Stop and go winter city driving is bad for fuel economy.

 

A lot of guys exaggerate their fuel economy online.

Non-hybrid Civics get 20-30 mpg in the city depending on how congested your city is and how long your trips are. Short trips in Manhattan, you will be lucky to get 20 mpg. Gasoline powered cars simply do not do well in stop and go traffic, despite what you may read on the internet.

if you limit yourself to 70 mph on the highway, 40 mpg is doable.

Take you car for a long highway cruise after filling the tank at no more than 70 mph and if the mileage is near 40 mpg there is nothing wrong with your car.

 

yes, that's right. cvt has gone a long way to improving stop and go mileage, but it's just a lot of work to accelerate a civic up to 20mph repeatedly (try doing it with your legs and see!)

speed make a difference on the highway like you said. 70mph is pretty decent but the energy needed starts going up exponentially. i did a quick day trip to cape cod to see a friend and, pressed for time, i targeted 80mph. probably not able to get above 35mpg that way. and then it goes the other way too: steady cruising at 45mph is a very, very efficient speed. you won't be doing that on the interstate, but perhaps a state highway.

approaching 40mpg at 70mph is a good benchmark. my experience is with the 2.0. not sure if the 1.5 would be better or worse; the epa rating is slightly better on it.

 

1) Don’t take everything you read on the internet as truth. A lot of people like to brag about their mileage.

2) On gas powered cars your mileage varies greatly depending on your driving habits. Expect 20 to 30 mpg in town depending on how long your trips are and how much stopping and starting you do. On the highway between 50 and 70 mph you should get 35 to 40 mpg.

3) To confirm that your car is ok, take it for a 1 hour drive on the highway between 50 and 70 mph and hold 1 speed. You should get at least 35 mpg.

 

My mileage was worse than that until it was broken in. Once it was past 750 miles it slowly rose. Now I don't get anything below 30 mpg on winter gas.

Just give it time and drive it, the mileage will get better. Check your tire pressure as well.

 

Entirely boils down to your driving behavior. Has nothing to do with break in, nothing to do with eco mode being on or off, or having to counter things like a different throttle map.

Reasons for poor fuel economy:
#1: You brake too much. This is the single biggest factor regardless of driving conditions. If you want to see an immediate, massive improvement in fuel economy, reduce the need to brake. That means coasting to a stop as early as you practically can, or keeping distance between you and the cars in front of you, so if traffic slows down, you don't need to bleed speed with your brakes.

#2: You spend a ton of time idling. Either in park with the car on, or your driving consists of tons of stop and go. Self explanatory; you're burning fuel without traveling any distance and this will bring your average MPG down.

#3: You don't hold speed when you should and spend a lot of time speeding up and slowing down. Same concept as braking excessively, but even in situations like on a highway cruise, if you're varying your speed and squirting throttle here and there, you'll bring your average down.

#4: You aren't cruising in the proper gear (for manual drivers). On something like the Si, cruising RPM should easily fall into the 1500-1800 range below highway speeds.

#5: You're carrying excessive load in the car. Tons of luggage, materials, chunky passengers, dead bodies, whatever. Drop em off.

Everything else is the small stuff. Leaving the windows down while having the A/C on causing drag and wasting efficiency on powering the A/C. Break-ins. Eco mode. All that stuff accounts for nothing in the grand scheme.

Anybody here getting outlying fuel efficiency is just driving selectively hard or hypermiling. All of our cars should be getting the same efficiency lol. And if someone's commute consists of spending a ton of time going 45-50mph without having to stop, they're going to have an insanely high average MPG versus the guy spending 80% of his commute in LA/NYC stop, or the guy that routinely goes on cross-town highways at 85mph.

 

What you posted is pure horse shit. Honda will tell you that their sticker info is simply “misleading.” Poor mileage on Civics is disappointing. 👎🏼

 

Very hard to compare published numbers this time of the year in Canada. You need lots of warm up time for the engine to get most efficient, winter fuel blends, and idling kill fuel economy. Do you hit any Tim Hortons drive-thrus during the week ? Drive-thrus kill fuel economy numbers just like idling and remote start warm-up, Do you have remote start ?

Cold winter temps combined with winter fuel blends reduce fuel economy by at least 20-30% , then add in the other driving conditions to make it even worse. Colder temps mean denser air with more oxygen, so the engine adds more fuel. It reverses in summer temps and the engine reduces fuel when ambient temps are hot. All of my vehicles are down a good 30% from summer fuel economy, and I live in a warm part of Canada, your region may be worse.

Remember to check and pump up your tire pressures in cold winter temps as they are likely lower, tire pressures drop with colder temps, 35 psi measured cold is what I run.

 

Very hard to compare published numbers this time of the year in Canada. You need lots of warm up time for the engine to get most efficient, winter fuel blends, and idling kill fuel economy. Do you hit any Tim Hortons drive-thrus during the week ? Drive-thrus kill fuel economy numbers just like idling and remote start warm-up, Do you have remote start ?

