ecmproute

Hello,
Purchased the RDX last month. Took it for a long drive in the thanksgiving weekends.
My fuel economy is pathetic.
Normally my drive is in city. No highway. There I am getting 15mpg.
On the road trip, the max I got was only 23mpg.
My friend's BMW X5 got 29 mpg, and he is more heavy footed than me.
This SUV is more gas guzzler than a F150 truck.
Sometimes I feel the older V6 with Cylinder De-activation would have given far better mpg figures.
I wanted to check my tire pressure.
Currently cold PSI is 33. Should I put in more to set it up to 35 psi in cold?
Also, Honda seriously made some wrong promises.....
This car is not "luxury"....it is just expensive. I drove the CX5, and they have the same HP and Torque when using regular fuel.
Mazda also mentions if using premium gas one would get 271 HP.
Which is exactly the same. And for 35k you get the top end CX5 with every bit of features built in.
Seriously feeling very bad buying this car.
Its not even 1000 miles and the rear tire trim has loosened. Will have to take it to the dealer.
And the dealers are ruthless as hell.

Madd Dog

Fuelly shows most get 21-23 mpg, and I get around 22 in normal suburban driving. On the highway, I might get 25-26.


The X5 does not really do better, according to fuelly.

thoiboi

CX5 sounds like a good buy, maybe trade in the RDX for it

Starseer

I have FWD Tech but it should only be 1 mpg better than sh-awd. I get 21-22 in the city and 25.5 over the 1200 mile Thanksgiving road trip driving on highway and mountainous roads. What speed do you drive on your road trip? Do you use sport+ mode often?

ecmproute

I have never used any mode other than Comfort. During the trip, on a clear day and 101 highway, I got max of 23 mpg.
While coming back it was raining heavily, and my drive was mix of CA 1 and 101...got 20 mpg.
With AC turned off.
Will take it to the dealer tomorrow.

Ludepower

You need to drive on the highway my dude. Most cars get terrible mileage just city driving. I dont know how people get close to the advertised gas mileage for the city.

if I was a midget with no family then the CX-5 would maybe be appealing.

mnikhil416

I am driving 2020 rdx AWD in sport mode. I live in Seattle and I am getting around 20-22 mileage in city. but 15 is really bad, I suggest taking it to the dealer..

russianDude

I get around 24 mostly hw driving.
the rumor has it that mpg will slightly improve after first oil change since first oil has some factory molly stuft and engine is still breaking in.
next oil change, try mobil1 advanced fuel economy since if you get 0.5mpg improvement LOL

russianDude

ASPEC cold PSI is 36

AZ4035

NYC driving here, "city" and "highway" mpg does not apply here. A lot of the time I drive faster on local streets than the highway where its usually bumper to bumper or coasting at 15 mph. I average 15-16 mpg on my 20 mile daily commute, 93 octane. I had a 2005 Acura TL with a NA V6 prior and made the same commute and I got the same mpg. Driving in some places you'll never reach the advertised mpg because idling and bumper to bumper traffic just wastes too much gas. I even try to maximize the auto start stop feature as much as I can. However when I drove out of the city and just cruised om the highway for 100 mile+ trips I will average 26-28 depending what I set my cruise control to (usually I try to stay 75+, which is not economical).

I find that coasting (foot off the gas) and trying to maintain a speed where you dont have to brake as much as possible is the best way to stay economical but that kind of driving is mind numbing.

sonyfever

You run the car with lower tire pressure, do all-city driving, and get low MPG. That is kind of expected? 15mpg is low, but it all depends on how your trip is and how you drive the car. When I do stop-go city driving, I get around 16-18mpg

Not sure where you read CX5 turbo can do 271hp. It is 250hp on premium, and 22x on regular.

russianDude

With mu usual routine, I an getting about 1MPG better gas milage than 1st gen RDX I had. 1st gen was 240HP

SacRDX

We do pretty much just city driving too and get about 15-16 mpg. On the highway maybe 21-23 mpg at 75 mph.

supafamous

Same here. I was able to stretch it out to about 26mpg on a recent run but that was a lot of 55-65mph cruising.

anoop

@ecmproute mpg will improve as the miles go up. For a brand new car, I think you are OK. If you were going by what the computers show, they could be wrong. If you really care about this and want a fair comparison, only way to be to actually measure the consumed gas -- fill to max, note miles, drive, note gallons to fill to max, note miles, and compute.

flames9

then u will likely be even more disappointed as the "real" #'s are usually a few less than what the cars computers indicates...but yes thats the best way to do it.

russianDude

Anyone used Mobil1 AFE, they claim its optimized for fuel economy?

dugums

It will probably improve a little with time, but only a little. I was getting <15mpg for the first 3,000 miles or so. I'm now at around 16.5, but that is using Start/Stop in all situations except when it will be really annoying to. I have noticed that city observed economy is significantly worse vs. EPA rating than previous cars I have owned, but that highway EPA is better. The problem for me is that I really don't do a lot of open road driving. On the few road trips I had, I was only getting around 24mpg initially. I now get roughly the rated 28mpg (just factoring clear highway driving).

