steinfamily01

hi guys.

im pretty much only doing city driving

when i bought the car and drove it (motor way) 100 km's home, the trip computer gave me 7.4 litres/100km and when filling up, it seemed accurate.

now that im pretty much doing short drives (between 1 and 5 km's, multiple times a day), i'm getting something like 510-540 km a tank, meaning, around 9.5 litres/100.

is this expected?

its just been serviced, all fluids changed etc, both air filter and air conditioning air filter replaced, new brake pads / rotors done all around.

only using 95 premium fuel.

ezone

In a word, YES.

Burn the lower octane fuel unless your car clearly states to use high octane. (1.8L engines take low octane over here, check your owners manuals)

It should help economy just a smidge, probably make it start easier, and even if it doesn't help the fuel economy I can save $$ at the pump using the cheaper fuel.


USA has different winter/summer fuel blending requirements, I don't know if your country has similar. Winter blend fuel lowers fuel economy here, and it's nationwide.
Alcohol/Ethanol in the fuel lowers economy too. (Corn belt USA here, straight 100% gasoline is nearly impossible to find in my city)

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As I'm sure you have already seen, the info display in the dash constantly recalculates the average shown on the display, it updates a few times per km.
If you reset a trip meter to zero, the display should start calculating fuel economy from zero when that tripmeter is displayed.

DO you have your display set to automatically reset a trip meter to zero with each fuel fill up? (I keep my 'tripmeter A' set this way so it calculates a new average with every tank of fuel)....I also have a detailed record of every gas fill up: odometer reading, tripmeter reading, cost $, # of gallons to fill it, and fuel economy (displayed vs. actual, calculated by hand)

Fuel economy can vary wildly, most of it depends on the driving.
Consider these actions that require consuming extra fuel, that does not accumulate corresponding extra kms on the odometer:

Cold engine, a cold engine requires significantly more fuel to run and operate in all conditions than a fully warmed up engine. (If you could do all your running around while the engine is already at operating temperature, that could save gas/improve calculated fuel economy)

Idle time, if you let the engine run and warm up before driving, all that fuel burned takes away from the final fuel economy calculation. Burning fuel while sitting still lowers the average fuel economy (Zero kms per liter is still calculated into the average).

Stops in traffic, fuel consumed sitting and running takes away from the final fuel economy calculation. Burning fuel while sitting still kills fuel economy. (Zero kms per liter is still calculated into the average).


Accelerating from a stop, getting 1500kgs of plastic and steel takes a LOT of energy, that energy is gasoline. (just try pushing your car around by hand, see how much energy it takes out of you LOL)

Braking, all the fuel that was consumed to gain forward momentum and keep up with traffic is then wasted like yesterdays trash when you have to stop at the next intersection.

Pick up some Hypermile habits to conserve fuel whenever possible: google "hypermile", read it, learn it, live it, love it!
Biggies: Practice planning ahead and use the brakes as little as possible.....Predict the next stop light, back off the accelerator pedal and slow down long before it turns red.
Accelerate at a slower pace? Don't hurry up to the speed limit if you just have to slow down again in 100 meters.




Car:
Automatic transmission can get better economy than a manual transmission.

Engine running condition, peak efficiency? 0w20 oil is in the engine? (not sure if you use that in your country)
Tire condition, all pressures good? (tire pressures change as the temperature changes, pressures also may drop in time so check pressures monthly)

You don't really have to deal with bitter cold nor snow there, do you?
Poor road conditions can lower the fuel economy, whether it's rain, potholes/rough surface, or snow.

The stated fuel economy on a new car window sticker is (quite often) just a lofty ideal. The conditions used by the US EPA (or whatever agency your country uses) to come up with the figures are rarely the same as anyone encounters in their daily routine.

I drive a 12 Civic 1,8L engine, automatic transmission......... my daily commute is fairly short (5.6 miles each way) with anywhere from 3-10 stops (depending on traffic) and it's damn difficult to reach the figure that was on my window sticker. If I can time all the lights just right so I can go at a steady speed, my economy is better.

My highway economy just sucks. usually 20% below the rating on the sticker......but I know why. Big tires and high speeds.


I know someone with the same car as I, who lives in sunny southern California, drives in LA traffic, and is happy achieving gas mileage in the low 20 MPGs.....he doesn't complain because he understands why it is this way.


Oh god, this got long for a Sunday.....I've had too much coffee!

steinfamily01

awesome, thanks for the reply.

the lowest octane here is 95 (we dont have 91 etc) and its not blended (no ethanol)