This is what happens when one idiot makes news. That law was probably written and intended for big rigs. They use the engine as a brake on downgrades. Someone probably coasted in neutral, picked up too much speed and probably killed a few people when lost control and voila you get that law.
Lawmakers have this knee jerk reaction when something like this happens and pass a stupid law with unknown and unexpected consequences. I seriously doubt that anyone will EVER get a ticket for coasting in neutral. What you'll get is cited for failure to maintain control when the coasting leads to something bad.
In most cars the engine provides very little braking as opposed to big rigs. The gas you might save when coasting in neutral in negligible.

 

The reason is simple. If your car happens to shut off in neutral... you are going to get one or 2 pumps out of your brake pedal and in a case of an emergency, that's not enough stopping power. Leaving it in gear on the otherhand, whether your car is on or off... it will still produce enough power (or vacuum) to use your brakes.

If you look at your rpms while in neutral and the car running and coasting down a hill... hit your brakes and you should see a dip in the RPM reading.

 

Devo, you're sure about that? It may have been the case before ABS but many new cars have an auxillary pump for the brakes (and other things) and that only works when the ingnition is on (regardless if the engine is running or not, in gear or not). So you might have plenty of vacuum but the electronics that actually control the brakes are off because the ignition is off.

 

hehe.... yeah i'm sure... and no your ABS (that's why I laughed ) will not work with the car off but your BRAKES will... as long as it is in gear. I think all brakes systems are designed this way so that no matter what... you have a way to stop your car.

 

Fairly cool discussion here--so here is my take. I have a 6mt and love to coast upon stopping and huge downgrades where I will not be using the brakes. The low .26 cd of the TSX makes coasting really cool and I am always challenging my wife on my ability to get 32 mpg consistently while she gets 27. That is amazing difference between two people.

Oh, and a law forbidding it in CA is simple. A plumbers saying it that the "the code protects the idiot". With a high performance well maintained TSX one is not really causing a hazard are they?

My true wish is for a real 6th overdrive or a seventh gear. The TSX could easily get 40 mpg with tall top gear.

INKY

 

Devo, of course the brakes will always be there but the normal power boost might not be if the electronics controlling them is not. One of these days everything will go to DBW like the throttle (BMW is half way there with Active Steering) and then you really have to worry about the electronics.
I saw a thread on the TL side which mentions milage in the high 20s. WTF people with a TSX get worse milage? I'm with Inky, need a higher final gear. My Accord 5sp turns lower RPMs at 80 than the 6MT TSX.

 

I don't see a day any time soon where there won't be a mechanical connection between your foot and the brakes on your car... same goes with steering.

I agree... power boost will not be there. You will have to work the brakes but it is a lot easier to work the brakes while the car is in gear than while it's in neutral.

Also, I don't understand why the 6th gear on any Honda/Acura's isn't a huge overdrive gear. Leave 1-5 close ratio and 6th being a cruising gear.

 

It' already here: A good numbers of MBs have BBW (brake by wire).

 

I don't think it's a completetly electronic. I believe that it assist you in that it can aid you in an emergency stop (example, you hit the brakes hard... the computer senses this is an emergency stop so even if you let up on the pedal the computer still applies the brakes as if you didn't). So a complete electronic failure doesn't render you without brakes.

 

Either that or the system default mode is to fully engage the brakes... so in an event of failure you come to a complete stop... so not totally electronic, there is a mechanical failover system.


In this article, they explain the failover system.

read


it's kind of neat... so i guess the future is already here.

 

have any of you tried to steer or brake without power? it's nearly impossible... and there's no way you're going to be able to brake at 65MPH.

 

Aw come on. Let it go. Nobody coasts down in Neutral with the engine turned off, that is obviously ridiculous and dangerous. Only time when it would happen is when you'd run out of gas.

 

yes i've tried and no it's not impossible or nearly impossible... it's actually quite easy.

now... if you try to brake with no power and in neutral then yes you are correct... but put it in gear with no power and it will brake just fine (NO ABS but who cares).

As for steering, until you are nearly at a stop, steering is very easy.

 

are you insane? you're able to stop a 3000 pound vehicle with one foot? (no power steering).

 

You know...there was a time WAAAY back when (1985) when not all cars had power steering or power brakes.

 

I don't understand what braking and power steering have to do with each other... I assume you mean no power braking.

Anyway, yes you can stop a car in gear with your brakes quite easily. It's designed that way. I don't understand the confusion?

As for steering... a moving car is very easy to steer at speed. If you were to remove the belt for power steering on your car you will notice it's difficult at slow speeds to turn because the steering ratio gears are very small because they count on the power assist... but once up to speed you don't need power assist steering.

 

I average 25 in my 6M in stop and go freeway miles (I commute up and down 101 on the peninsula) I can get 30-31 on the freeway averaging 75 mph if I work at it a bit.
I use 91 from anywhere (wherever it is cheap) and tires are set to 32 front, 30 back as listed on the door frame, and I drive like my grandma, who had her license suspended for too many speeding tickets.

Maybe it's not apples to apples, but I think you should be getting better mileage than what you are getting, and I recall reading that the auto is supposed to get better mileage than the manual -for the basic reason that 6m owners would drive more agressively.
Talk to the dealer yet?

 

Well, it looks like my thread here got a little off subject, but there's been a good debate that's been going back and forth it seems about coasting and braking and such- anyway...

I'm going to not worry about my mileage until I get through break-in (I'm just over 500 miles now- gonna take it easy until I hit 1K). Then I'll blow the cobwebs out of the thing and get a couple more tanks of gas through it- at that point if I'm still hovering around the 16-17 MPG thing, I'll definitely have to investigate this further...

