operating temperature (from 75 deg ambient temp). During this warm-up period the gas mileage is not good, i.e. 30 MPG average to the 2.5 mile point. The oil seems to reach full operating temp after about 5 Miles. Once the car is fully warmed, I get better than 50 MPG driving at 55 MPH.

With any car short trips result in really bad gas mileage. So it really does not matter what car you drive if you have a really short commute. OK you get bad mileage, but the overall cost is small since the distance is small.

If I had a 2 mile commute, I would cycle my bicycle

[wahi]

I was getting between 40 to 45 mpg the past 5000 miles on my smartbiru until recently when I started getting 46 mpg and more the past three fillups. Today, when I filled it up, it gave me 48.7 mpg! Improving with 'age', I guess. My driving pattern and style hasn't changed -- 99% auto and work commute of 150 miles a day (3 days a week) with a/c or not depending on mood and weather. I don't take it elsewhere much...

It will be up for the 10K service in a couple of week's time. I am still deliberating taking it to smartcenter Pittsburgh, but I know I can do the work myself...

[fortow]

It should be obvious by now that those complaining about poor gas mileage should be paying more attention to how the car is being operated. Short trips do not allow the engine to heat up to normal operating temperatures and that alone can be the single most prevalent cause for poor mileage. The computer changes the air/gas ratio as the engine heats up. Running cold will use significantly more fuel. If an engine never reaches normal operating temperatures then the fuel consumption will be will be greater than one that averages cold with hot operation, and the longer an engine runs hot the better the average fuel economy. Couple this with low speeds, thicker oil viscosity, acceleration and braking, then it should be no wonder as to why the mileage doesn't conform to the advertised ratings. Also, although there is an argument that wide throttle openings at low revs result in the best mileage, in practice that may not always be the case. The longer it takes to accelerate to cruising speed the more fuel is consumed. The difference in fuel consumption between the acceleration phase and steady speed is considerable regardless of how fast you're accelerating. Slow speed, short trip, 'stop and go' driving is not only the most severe service that an engine can be subjected to but it is also the least efficient with regards to fuel economy.

Also as had been mentioned, if an owner has several smart cars and they are both getting similar poor mileage then that should be a good indication to look to causes other than engine problems.
If a car is otherwise running well then nothing positive would be achieved by taking it back to the dealer with a complaint of poor gas mileage.
There is a very simple way to determine if the car is operating as designed with regards to fuel consumption - fill up, take a highway trip at a steady speed, refill, compute mileage. Do this on the same day, at the same pump. The longer the trip the more accurate the computation.

[PeteInLongBeach]

I'm on my first long trip in the smart this weekend (Irvine - San Francisco and points in-between on highway 101). The first tank, running around Orange County and then up to San Luis Obispo, I was trying everything I could to optimize fuel consumption ( high tire pressures, staying between 55 & 65 mph, no A/C, drafting where possible, etc.). I will need to duplicate the results of this tank again before I fully believe it: 284 miles on 5.1 gallons (over 55 mpg). The next leg from San Luis Obispo to San Jose & San Francisco involved higher speeds, A/C on, heavy headwinds, and very few opportunities for drafting. So far, judging by the fuel guage, this tank is averaging about 45 mpg.

We'll see what happens on the return trip down interstate 5 on Monday.