Gas mileage: Must be my driving

[Gyre]

I just got home from visiting the folks. It was mostly interstate driving. I have 320 miles on this tank of gas and the needle is still above the 1/4 mark (I know it's not linear). I'm usually at about 300 when the yellow empty light goes on.

I guess that 50% city driving I'm doing normally is really fuel hungry.

 

[Sir Nuke]

I just got home from visiting the folks. It was mostly interstate driving. I have 320 miles on this tank of gas and the needle is still above the 1/4 mark (I know it's not linear). I'm usually at about 300 when the yellow empty light goes on.

I guess that 50% city driving I'm doing normally is really fuel hungry.

yep it certainly is......I was easily getting a little past 400 miles before the light came on while on vacation.....the city driving makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Don]

I even managed one tank of 456 miles, coming down out of Denver into Kansas.

Don

 

[NewP5owner]

You guys must have been driving the speed limit. I drive between 120 and 130 km/ph and I can almost see the needle drop on my P5. I guess that's what happens when your running at 3500+ RPM's for a while. My wife's 2002 civic kicks the ass of my P5 for gas mileage on the highway. It is an auto and runs at about 700 RPM's lower at a steady speed on the highway...much quieter too!

 

[GXL]

I get 350 all city driving, and about 425+ on the highway depending how fast/slow I'm going.

 

[GXL]

I just got home from visiting the folks. It was mostly interstate driving. I have 320 miles on this tank of gas and the needle is still above the 1/4 mark (I know it's not linear). I'm usually at about 300 when the yellow empty light goes on.

I guess that 50% city driving I'm doing normally is really fuel hungry.

Hey, I noticed you live in Morrisville! I live in Cary, but work in Morrisville. Do you know any other P5 owners from the area? Maybe we can start a little P5-NC club!

 

[Gyre]

Re: Re: Gas mileage: Must be my driving

Hey, I noticed you live in Morrisville! I live in Cary, but work in Morrisville. Do you know any other P5 owners from the area? Maybe we can start a little P5-NC club!

I seem to see mostly women with P5s in NC. Some men. Not too many that look like candidates for car clubs. I've been seeing a lot more recently and mostly 2002 ones.

 

[WaatDaHell]

It must be nice to have some of the above mentioned mileage. I'm depressed with mine, I do a mix of city and highway driving and my light comes on at barely 250 miles. My last tank I drove another 40 miles after the light came on and made it to the station okay. By that time, I had 290 miles and refilled the tank all the way. It took 14.3 gallons to refill. I dunno if I could have gone a lot farther or not but my needle sure didn't go down much after the engine shut off. It maybe twitched so I don't think I could have gone much farther. Maybe it's just California gas. I've given up trying to find out why I average about 21.5 miles to the gallon, even when I don't use the A/C, avoid rolling down the windows, took the roof rack off, and avoid revving over 4k rpms. I'll just have to live with it.

 

[md420]

...

I get about 350 or so. I do some highway driving, but i work in downtown tampa and traffic sux.

 

[Sir Nuke]

You guys must have been driving the speed limit. I drive between 120 and 130 km/ph and I can almost see the needle drop on my P5. I guess that's what happens when your running at 3500+ RPM's for a while. My wife's 2002 civic kicks the ass of my P5 for gas mileage on the highway. It is an auto and runs at about 700 RPM's lower at a steady speed on the highway...much quieter too!

NOPE...not even CLOSE....this last summer we took my wifes P-5 on a 4800 mile trip...I drove the entire time on the interstate with the exception of a few hours.....I cruised at between 80 and 90 MPH the whole time and still got between 29 and 31 MPG and that was with the A/C on....four people in the car...and it LOADED.

 

[pro5foote]

Im with Whatdahell, I am getting between 250-280 per tank and I don't drive her that hard, I don't get it. What the hell am I doing wrong?

However this is much better than the 12-15mpg I was getting from my dodge Ram, So I guess I can't complain too much.

 

[fastdrvr23]

Im with Whatdahell, I am getting between 250-280 per tank and I don't drive her that hard, I don't get it. What the hell am I doing wrong?

However this is much better than the 12-15mpg I was getting from my dodge Ram, So I guess I can't complain too much.

Do you have an automatic transmission? Alot of the members on the board seem to get poor mileage on their auto. equipped proteges until they have a few thousand miles... How many miles does your car have on it now?

 

[pro5foote]

Nope I have a 5 speed. And I have about 6000 miles on the car...

 

[fastdrvr23]

Hmmm... What Rpm's do you shift at when driving normally?

That is pretty darn low...

 

[Kooldino]

I think i rarely break 300 miles to the tank...

 

[fastdrvr23]

I average 30-31 most of the time. (If I can remember, I'll post my Spreadsheet when I get home) I bought the car with MPG as a large concern since I use the car daily for commuting. My low fuel light usually comes on after I have driven about 370 miles.

 

[PA_MP3_Man]

If I can keep it under 3500 rpm then I'll usually pull about 370 miles outta 12.5 gallons. So that's 30 mpg almost. I definately like my gas milage. I try not to let my gas go down to the light. Even the owners manual reccomends atleast 1/4 tank a gas. anyone replace their fuel filter? Is it hard to replace by yourself? I'm commin up on 25,000 miles and should probably do that soon.

 

[prost]

Do you have an automatic transmission? Alot of the members on the board seem to get poor mileage on their auto. equipped proteges until they have a few thousand miles...

I can confirm this. I drive almost exclusively city miles and rarely average over 20 mpg per tank. I do not carry any extra loads normally but do use the manual shift and keep the revs up a little. At least it's better than my old 88 GMC jimmy that got a whopping 9 mpg!

 

[saided18]

I think i rarely break 300 miles to the tank...

really??? i get about 26-27 miles to the gallon with me driving it. I usally get 330 miles out of a tank. if a normal person drives my car, it will get almost 30mpg. it seems that the mp3 get less mpg then the P5. oh well

 

[NewP5owner]

Generally I think most would agree that the P5 is generally lousy for gas mileage on the highway if you compare it with other cars that have a similar size engine and are approximately the same weight. I believe that this is because the P5 engine's top gear runs at annoyingly high RPM's. The P5 seems so smooth and quiet to me when I'm driving around the city (quieter than my wife's 2002 civic) but seems very buzzy on the highway (much louder than my wife's civic). I'm sure if Mazda made the 5th gear run at lower RPM's we wouldn't all be complaining like this. On the other hand, I'm comparing it too the Civic which is the second best car in it's class for gas mileage (the corolla is 1st but who would want to drive one of those)....so perhaps I am setting my standards to high???