 

Just picked up my 6sp a week ago and the first tank is at 28.6mpg, mostly highway which I've tried to emphasize during the break in period, generally cruising between 70-85 makes for good break in conditions (w/o cruise ctrl). I did take it into work a couple of days where there was a bit of stop and go thrown in which really isn't as good for break in.
You've probably got a really tight engine that'll loosen with time and your mileage should improve with it. Take that car on some longer highway cruises altering your speed along the way...that'll make your engine very happy !
:P

 

Well, I finally filled up my TSX (since I started this thread, I've been telecommuting so I haven't been driving much) and I got 23.8 at this mileage check. So I'll chalk up that first mileage check to some really bad LA traffic and still being in early break-in mode. I'm going to keep monitoring this for a while though...

 

I get awesome gas mileage about 26-28 MPG in city driving. I drive my car really hard to. After reading a lot the posts on this website I see a lot people complain about there TSX I have to say I love my car it is the greatest I have no problems with. I have had it since the end of may and have 20,000 miles on it. I drive a lot. I guess on your gas issue I always use 91 octane and usually put Chevron unless I can't find one then it is Shell or Exxon. I also don't ever check the air in my tires so I have not a clue how much is in there.

 

Hmm here in SoCal the best I have been able to get on a 5AT is between 22 and 25. I do a mix of freeway and city driving however.

 

22.95 MPG which is significantly worse than my Volvo at 23.5 MPG over the same route....

Gas is cheaper than the bottled water in the cupholder. I don't know why I still bother to log this in.

 

I live in SoCal and I am stuck in terrible traffic all the time. I drive the 6MT. My average has been around 22mpg. On days where I don't; have to drive around stop and go traffic, i get about 24+mpg

 

I have 12 000 miles on my TSX, I always got 27-28 mpg on 91 octane usually Safeway, with 34 psi all around.

 

I live in LA and only get about 17 mpg consistently but almost all of my driving is stop and go street driving as my commute is only 10 miles each way. I agree-pathetic.

Freeway driving is much better but I don't do much of that.

 

the car is marketed as 23 mmpg on city traffic. the gas warning light comes on with around 4 gallons of gas still in the tank, so you can get close to another 100 miles even with the warning light on. this car is amazing. no real problems and a good priced car.

 

The reason I bought the car is that I thought it would get good gas mileage cause it is a 4 cylinder instead of a 6. I better check how I'm doing in the mpg dept.

 

I have now 8,000 miles on my TSX. When I drive in the city I get 16.5 mpg per tank. When I drive on the freeway I can get up to 29.8 mpg on a tank of gas. That is a huge difference. I do admit that in the city I do drive very "spirited" while on the freeway I set the c/c at 80 and coast. I do wish that I did get a little better milage in the city. Otherwise this is still the best car I have ever owned.

 

My week old TSX did almost 26mpg with 60% hwy / 40% city driving. I like the range.... I drove 300 miles before I needed to fill up and it was still a quarter of a tank left. I'm in the NYC area.

 

Mine has only 400 miles, and I am getting about 28 mpg with mixed driving to work and back. That's great, and look forward to much better after full breakin.

 

I am now at 20XXX miles and avg. 30 mpg in Houston traffic. I am titcled to get that in stop-n-go traffic ith my 6MT. My daily drive is about 74 miles RT.

 

I get around 29-30 mpg for mostly highway driving. Perhaps the difference between stop-and-go mileage and regular highway mileage is greater on the TSX than on most cars, since it has that drive-by-wire throttle that seems to send a lot of gas to the engine when you start from a resting position to give it that quick burst of acceleration at take-off.

 

Just to continue this topic....picked up my car in early May...my first tank was a lousy 17 MPG for 70% highway, 30% city driving. I'm at 2800 miles now, averaging 28 MPG for the same ratio of highway to city driving. Now I drove the car to our vacation destination...all highway and averaged 33 MPG. Just about where the specs say it should be...so give the engine some time early on to break-in and get accustomed to your driving. I think the dealer told me not to expect decent mileage until the car has 1000 miles on it.

 

Just to continue this topic....picked up my car in early May...my first tank was a lousy 17 MPG for 70% highway, 30% city driving. I'm at 2800 miles now, averaging 28 MPG for the same ratio of highway to city driving. Now I drove the car to our vacation destination...all highway and averaged 33 MPG. Just about where the specs say it should be...so give the engine some time early on to break-in and get accustomed to your driving. I think the dealer told me not to expect decent mileage until the car has 1000 miles on it.

 

i normally avg 27mpg 60/40 city/highway...recently on fill up i've drove the car really really hard in the city managed 19-21mpg.

 

I typically get 20-22 in town, with relatively small amount of time stopped in traffic, but speeds rarely over 50 mph, and lots of traffic lights, several hills. I have 6MT. On highway at a careful 70 mph, runs about 29 mpg. Very little reduction at steady 78 mph, but some gain at 60-65 mph. Note for highway drivers, the auto is actually better on gas at highway speeds. Top gear in the 6MT runs higher revs at the same vehicle speed than the auto, because the gear ratios are so close. About 3000 rpm at 70 mph for the 6MT. Very unusal. Most 6-speeds have a very overdrive 6th gear that is higher (lower numerically) than the top gear in the equivalent auto.

 

okie good now that I read all of these entrys, at least I know there is nothing wrong with me car, whew!!

 

17mpg is normal for 100% driving in town. I get over 30, though, in 100% freeway.

 

I live in South OC & drive 45 miles each way to work. Nearly all toll road or RT #5 and I am up the speed range. I do have a 6-speed but I never drop below 26.5mpg and go as high as 28 mpg. Not that mileage was that important but it's beeen beyond any expectation I might have had.