MPG...whats going on here?

[VanguardX]

Before getting this Cx 5 2 weeks ago, i always read how this car gets great MPG blah blah blah

So par, i put 385 miles on my car since buying it brand new 2 weeks ago.

My trip computer shows 21.5 MPG

This is about 60% highway and 40% city

The city driving is very smooth too...not too much stop and go and flooring the gas.


Whats going on here? Is this normal? I see people getting well above 25 with mainly CITY driving. Or are people just driving at 40 MPH everywhere? lol


2.5 AWD model

 

[SayNoToPistons]

Did you reset the average? Did you calculate manually?

 

[MikeM.]

Before getting this Cx 5 2 weeks ago, i always read how this car gets great MPG blah blah blah

What do you mean "blah, blah, blah"?

The vast majority of CX-5 drivers DO get great MPG's. Of course every car is getting 0 mpg while it's idling. That said, I'm really pleased that mine really sips the fuel at idle.

In mixed driving, including every mile since the car was new (over 10,000 miles), I've AVERAGED 32.1 mpg (manually calculated). Sometimes the trip computer calculates MPG too high, sometimes too low so I go by the cumulative fuill-ups and miles traveled. My odometer reads about 3% lower than actual distance so you can add 3% to my MPG figures. This includes more than half winter driving, idling to defrost windows and much of it in the snow and cold rain going through the mountains. Now that summer is here it looks like my average is closer to 34-35 mpg. Of course the highest advertised MPG figures for the CX-5 are with the manual transmission, FWD and 2.0L engine. I have AWD, auto and 2.0L. You cannot expect to get the same figures with an engine that has 25% more displacement but I'm sure your MPG's will rise as the engine wears in and especially after 5,000-7,500 miles when you do the first oil change. I recommend the Mazda 0W-20 w/moly. It costs a little more but you'll likely get that back and then some with fuel savings.

Also, make sure your tires are fully inflated (measure stone cold) and avoid heavy tires/wheels and exterior appendages that can add drag. This is true of any vehicle and I am always amazed when I see people with all kinds of crap bolted on to the exterior of their vehicle that is rarely in use. It makes a huge difference in HWY MPG.

 

[nXt]

Don't trust the trip computer.
Also you just got the car so it's probably not reset.
CX-5 has 14.5 gallons, and you said 21.5, well that would be 311, and you said you drove 385, so see, right there it's not right. so calm down.
If you divide 385 by 14.5 you'd get 26.5mpg. and that's if you use every single drop of it. which you didn't.

if you have a 2014 touring, set your dash setting to reset MPG on every trip reset.
calculate your mpg your trip and how many gallons you filled up.
Use the app fuelly.com

 

[V8toilet]

I drove my car through a full tank (roughly 400 miles) and use both the GPS on my phone and my Nuvi to track the miles. When I compared them to my odometer reading they only differed about .5%, which is pretty dam accurate.

Mike just curious but how do you figure yours is off 3%.

Vanguards, like Others stated the computer trip can be off a bit so calculating the actual mileage after a fill up is best. Also the mileage improves noticeably as the powertrain beaks in.

 

[VanguardX]

The day I picked the car up, it had 89 miles.

I just filled up last night, my first fill up. Lets see how well it holds up.


How many miles do you guys get before the first bar disappears on your fuel gauge? Mine disappeared around 44 miles. Same 60/40 highway city driving.

The first dank was on dealer gas fill up from "full" who knows if it was full to 3 small bars and got me exactly 250 miles.


I really hope I can get 300+ miles out of a fill up. My friends 2009 M3 gets 250 miles a tank lol.

 

[SayNoToPistons]

So, did you reset your gauge?

 

[Dr_Watson]

If you drive 50 mph on a flat road, what is the instantaneous mpg you get?

 

[Mogambi]

How does one reset the gauge?

 

[Dr_Watson]

Hold down info.

 

[under200]

I think the term "city" has a lot of wiggle room. For some city means doing 40mph and stopping for a light every 3 miles or so. Where for others especially in busy cites like Chicago, NY, L.a. etc. City means diving 1 block and stopping at a sign, driving another 4 blocks and catching a red light, etc..... I do about 80% city driving and consistently get about 22mpg per my trip computer.

 

[NinjaNoises]

The gas mileage out of my first few tanks were lower than average as well.

I have the manual 2.0L and average 27.1 mpg, as calculated by one of those iPhone fuel tracker apps.

For us in the bay area, highway driving is stop-and-go anyway. lol.

 

[HandA]

I think the term "city" has a lot of wiggle room. For some city means doing 40mph and stopping for a light every 3 miles or so. Where for others especially in busy cites like Chicago, NY, L.a. etc. City means diving 1 block and stopping at a sign, driving another 4 blocks and catching a red light, etc..... I do about 80% city driving and consistently get about 22mpg per my trip computer.

And for some it means creeping along and maybe taking 2 green lights before you get to go through the intersection and then the same at the next intersection and on and on.

