aureliano

Hello to all from Miami, FL. My first post here

Last year I bought a brand new 2010 Civic LX (1.8L engine). This is my first Civic but 5th Honda I ever had. At this time I also have a CR-V EX-L. Both cars are automatic.

I used to own an Accord, older CR-V model and a Passport long time ago. Never had any issues with Hondas - perfect cars for me.

I bought a Civic as I needed a small car good on mileage. Well, my experience with this car's gas mileage is - very disappointing.

I am getting between 19-22 MPGs (80% city, 20% highway). I got 6600 miles on this Civic so far. For comparison my average mileage on CR-V is 23-26 MPGs (same 80% city, 20% highway, car has 11200 miles on odometer).

My driving habits are the same on both cars (as well on the third but that one is wife's and is not a Honda).

Checked tyre pressure and was fine. Brought the car to Braman Honda service, they checked it and say everything is OK.

Well - I don't think it's OK. Today I refueled my car again (shell, regular 87) and calculated disappointing 21.4 MPGs from my last visit to the gas station.

I live in South Florida, we do not have cold winter and Civic has never been even north of Ft Lauderdale. Aircon is on, on high for very short time and then on low the rest of the time (I have to have it with this Miami heat).

Anyone has any idea what could be wrong?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well to start, you will not get the best performance and mileage til about 20k miles when the car fully breaks in. there is also environmental factors to consider. higher altitude will usually use less gas because there is less available oxygen. summer will give you better mileage than winter. road conditions matter (hills vs flat land), and ofcourse driving style. since your car is still new, i would say give it a chance to break in. at 20k, switch to synthetic oil. and you may want to pump the tires up to 35 psi for a bit better mileage if the ride is still good enough (most tires are made and tested assuming 35psi inflation pressure). try not to use a/c if you can avoid it, keep electrics off as much as possible like fan, radio, lights, etc. and dont mash the gas too often. just curious why you didnt go with the hybrid civic?

aureliano

Thanks Gearbox.

I am aware of car needing to break in (Honda claims that comes at 1500 miles, I do not believe that...). Altitude - I live in South Florida where the highest hill is the 25ft high "Garbage Mountain" (no roads on it though) . Changed oil to Synthetic and tires are well inflated at approx 34-35 psi.

The CR-V is a bigger, heavier car with bigger engine and has only about 4500 miles more than Civic - yet much better gas mileage.

Third Car is wife's Mazda MX-5, when I drive her car - I got pretty much expected gas mileage (around 23-24).

I will still keep the Civic for some time, year or two, but if it doesn't improve I'll have to sell it and buy something else.

Hybrid Civic was just too pricey. Just wanted to have a relatively reliable but inexpensive car that is good on gas to take me to and from my job, that's all. At the end, after all research, my last two choices were Honda Civic and Hyundai Elantra. I think I made a mistake.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the "sea level" works against you since there is much higher oxygen. try and keep the rpms lower than 3k if possible. my best tank in the city when i lived in IL at sea level was 34mpg by keeping the rpm low and letting go of the gas pedal as often as possible. when i drove "normal" i could only get 22-24mpg. releasing the pedal cuts fuel and makes a big difference vs holding your foot on the gas all the time. on flat ground, you can get away with letting go of the pedal more often. my mileage up here in the NV mountains 5500ft sucks because i have to keep the car in 3rd and always press the gas to maintain speed. totally different driving because the car is too slow for this area and needs to be pushed harder.

also go check the ecomodder.com list of 65+ideas to improve mpg.

Devani

iTrader: (2)

I can relate to your findings. my wife has 2008 CR-V EX-L and she gets around 26MPG in summer and 24MPG in winter. I get 28 and 25 on her CR-V even tho I drive faster than my wife....same car different MPG...

I drive 2009 SI and I get around 30+ mpg...

CR-V and Civic are different cars. just because you get 23-26 on CR-V doesn't mean it's going to get same/better mileage as your Civic if same driving style....they are different cars and they need to be driven differently.

Badgerland

It's really odd my reply here, I have owned 2 hondas before getting our 11' civic EX and never had a bad issue with gas mileage mostly normal stuff. The civic (with 7500 miles) has consistently given me better than EPA each and every tankful of gas...we have been AVERAGING 33-34mpg and gotten as high as 40.9mpg on an 1100 mile trip. Don't know what I'm doing differently besides keeping it below 65mph on the highway but I sure am grateful with gas prices so high!

We just did our first oil change at 7200 miles and switched to Mobil 1, I'm curious to see if our mileage improves any with the synthetic oil.

aureliano

You see, Badgerland, I pretty much am a driver like you, I rarely overspeed and drive my car the same way as the other ones. When we bought a CR-V (20-27 EPA ratings), I got average about 22 MPG first few thousand miles. Today I drove the CR-V on a highway about 300+ miles and calculated decent 28.9 MPG.

Just can't figure out what's goin' on with this Civic.

EPA 27/35 on sticker and I am getting like 19/22 at the best. It just doesn't add up. Had no such experience with any other Honda (or other brands) I ever had.

aureliano

So, I had a bit longer drive these days and made 23.3 MPG since last fill up. But this time I was at least 75-80% on the highway and most of the time driving around 55-60 mph, keeping bellow 3000 rpm. Still - horrible mileage. Really cannot understand why and I am really thinking something IS wrong with this car...

aureliano

OK... last weekend I drove all the way from Miami to Cape Canaveral and back. 98% of it was on a highway (I-95, Florida Turnpike). 505 miles, 16.6 gallons - 30.42 MPG (best ever with this Civic, but then I drove almost whole trip on a highway with very little traffic and still well under 35 MPGs as claimed by Honda). Tires all at 32 psi, speed most of time 63-65 mph. Car is now 14 months with me and I made 7550 miles so far.

Getting better?