I was hoping to do better on the city side. There are a couple of ways to look at it and I think that the biggest issue is that the EPA ratings do not sufficiently capture the range of driving situations people have. My V6 port injected mini van rated at 17/24 netted the same economy for my driving. My wife's 2010 V6 RX350 also does about the same (within 1mpg). If I did more highway driving, that wouldn't hold true. I think it's important to realize the physics at play. My RDX, despite new weight saving strategies and the 4 cylinder engine, only weighs roughly 200lbs less then the other cars I mentioned. Despite it being a 4-cylinder, the engine actually makes more power than the V6's in the other cars. So, we have slightly more power, moving roughly the same amount of weight, which I think makes up a bigger proportion of the mpg calculation than most people would think (along with tires). The start/stop, direct injection, and other strategies that are more recent additions are effective, but not in a huge way especially in hard conditions (stop-and-go).

The CX5 comparison only really works on the surface (compact suv vs compact suv). In practice, the RDX has more usable passenger room, is nicer, etc. If the CX5 really suited your needs, well, you should have bought one. You should also beware of comparing your real world MPG to Mazda's EPA rating - many cars underachieve those ratings.

Cuzz

I have relatively low expectations. If I average 20-21 mpg I’ll be satisfied. My last car got 24 mpg, and it was a relative dog with 170hp and a CVT transmission. I like having the extra power of the turbo and understand that it comes with a sacrifice in mpg.

russianDude

1st gen rdx had worse mpg and less HP and torque. Not sure why people complain

russianDude

Its a luxury turbocharged AWD car with decent numbers for HP and torque. If you want to save money/environment, please buy toyota and stop complaining.

mathnerd88

This is not a conducive comment. Other even better luxury brands have better MPG numbers, and a lot of people, wealthy or not, want to make the environment greener and create less waste.

My Mercedes gets better MPG and it is a V6. BMW X3 has better MPG numbers than the RDX.

First gen RDX is about ten years old. I would imagine and expect MPG has improved significantly since then.

russianDude

As an example ...? ( with equivalent HP and torque numbers and AWD).

GrayBear

Something definitely doesn't sound right with mileage that low.
Now driving the 2020 SH-AWD Tech with under 1,000, and we are getting a combined 24 +/-.
Man, this is a great car! Turned in our 2017 RDX AWD for this and I am wowed at this point.
Most everything is better...handling, driver position, interior, and acceleration to my mind is on par with the V6.
So far, so good.

mathnerd88

Check out BMW X3. Better MPG numbers but 250hp, close enough and performance difference negligible. Combined MPG 27.

Ludepower

I get terrible gas mileage too but I'm not goin to cry about it and randomly talk about the cx-5

My expectations were low knowing full well I'm buying a fairly large SUV and that EPA ratings vary so widely depending on driving style, commute distance and traffic conditions.

My commute is 7 mins in downtown traffic and a gas tank last me 2-3 weeks. You need be realistic with your expectations.

flames9

Volvo XC60 T6...same MPG yet 316 HP, 295 lbs torque...going to cost u $10,000 more......buy a lot of gas with $10,000. Its now winter time....cooler temps play a role.....people let their car warm up longer.....dont check tire PSI..and in cold weather they do go down.....lot of stuff to take into consideration. Looking online,for the RDX it says "UP TO" 22 mpg in the city..... I think you will find as time goes on and one looks at their driving habits and the conditions, one MPG should go up....

russianDude

edmunds says that 2019 x3 combined is 25MPG.
rdx has 280 lb-ft torque, vs 258 on x3. Thats noticeable difference.

russianDude

XC60 T6 has good numbers with 23 combined. Its the same as rdx in MPG, but like you said cost more by 10k

Mark-RDX

I have 1700 miles on mine and the average is 17.5 MPG, I have an Advanced Package Model. I love my RDX more and more everyday. If I wanted great gas milage I would have bought a Honda Fit.

russianDude

I get pretty close to advertised numbers, so no issues with misrepresenting MPG

Madd Dog

Looking a fuelly, my mileage is right smack dab in the middle range.

What with the high profile/poor aerodynamics and always-on AWD, I was not expecting more. I would like more, but I don’t expect it.

mathnerd88

To the average joe, it wouldn't be that noticeable. My G37 with more HP and 10 ft/lbs less torque than RDX gas better gas mileage than the RDX in my real world testing.

BMW also advertises the X3 as 25 city and 29 highway, which is significantly better than RDX numbers.

leomio85

I haven't reset my trip meter since buying the car ... just over 5k miles. 30/70, local/highway. MPG show 21.7.

aqtran

I have a 2020 A-Spec with SH-AWD and I drive mostly in the city (70/30). I'm averaging 21.6 mpg. The RDX can get pretty good gas mileage for its power and size. It only suffers during stop and go but once you get up to speed, the transmission shifts to 10th gear with your foot slightly tapping the gas. I've gotten past 30 mpg on the highway on recent trips.

russianDude

So if you getting near advertised MPG, what is there to complain about?

Cuzz

Don't they also change the formula for gas in the winter in the cold weather areas? Make the mpg's go down.

flames9

I am originally from Northern Saskatchewan (Canada) and I know they do.

https://newsroom.aaa.com/2013/06/wha...lend-gasoline/

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a1...ine-explained/

lmacmil

My son is pretty disappointed in his mileage also (AWD). It's no better in town anyway than this 2011 Nissa Murano which was heavier and had a much larger non-turbo engine. OTOH, he lives in San Francisco so about half his city driving is going up steep hills, though you'd think coasting down would average out to flat terrain!

russianDude

is it way off from whats advertised?