I purchased an acura rdx awd 2013 about 3 weeks ago. I assumed that I would get great gas mileage on this car. I drive 60 mils to work everyday and it is all highway. The car has about 1300 miles on it and has not yet broken the 20mpg barrier on the in dash gauge. Is there a reason for this?

 

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/dimcorner/rdx

My dash gauge reads about 24-25 and I commute 15 miles one way. You could get it checked out but maybe it's traffic? Or sitting idle for extended time? Or maybe you have heavy right foot?

 

It should do better than that. A couple of thoughts -
Have you reset you mpg display. It can be programmed to be cummulative or reset to zero when the tank is filled. It looks like you have gone through about 4 tanks of gas and if that is cummulative it could be influenced by extremely low reading on the first tank from sitting at the dealership idling, test drives, etc.
Is you tire pressure correct. The pre-purchase inspection at the dealer should have set them correctly but you never know (many are overfilled from the dealer). Too low a pressure can hurt mileage significantly.
I have a FWD so I am not a good point of reference but I think you should be closer to Dimcorner in mpg. I did not notice a significant improvement in mileage with "break in". It has been ~22+ in town and 29+ on highway since day one with mid-grade fuel.

 

how do I reset the mpg gauge?

 

press and hold the sel/reset button on the steering wheel when you see the MPG number you want to reset.

 

You may also want to set it so that trip A resets when you fuel up.

We've been averaging 23.9 in stop and go traffic.

 

I can leave it on A or B I should leave it on A to get the accurate MPG?

 

Leave it on B for cumulative gas mileage(multiple tanks) and leave it on A to test a single tank or a highway road trip. Most of us have it reset A automatically with every fill up and hand calculate to see how accurate the MPG on the gauge is. I find the electronic MPG estimate is about .4mpg to high.

 

Did a trip from Cleveland to Port Clinton. About 75 miles freeway avg 34 mpg with three in the car.

 

When people say have them check it, what does that actually mean? I asked my dealer to check it, and he said I won't get optimal mileage until after I hit 10,000 miles (which seems like bs to me). I'm getting about 19 mpg on a mix of highway and street driving AWD 2013 RDX.

 

This is my 3rd Acura. 10,000 sounds about right for break-in with mpg average increasing during that time.

 

Mine is barely averaging 20mpg on the first tank and it had over 90 miles of highway driving in it. I definitely have been driving this thing like Ms Daisy too, and my MPG is awful. I'm hoping the second tank will garner better results. Most of my driving is stop-and-go 30mph to work through neighborhoods.

 

To validate what you're seeing on the MID, have you calculated your MPG yourself? (miles driven divided by actual gallons pumped into your tank.).

 

11 mile commute all city traffic, 19 mpg, although I have a lead foot.

 

I commute 94 miles daily, mostly highway and in winter was averaging 22 - 23mpg but since spring it is 25 - 26Mpg and I do 75Mph to 80Mph on the highway part of my commute.

 

Anyone seeing a major drop off in mpg using the AC? I know mpg takes a hit but i went from 17mpg to 13.

 

^^ Yikes...that is a big drop! Are you using the AC in your RDX to make ice cubes?

 

It's been in the very high 80's to mid 90's here for weeks and I'm seeing little to no impact due to AC.

For the Canadians that's high 25C to 30C

 

I drove 150 miles nonstop yesterday in 100 degree heat. AC on the entire time. I wasn't going to turn the AC off to test my gas mileage. But with the AC on got 36 mpg according to the car's mileage calculator! I'm impressed. The terrain was flat though. This is with about 3700 miles on my 2013 RDX AWD Tech using 91 octane. I can't wait to see what kind of mileage I get when the car is broken in.

 

Just did a round trip this morning from Columbia, SC to Charlotte, NC. Trip computer shows 31.5mpg averaging 63mph. This includes the slight traffic in the airport and semi-hilly terrain. This is also my first tank on 91 octane so the octane might be closer to 89 or so from all my previous tanks of 87. A/C on all the way @ 73F

 

Whoa!
What average speed were you traveling?
I do see this possible at a steady 55-60mph.

