I bring driving my 2005 Rl for a month now and have over 1000 miles on it - love but I have noticed that although I do 90 percent or move of my driving on the highway I am getting 19 MPG. That's not close to the 28 MPG that Acura cliams. In the City, I am getting about 17. I usually cruise at around 80, buy since the RL is new, the first 500 miles where at around 60 or less! It made no differance. Anyone getting better?

 

Where are you getting your estimated MPG numbers from?

Acura lists the RL at 18 mpg city/24 mpg highway.

 

Actually for 2005 the RL is 18 / 26 mpg.

http://www.acura.com/models/model_sp....asp?module=rl

 

I just made a 2,000 mile round trip - interstate speed, mostly 75mph, my average mpg was 24.3 - I was extremely pleased with that number

 

Oops, punched it in wrong. Thanks for the correction.

 

also remember those MPG numbers are usually when going speed limit, so about 55-65. If you're doing 80 on the highway, you will be getting lower than the posted highway fuel economy

 

Yes, I read somewhere that for every 10 mph you go above 60mph, you lose 1mpg. Don't know how anyone figured that out

 

pretty sure you lose a lot more than that.

Think about it. I get about 30 mpg at 60 in my cl so doing 120 i would be getting 24 mpg? Doubt it

The ratings on the stickers are crap, whole system has to be redone.

 

In real life where there are traffic, hills, and heavy right feet behind gas pedals, you rarely get close to the advertised MPG numbers. Besides, the gas milage should improve as the engine slowly finishes the break-in process.

Also, since temperature is dropping, so is your tire pressure, so you may want to check on that as well.

 

I tend to exceed the EPA estimates and I have a leadfoot

 

You are all correct. The MPG rating for the RL is 18 / 26. I was thinking of the TL that I was looking to buy before I saw the RL in the dealership. I guess I am the one.

 

Also, the MPG gets better as the engine "breaks-in", so expect better results.

 

Coming in late on this post, but I have a 2005 RL that has 3500 miles on it now. My mileage on teh car since I bought it is around 18.5. My driving is a mixture of 70% highway and 30% city type driving. In the last two tankfuls I've only gotten 16 to 17 miles per gallon and the driivng split hasn't changed. I'm wondering if it is a change in fuel...doesn't the fuel start getting oxygenated or something in late November in the north east?

Either way, my former 2002 TLS, WITH Supercharger averaged 22mpg in the same driving split. I really expected the RL to get at least 20. While I still absolutely love the car, I do wonder why it doesn't do a little better than 18 on average on mileage.

 

I think you're experiencing the cons of an AWD system. Added weight and more power to drive the other 2 wheels. I know my 3rd gen TL should probably get slightly better fuel efficiency, but I think a lot of it has to do with my driving as well, so it depends on how you're driving the car too, I'm sure its fun and you might be getting a lead foot!

Also, I have noticed on the new Acura's that the gas gauge is probably the most linear, meaning it gives you a more true indication of fuel amount in the tank (minus the reserve).

 

The gas mileage aside, the car also has a smaller highway range then I am used to. I seem to get about 320 miles a tank full. I wish they had a larger tank. Again this is the only issue I have with the car.

 

Keep in mind that the posted EPA mileage estimates are just that, estimates. There are too many factors, such as air temperature, presence of headwind/tailwind, road conditions, etc. that could affect the mileage, not to mention driving style. As long as you're in the ballpark on mileage, it's fine.

 

You might want to review your driving style for better MPG.

Check out this thread from .TSX, it might help you somewhat: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2182

 

I am still at 560 miles and will continue to check out the mpg with my short-trip suburban driving. Looks like about 16 mpg so far.

Gas tank is 19.4 gallons of premium fuel. MPG rating is 18 city/26 hwy (just confirming).

 

Well I probably paniced to early...my last two tankfuls have averaged 19.5 and 20.8 respectively. The overal average now over 4500 miles is 20mpg. Either I had a bad tank of gas or I was just a leadfoot for that tank, I'm not sure.

 

Might be your driving style. I've never gotten less than 30 mpg on my '03 TL.

I've never gotten less than 23 mpg on my '97 TL.

 

1) Check tire pressure. This can have a very significant impact on MPG.

2) As said before, MPG is usually the worst for cars during the break-in period. This "break-in" period can last up to 10,000 miles for purposes of MPG.

 

Indeed. The driving style plus the environmental factors would affect this final numbers. For example, in NYC, you'd never expect any car getting superior MPG everyday.

 

This was one of my concerns (mileage) that and it seemed underpowered. I bought the TL instead. Unfortunately my fears about mileage with respect to the TL seem to have been justified. The RL is a heavy car with little additional interior volume over the TL. What I don't understand is Acura expect the RL to be the flagship and showcase their technology they should have went the Variable Cylinder Management™ (VCM™) like they used in the Odyssey. By any chance did you notice the big giant Odyssey gets better mileage than the RL too and it weighs more than 10% more.

The mileage many of you are getting is worse than the Audi A6 Quattro I had and it definitely had a more powerful motor than the RL. While driving the RL I noticed that accordind to the trip computer that I probably would be luck to average 20mpg with my driving style (at best) and likely in the upper teens. My TL in the last 3 weeks since buying it has been in mid 20's with a lot of city traffic and high speed (+80mph) crusing.

Acura needs to adopt the VCM system for the RL ASAP. I wasn't super concerned about mileage as much as the potential miniscule crusing range. While my MB doesn't get great mileage because of the supercharged motor at least it has a big enough tank. If I had bought the RL I'd be refueling every 3 hours or so on a trip.

One last thing the thread relating to improving mileage as listed in the TSX forums has some notable inaccuracies. If you want to get maximum mileage while on the interstate it is best to accelerate rapidly (it doesn't have to be WOT but definitely not slowly) to your desired cruising speed if you are going to go at least 3-5 miles or more before stopping (so this applies definitely to the interestate or major limited access roads). While you use more fuel accelerating the vehicle but you reach your cruising speed more quickly and if you can maintain that speed for a few miles it more than offsets the fuel used to fairly quickly accelerate because even very modest acceleration dramatically hurts fuel economy.

 

I drove from STL to CHI, cruise control set at 75 mph, for 300 mi, and was amazed to see 28.0 mpg on the trip computer. the computer also told me I also had 175 miles left.

 

That is consistent with my experiences driving from Fripp Island, SC (near Beaufort) back to DC area, about 28-29 mpg, plumeting back down to 17 in suburban driving and 14 in stop and go.