I think the wife has lost it....

Not sure with others, but my wife gives a lot of throttle from a stop and is a 'gas or brake' style driver... never coasts.

She gets 30-31 mpg in her CVT Impreza.  I get 37-38.  

My wife always matches my MPGs. We both drive pretty slow though. The differences are she is much faster to hit the brakes and has a very digital approach to highway throttle inputs, I tend to be smoother but I also like to accelerate faster.

My Fit has one of those instant MPG gauges. Also an average rating. Both are optimistic. Our trip last week the car said 40.2, when the math at the pump said 37.49. I can't really complain.

In reply to barefootskater :

My bike is the same. It will read 50.7 but always works out to 49.x. This is the second Kia though that the avg readout is pessimistic. The '10 SX was always about 1mp lower than maths. This one is about 2. Her readout will show 32.2 and actual will be 34.1. So with it showing me 41.1 at lunch that might mean its closer to 43. At that point, we're pushing early hybrid mpg's at that point without the soulless driving experience. 

Keith Tanner said:

I have made the claim in the past that high cornering speeds are the secret to efficient driving, as they allow you to maintain momentum. Makes perfect sense but it's remarkably difficult to convince some people.

Passengers in particular can be hard to convince of this. Especially if maintaining corner speed requires letting the car drift out to the passenger side towards a narrow shoulder on corner exit on a mountain pass.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

My '17 Focus ST has forced me to change my driving style, actually FORCED me. The car holds revs at lower RPM's on top of recommending shifting based upon throttle input and speed. 

The rev hold becomes a pain because it doesn't like skipping shifts as I like to do in the Miata and other small engine cars, and the easiest way I've found to drive the car smoothly is to just go with what the car wants. 

the flip side of this that driving the way it wants and keeping the car out of boost has kept my average fuel consumption....even with 30-50% of my daily commute being in bumper to bumper crawling traffic...and the rest of the time being either freeway or Autocross runs.... my average mileage  has been above above 25.5 MPG by actual math, not what the car says. 

My step mom has a 2015 optima with the 6 speed manual and averages 36mpg. My dad drives it and vets 44mpg. My step mom is a lead foot

APEowner said:

Keith Tanner said:

I have made the claim in the past that high cornering speeds are the secret to efficient driving, as they allow you to maintain momentum. Makes perfect sense but it's remarkably difficult to convince some people.

Passengers in particular can be hard to convince of this. Especially if maintaining corner speed requires letting the car drift out to the passenger side towards a narrow shoulder on corner exit on a mountain pass.

You obviously understand the challenge involved.

I can beat my wife's mileage in her Equinox too. She's told me "she's never floored it"... but she is one of those late-brakers and doesn't ever let the car coast. I've resigned to just ignoring the road when she's driving because it irritates the hell out of me LOL

So maybe she's taking the wrong route. I had to go to her dentist to drop off paperwork, hit o'really's for some supplies for the truck for tonights work and a new gas cap (first one I've ever lost) and had to spend more time in S&G traffic this morning. It's down to 39.1. It was still at 40.3 when I got home/left this morning. 

Interesting side note.... I get appreciably less economy going home than coming to work. It's literally downhill to work, and uphill home. That little difference knocks the averge down. Home is ~890ft asl and work is 580. Not much, but you can see the difference when watching both the instant and average. 

Bob the REAL oil guy. said:

So I dropped her off at the airport this morning and am now DD'ing her car. She's been complaining that she is "only" getting 34mpg in mixed driving in her '14 Koup 2.0/6sp auto. Still as good as her 1.6L Rio and much faster and better in literally every category that can be measured. I filled it up, and have now driven home and to work. I'm averaging 41.1. What the heck woman? 

 

No matter what she is right.  Remember that.  

In reply to dean1484 :

that aint no lie. 

The problem with arguing with wives is that at some point they pull out the "do you want to see me naked again" card and win. 

Even if they don't pull the card its still up their sleeve and they let you guess if they used it yet or not.    If they say "fine" that's your tipoff.

jharry3 said:

The problem with arguing with wives is that at some point they pull out the "do you want to see me naked again" card and win. 

Even if they don't pull the card its still up their sleeve and they let you guess if they used it yet or not.    If they say "fine" that's your tipoff.

I have this one covered. She suffers from all sorts of ailments that require me to, at times, bath and dress her. So I win that one. 

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

I DD my '89 Suburban 4x4 50mi per day!  Feel your pain! Haha.

I only take the time to calculate mpgs when I'm bored. I will however, recalibrate my butt dyno just for the hell of it. #Priorities 

All you need is a vacuum gauge.

iceracer said:

All you need is a vacuum gauge.

For the pucker factor? I usually need that when I am testing the brakes. 

So this is curious. Second Kia in a row that I've owned that fuel economy goes in the crapper with rain. Same drive. Same inputs, same fastidious detail to keeping it high. Drops 4mpg. No lie. Average is down to 35.6 and getting it into lean cruise where the instant gauge is maxed while sustaining speed is almost impossible. 

How does this happen and why?

Air density increases from the increased humidity?

Tires have more rolling resistance on wet roads, so some mpg drop in the rain is normal.