Hi all

fairly new to the Acura. I bought my 2023 A-Span in Sept of last year. Since then I can’t get a tank of gas to last more than 510km.

I don’t have a heavy foot and most of my driving is country roads so not a lot of traffic.

according to literature I should be getting much more out of a tank of gas. Initially I thought the car needed a period of break-in but after 14000km my gas mileage has not improved.

what kind of gas mileage do you get?

thanks

 

The gas mileage of the 3G RDX is pretty much universally disappointing. There are several threads here that discuss (and cuss ) it, a search will find them.

We're lucky to get 20 mpg in mixed suburban & freeway driving, very little stop & go. Maybe a little over 25 mpg on highway trips.

Our 2G with the V-6 did much better.

 

My wife's 2022's best ever (one time) highway miles was 27, matching the EPA rating. Usually more like 25. I had been expecting to get better than EPA, like my 2019 AWD VW -- also rated at 27mpg hwy, but always gets 32+ and up to 35 on occasion.

 

Im lucky if I get 500km/tank.
Currently average 10.5 in city, and I baby it

 

IMO, it is very difficult to quantify terms like city, suburban, highway, etc. and the impact of that style of driving on mpg. I actually don't care much what I get (it's decent) but twice a month of have to drive about 100 miles on the turnpike. So shortly after getting on the turnpike, I get onto cruise control at about 70 mph and then I reset the parameters for mileage. As best I can I avoid changing speed, allowing the cruise control to handle things. In about 17000 miles of driving a 2022 RDX base, doing this have yielded between about 27 to 28 mpg. I've minimized many of the variables, and the consistency indicates nothing major has affected the engine.

 

When I drive on highway I get 26-27 MPG, aspec sh-awd

 

What is triggering me is that my wife gets well over 700km in her 2023 BMW X3 and she has a heavier foot than I do.

Forgot to mention for our American cousins that my vehicle is AWD. We don’t get FWD in Canada any longer.

and I find it amazing how the EPA mileage is so far what seems to be what people are getting in real world.

 

Yup. I totally get what you are saying. What I am pointing out is that I am doing semi pseudo highway like driving, meaning I don’t change speeds often, there are no stop signs or traffic lights save a couple and I keep fairly constant speed albeit lower than highway speed. And I still don’t get even the city quoted mileage….

 

The gas where I’m at in Minnesota is 10% ethanol which will lower your gas mileage. Are you using ethanol free gas or is it a 10% mix?

 

The EPA long ago established that E10 gas, the 10% ethanol version, will get about 3% to 4% less miles/gallon than ethanol free gas of the same octane. So, what does that mean in numbers. Let’s say you get 30 mpg on ethanol free gas; a 3% decline would mean you lose 0.9 mpg or about 29.1 mpg. A 4% decline would take you down to 28.8 mpg.

One contributing factor, and I haven’t seen this brought up, might be that many of these vehicles are being driven with the A/C operating. By default the compressor will run when you select “Auto”. You must hit the A/C button to disable the A/C compressor operation. Now, in most instances that will release a lot of moisture into the cabin causing the windows to fog up. Stick with it, open a window and after a few minutes your dusting will dry up and the interior will be fine.

 

You're right, John. Our numbers are with the A/C running, esp in the summer...it gets pretty warm here in the desert...so I'm sure that has a sizeable effect on mpg. It's pretty hard to turn it off when it's 110+ outside.

 

The numbers are I am quoting for my car in Canadian winter and Costco gas.

 

The RDX has a tank capacity of 64.7 litres. If you drove until the tank was empty, your fuel economy would have been 12.6 L/100k. However if you drove until the "low fuel" warning light came on (approx 10% fuel remaining or 6.5 litres), your fuel economy would have been 11.4 L/100k, which is pretty much what I am getting. (20.6 MPG).

Your comparison to other owners would be much more meaningful if you actually posted your fuel economy in L/100k or MPG. Also specify if you are quoting the economy shown on the display, or if you are doing the math after filling up. I have recorded the distance and litres consumed for every fill up since June 2019, and I know that the RDX computed value rarely matches the mathematical value.


Some reasons you see this poor economy would be:
-You live in Canada so so may idle longer to allow warm up before driving away. Perhaps you use the remote start frequently.
- Canada uses winter fuel blends which decreases fuel economy
- The 4 cylinder engine takes a long time to heat up and reach a fuel efficient temperature. I have seen it take a half hour at - 20C before reaching NORMAL on the temperature gauge.
- Winter tires degrade fuel economy. When I installed my Michelin CC2s, there was an immediate 1L/100k degradation in fuel consumption.
- Your tire pressure may be lower than optimum. If you inflated them in the fall, they could be several PSI lower due to colder temperatures.
- Driving through deep snow requires more power, and therefore more fuel. Likewise spinning tires on ice is a waste of fuel.

 

Excellent and concise post. I will add some data to obervations in the next day.

 

The X3 mileage is underrated. In 241 miles of mostly highway today, I got a hair below 35 mpg on ECO PRO!