 

Average 60 - 65, had to slow a few times to 30 - 35 for traffic.
Whoa! That's a good way to put it. I thought the same thing as I looked at the mileage calculator at the end of the trip.

 

Were you coasting down a hill in neutral?

 

Nope, in fact I used the cruise control basically all the way. On the bigger hills I did decelerate a little going up and then picked it back up on the way down (using the cruise control buttons). At most I bled off about 5mph going up. Also no drafting since I don't want to pick up rocks and crap from trucks.

I did about 5mph over the limit the whole way, which means about 75 during the expressway portion.

 

I'm getting 16mpg (2013 AWD RDX) over the last 4500 (since 0) as per the trip B meter. Granted it's mostly street driving with about 15% highway, but mine seems awfully low. I asked the dealer and they said this is normal and will improve after 10k miles. Baffled over here.

 

Please tell me how to program the RDX to automatically reset Trip A to zero when I fill the tank. Thanks,

Gregg

 

I've so far been fairly unimpressed with what they claimed was actual MPG.

I'm at 800 miles now and barely average over 20 on three tanks. At one point I did all highway driving for an hour and it was barely making 24 mpg.

 

Select it on the center wheel stack (showing MPG and A-B miles) then hold down SEL/RESET.

 

Thanks. I guess I misunderstood an earlier message. I knew that I could manually reset A or B, but someone used the word "automatic" and I thought he/she meant that the RDX would somehow sense that the gas tank had been filled and would then reset A or B for me (if so programmed).

Gregg

 

The directions are in your owners manual starting on page 87 (2013 US).

 

That's exactly what it does. Read the manual.

 

Back to mileage...My Darling(who employs the 'straight from gas to brake to gas' style of driving) managed to score under 20mpg average during a typical trip around Austin. I'm sad to see that for the first time since our average usually hangs around 21 with mixed driving. In fairness, the A/C has been crankin' for the past few weeks; but I dare say the driving style is likely to blame. The 0-65mph highways around town don't help.

 

The dealership service advice of break in occurring at 10K resulting in better mileage appears to be accurate in my experience. I've seen my mileage increase from an average around 22-23 to 25-26 in suburban low traffic 45-50 mph driving.

 

On the return trip, I only got 32.8 mpg. Average speed 63 mph. AC on entire time. A little stop and go. Maybe it was more uphill. Or maybe because the average temp was only 75 degrees (not 100) the air was more dense and offered more wind resistance, cutting down the mileage. Again, I can't wait until my RDX is broken in at 10,000 miles and I start get really good mileage. :-)

 

RDX2013 .. I think you're very lucky, something about ur RDX is above average than most of us here.

Maybe the Acura factory made a mistake and dropped the 4cyl CRV engine in yours?

 

I guess I am lucky. This was also all fwy driving. I barely used the brakes and tried to keep the instantaneous mpg as high as possible by being very gentle on the gas. I can get the instantaneous to 5 mpg if I floor it with the AC on. My brother-in-law has a 2010 CRV and the best hwy mileage he has ever obtained is 28 mpg.
I hope I stay lucky.

 

I have a 2014 RDX with 500 miles and drive city and some highway so far and have yet to show over 17mpg on the dash gauge. Yet, I see what others claim to be getting. I don't know what to say....yet. I'm more concerned with the suspension that sounds like the wheels are going to fall off on a slightly bumpy road.

 

techman707, how bout try this:
Cruise control at 60mph on a flat stretch of hwy, your instant mpg read meter should AT LEAST be at the 30mpg marker.
If not, something might be wrong.

 

27 in the city and 33 on the road at 65MPH in Regular mode and it goes down by 5 on Sport mode but much more fun

 

We bought our 2013 RDX with FWD and Tech about a month and a half ago. We finally went on our first trip (roughly 1300 miles). We got about 30 mpg (between 29 and 31 for the various fill ups). Hopefully it will get even better after it's broken in (it's got less than 3,000 miles on it).

Gregg