Cold winter temps combined with winter fuel blends reduce fuel economy by at least 20-30% , then add in the other driving conditions to make it even worse. Colder temps mean denser air with more oxygen, so the engine adds more fuel. It reverses in summer temps and the engine reduces fuel when ambient temps are hot. All of my vehicles are down a good 30% from summer fuel economy, and I live in a warm part of Canada, your region may be worse.

Remember to check and pump up your tire pressures in cold winter temps as they are likely lower, tire pressures drop with colder temps, 35 psi measured cold is what I run.

Car calls for 32/33 psi?

 

I bought my civic sport touring 6-speed manual six days ago (hooray!). Living in the mid-Atlantic states, I can confirm around 40 mpg on a mostly-highway 70 miles yesterday. But it's been below 30 mpg for stop and go short drives. Small sample so far, I'll see what happens in the longer run.

 

Mine started really low like that and gradually increased as the time passed. I get about 28.3 on our Civic Sport Hatch (~3k miles) and we get awesome 36.5 miles on our Civic Touring Sedan (13k miles).

 

Mine started really low like that and gradually increased as the time passed. I get about 28.3 on our Civic Sport Hatch (~3k miles) and we get awesome 36.5 miles on our Civic Touring Sedan (13k miles).

Per my earlier post - when people say this, it is basically the driver (likely unconsciously) adjusting how they drive to fit how the car behaves.

The car isn't "breaking in" its engine, transmission, suspension, etc., to give you 33% more miles per gallon after a few months... You're making better use of its sweet spots and avoiding the, ... sour patches? Whatever is the opposite.

Do things "settle in" for a new car? Sure. But for fuel economy purposes, probably around 1 MPG or so in impact, and over the first 500 miles at best. If you see steady improvement over the first three months in MPG, ... dude, it's you, and it's nothing to be ashamed about, it's normal.

 

I just bought my 2024 civic sport touring hatchback in manual transmission and it says I only get 18mpg. I drove 80 miles today. Everyone on the freeway seeemed like they were driving in reverse. Strange. Oh well. It was fun af. I didn’t buy this car for the mpg. I bought this car to rev high and go fast. It’s a turbo civic. What did you expect me to do? my cars bone stock right now. But with each paycheck, im Going to turn her into a beast! Vtec turbo dohc. Is this for real life?

 

I have virtually the same issue. I now hate Honda Customer Assistance. 👎🏼👎🏼 oh incidentally, mine has 4600 miles on it with many 300+ mile trips. Never more than 27.2 MPG. 👎🏼🤣🤣

 

About 25mpg here, mostly around town. Short commutes. 2.0cvt hatch.

I expect it will get better on the highway. But if it can't beat my Subaru getting 33 highway, 23 city, it'd be a disappointment ..

I find for very short trips, which is what we use it for (school, shopping, no commuting) - none of my cars would achieve over 25. It's simply not optimal to move 3000lbs of anything from 0 to 40 and then back to 0 six or eight times in a row.

 

your driving in the city. try driving on the highway.

 

I get into my wife's Civic and cluster says she's getting 35 mpg even now. I start driving - and drops like a rock. My own Civic with my short commutes is at 23-23 right now.

 

My 2022 civic sport gets worse MPG's on economy than normal and that is on long (5hr) trips I do everyother week. Car currently has 19k miles on her. Weird.....

 

You're probably using more gas (getting on the accelerator pedal) to overcome the auto-deadening of throttle that ECON mode applies, than driving normally with regular mode would do.

That's all it is. ECON mode is not some magic "and now you drive the same but use less gas!" thing, it's making the car slower/less responsive to throttle and slower to accelerate, assuming if you're the type to race stop light to stop light, this will make the car smooth things out for you.

ECON mode does pretty much nothing cruising at highway speeds compared to normal mode, but if you're regularly trying to pass people, it will make you use MORE gas to do it because you've told the care that's not your goal (ECON mode = "I want moderate pace, steady state driving pls").

 

First of all, your car is brand new and the engine hadn’t broken in yet. Your mileage will be low for a bit.
Secondly, take that ECO shit off and leave it in NORMAL. I only drive in normal and I average around 37mpg on the highway.

 

I recently purchased a 2022 Honda Civic normally aspirated 2.0 ltr hatchback w/manual tranny and am experiencing very similar mileage numbers. I was caught by surprise at those values as well, and with one oil/filter change at 1100 miles and one planned at approximately 2200 miles, I'll keep an eye on any change in mileage numbers either way. I do expect as the engine accumulates miles, mileage numbers should climb at least with steady highway driving. I'll update this thread as the miles accumulate. Keep in mind, there are two different engine/transmission configurations which influence the mileage numbers achieved. The 1.5 ltr turbo w/the cvt/manual transmissions and the 2.0 ltr normally aspirated engine with both transmissions used depending on the vehicle designation/drivetrain configuration. As stated in other threads, driving conditions and other factors influence the numbers you experience as well. Honda has been at this for a good long time, so I do expect the mileage to climb over time.

 

What is the most likely "degree of freedom" to explain surprisingly poor fuel economy in a brand new car, versus "what everybody else gets", or "compared with every other car I've driven before"? The driver.