I really hope I can get 300+ miles out of a fill up. My friends 2009 M3 gets 250 miles a tank lol.

I think the M3 holds about a gallon more than the CX5 so miles per tank aren't ever good to use for comparison.

I've mentioned it before that to get good mpg with the CX5 you can't just not lead foot it everywhere you have to embrace very smooth driving. It is very easy to drop the mpg on these and I've fluctuated anywhere from 31 down to 26 depending on my driving style. And the time with 26 I was not racing everywhere. I was just a little more impatient in my driving.

Also keep in mind that a 20% drop in MPG for your CX5 is nearly twice the number of MPG than a 20% drop would be in his M3. The higher the numbers to start with the greater a percentage drop will affect them.

 

[deepfriedsushi]

Here's how to properly figure out what % of hwy vs city driving.

According to the EPA test cycle average speeds of 21 MPH for the city cycle, and 48 MPH for the highway cycle.
If your car has a menu display for average speed, reset it when you fill up. At your next fill up, record the average speed for the tank, and use it to find your "true" city/hwy driving splits in the following formulas:
Percentage of Highway Driving = 100*(AVG SPD - CITY)/(48 - 21)
Percentage of City Driving = 100(1-(Calculated HWY%)).
Any average speed under 21 MPH is 100% city, and anything over 48 MPH is 100% highway driving.
For example: If at your next fill up, your average speed is 35 MPH, your city/hwy splits using the formula above are: 52% hwy, 48% city driving.
Repeating this at each fill up allows you to compare your driving on Fuelly directly to the EPA estimates, rather than guesstimating your city/hwy splits. It also gives you much more consistent results than guessing does.

http://www.fuelly.com/tip/555/Find-your-true-cityhighway-driving-splits

My driving is 87% city according to this calculation (done at every fill up) and I averaged 26.7mpg over my whole ownership (4000 miles on the odo now). I have a 2014 CX5 touring FWD.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/deepfriedsushi/cx5

 

[klk15]

lol I average over roughly 31 mpg city highway combined

 

[JohnJr]

Mine car is an awd 2014 2.5 and like most started with about 24 mpg and after 4,000 miles started going up. Now no matter how much I gun it or drive over 70 it always seems to end at about 26.8 mpg.

 

[MikeM.]

Mike just curious but how do you figure yours is off 3%.

Washington State has "Odometer Test Stations" which are nothing more than 5 miles of carefully measured mileposts on straight sections of freeways.

My 2013 CX-5 AWD with new winter tires (Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice WRT 225/65/17) inflated to 37 psi under reports distance traveled by about 3% (I haven't tested the OEM summer tires yet).

GPS is particularly good at measuring speed in a straight line (when there is good satellite reception) but not so good at measuring distance (or speed for that matter) if there are corners involved due to rounding errors.

In practical terms, this 3% error keeps the mileage on my odometer low which is good for resale and extends my warranty coverage in terms of distance. But it makes it appear as if I'm getting lower MPG than I actually am. Some vehicles do the opposite.

 

[mjh84]

Before getting this Cx 5 2 weeks ago, i always read how this car gets great MPG blah blah blah

So par, i put 385 miles on my car since buying it brand new 2 weeks ago.

My trip computer shows 21.5 MPG

This is about 60% highway and 40% city

The city driving is very smooth too...not too much stop and go and flooring the gas.


Whats going on here? Is this normal? I see people getting well above 25 with mainly CITY driving. Or are people just driving at 40 MPH everywhere? lol


2.5 AWD model

Depending on where you live, there might be up to 10% ethanol mixed in with the gasoline as well. That's how we roll down here in Houston b/c of the high traffic volume. I know there are other large urban areas that do the same. That kills your gas mileage a little as well b/c it is a less efficient fuel. It's probably not the main reason, but it could contribute.

I don't pay too much attention to other's gas mileage's here b/c it seems to me like a lot of people here have heavy highway usage. MY Fuelly doesnt show it yet (b/c i just got mine and tested it on the highway a lot), but i do mainly city driving (85-90%) normally. So my mileage will be a lot lower than most folks.

I will say that i took a 300 mile road trip with 3 adults and 3 sets of golf clubs going 75 most of the way and got 26.8 mpg. I don't consider that great at all, but it is right in line with what my 2010 Mazda3 (2.5L engine as well) got on the road.

I am hoping that people on this board are right when they say that the mileage gets better when the engine breaks in. I won't know that until later this year however.

 

[MikeM.]

Depending on where you live, there might be up to 10% ethanol mixed in with the gasoline as well. That's how we roll down here in Houston b/c of the high traffic volume.

The ethanol is in almost all gasoline in the US. It is not a function of high traffic volume - it's that alcohol is cheaper than gasoline. Stations that sell pure gasoline have considerably higher prices (and sell less fuel as a result).

Also, the EPA MPG test cycles use ethanol.

 

[Lando]

Over 16,000 miles and averaging over 32 mpg. The computer is always a bit optimistic, but Fuelly uses real data - miles and gallons used.