HELP! brand new 2015 - horrible mileage - 23mpg for highway

[piotrek91]

a lot of the new replies here are about how to get better gas mileage. if you read my post, i get decent city/combined mpg...i am concerned why my 3 100% highway trips avged 22mpg

A few questions/points

1. What were your previous cars and what was their MPG on your highway trips?

2. it's cold out right now.. cold air is more dense. You will certainly get slightly higher mpg when it's warmer out.

3. The CX-5 absolutely hates crosswinds. The car has very advanced aerodynamics that are optimized for still air. Cross winds mess up the flow of air over the car greatly increasing the drag. Other, especially older cars had more simple shapes and are affected down less by crosswinds. If you look at the hood of the CX-5 you'll notice the large ridges on the sides designed to direct airflow around the mirrors. In crosswinds, they won't be doing that and the full surface area of the mirror will be forced to fight against the 80MPH wind.

4. Your car is barely broken in. Your mpg should go up after a few thousand miles when the motor loosens up.

5. gas is cheap right now

6. Do this test.. Get on a level highway on a calm day, set cruise at 65MPH, reset your Average MPG (hold down info button) Drive a few minutes and report back what the average mpg was for that trip. If your car doesn't indicate over 30mpg at 65mph you might have a problem.

 

[CC58]

a lot of the new replies here are about how to get better gas mileage. if you read my post, i get decent city/combined mpg...i am concerned why my 3 100% highway trips avged 22mpg

Here is my experience with CX-5 mileage on long trips:
50mph rural roads = 32mpg
70mph high way = 27mpg
80mph highway = 24mpg

With high wind resistance of CX-5 you can expect these number
to vary +/- 4mpg depending on head wind or tail wind.

 

[johnygfunk]

2013 CX-5 with 35,000+ miles driven now. I know what gets the best mpg (my understanding is there really isn't much difference between the 2.0 and 2.5):

* Stay away from 70+mph. From 70 upward you lose tons of mpg potential. I consistently do 800+ mile trips with mine and have found that 67.8 mph (cell-phone gps) will get you the most consistent mpg when using your cruise control

* Cruise control is really aggressive at accelerating up hills and kills mpg - if you can do without, you will get better mpg

* I lose about 1 mpg for every person in the car. 4 people and a dog + their stuff the best I've gotten on a trip is 31 mpg. My best ever tank is 36.16 mpg and my observed average over the 37452.9 miles I've driven to date is 30.982.

* Tires should be at 36-38 psi cold. If you drive for a while and check and get a 36 reading they are likely low and impacting your mpg

* Headwinds and crosswinds destroy mpg. Drove I-5 to Sac into a storm and got 28 mpg. Came home as the storm was passing and got 36 mpg for most of the trip

* Don't brake unless you absolutely need to - let the car coast and coast and coast. it saves gas, tire wear, and brake wear

* If in the city/country with stops signs, angled turns/bends, etc. avoid heavy acceleration out of the turns

* Avoid excessive acceleration onto on-ramps. This one is my main killer of mpg in my daily commute. I have a 180 degree inclined on-ramp and it kills my mpg to get upto speed in time

* Other than that drive like an old lady on the freeway (70 or below) and you will get better mpg.

I have all of my mileage completely tracked with each fillup in an excel spreadsheet if you want to see it.

 

[MikeM.]

Here is my experience with CX-5 mileage on long trips:
50mph rural roads = 32mpg
70mph high way = 27mpg
80mph highway = 24mpg

With high wind resistance of CX-5 you can expect these number
to vary +/- 4mpg depending on head wind or tail wind.

I would expect better than that.

After all, my average after 2 years, which includes lots of snow driving in the mountains, city driving and cold starts is 32.5 mpg. That is the calculated mpg by keeping track of fuel receipts and odometer readings. My TC is usually within .8 mpg on either side. Since my odometer reads 2-3% low when I have my winter wheels on (about 1/2 total miles) the mpg should be adjusted upward 1-1.5% or about 33 mpg.

My observed numbers go about like this:

50 mph rural roads: 38 mpg
70 mph: 32 mpg
80 mph: 26 mpg

I should add that 33 mpg overall average since the car was new includes the new engine break-in as well as hours and hours of off-road crawling in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears (mostly 2nd gear but with lots of slowing to 1st to cross drainage channels). The point being, if my average is about 33 mpg including all these low mpg events, we know the average cruising mpg is a lot higher than that.