There is most likely some kind of driver behavior or use pattern thing at work, because these are combustion engines. Saying "there's something wrong with the car for me to get this kind of fuel economy!" (especially a brand new one) should be both highly unlikely, and relatively obvious.

And that is NOT throwing shade, like me saying "learn to drive, numbnuts!". Every car model is configured and tuned differently. What was the "sweet spot" for performance/economy in one car can be very different for another, even from previous generations of the same model, even if you have a 2.0 NA 11th Gen and used to drive an earlier gen NA Civic.

I recently purchased a 2022 Honda Civic normally aspirated 2.0 ltr hatchback w/manual tranny and am experiencing very similar mileage numbers. I was caught by surprise at those values as well, and with one oil/filter change at 1100 miles and one planned at approximately 2200 miles, I'll keep an eye on any change in mileage numbers either way. I do expect as the engine accumulates miles, mileage numbers should climb at least with steady highway driving. I'll update this thread as the miles accumulate.

"Breaking in" a new car has almost nothing to do with fuel economy, it has to do with long-term engine reliability in terms of piston seating and whatnot.

These are combustion engines, so there are only three ingredients in making the car go: fuel, air, and spark. If you haven't noticed the car "going" badly - sputtering, stuttering, lagging, engine revving super high for no obvious reason, etc., - then it's unlikely one of those three things are mechanically wrong.

Specifically, if the fuel injectors were pumping more fuel than needed into the engine - running "rich" - you would notice a smell of fuel, rough or high engine idle, and weird engine response. (I know this from personal experience.)

My advice: refill your tank, reset the MPG reading, and spend at least half an hour driving around consciously focusing on coasting as much as possible. Foot completely off the gas unless you are accelerating, and "pulse" when doing so (take your foot off the gas as soon as you reach the speed you intended).

My guess is you're still lightly pressing on the gas pedal to maintain constant speed, as if you were going uphill, when you don't have to be doing it in this car. Other cars I've driven would quickly slow down with the foot off the gas and needed constant light throttle just to maintain speed, not this one.

Or maybe you have a fuel line leak. Hope you don't smoke!

 

Check your On Board Computer MPG against actual MPG (miles driven/gallons used), unlikely OBC is off. I have 1000 miles on mine now, did a check and have a 0.5 mpg difference (could be OBC or gas pump?).

I get 40 mpg on freeway (middle lane going the speed limit, no hills, Eco) and 30 overall and 23 in the city (lots of hills).

If you drive aggressively (which is OK, it's a fun car to drive) be realistic about your MPG it should be less than "slow lane" drivers.

 

I've had my 2023 EX for about 6 weeks. Odometer is at 388 miles). I have the MPG and "estimated miles left" status on the left dash. I have noticed that the MPG was at around 28 MPG when I dreove it in the first week or two and now it is up to 33.1MPG. I mostly drive locally and have yet to go on a highway. So my driving is stop and go with very brief stretches of 40MPH speed. I am not mechanically inclined but I believe this is a good trend. If I see any drastic changes I'll report on this forum.

 

Edit a reply to an earlier post I realized they have a sports sedan. The only option with it is CVT. I don't know maybe going up and down hills. Being in Canada it could be the fuel mix. I know they've got a very specific special winter blend.

Well another factor that is being overlooked. Especially when comparing numbers with others. The CVT transmission increases fuel economy. It outperforms a manual transmission in that regard. I'm not sure which one the op has. The 23 sport hatch has the option between the two. The manual does have an econ mode though. A cvt can make all the gear ratios the manual can and everything in between it can't. It can make an infinite number of gear ratios. Even a 2 mm shift of the steel clad belt is considered a gear change. Sometimes I look down at the RPM gauge. I think man are we really doing 55 mph at just above idle on the RPMs? When it does change its ratios it walks up through them all. The RPMs just hold very low and steady. That took some getting used to for sure. Is CVT More Efficient Than Manual Transmission? - Ask Car Mechanic

 

Avoid hard acceleration and brake only when necessary will help greatly on gas consumption. I used to get 50MPG with my golf wagon 4motion when cruising 55 MPH. Still pretty new with the 2023 SI, so really can’t comment on the civic…

 

Duplicate…

 

I driven my 23 sport hatch (2.0L) for 7000 miles and I get on average 25mpg with A/C on, definitely disappointed.

 

What fuel are yall running? They've got a lot of options now. I'm not a fan of the return on ethanol mixes. The days of a simple octane rating are over.

 

Costco 87 top tier since day one, my tire psi are correct as well. 10% ethanol mix here, you think for a civic it would be somewhat close to the 29 city with the CVT.

 

don't use econ unless you are cruising long distance on the hwy

 

My 2022 civic sport gets worse MPG's on economy than normal and that is on long (5hr) trips I do everyother week. Car currently has 19k miles on her. Weird.....

Dont drive on eco for long trips. Its meant for lower rpms so eco on the interstate will make ur car feel… sluggish. Use sport for highway driving