Guys I am driving my TL for 3 days only !

Picked up with full tank and 5 mileson it. Now I have 150 miles and it's empty !
I was driving on highway and had 5 miles to go to my distination and saw trip comp. showed me 2 miles to empty, but I got home without refiling at gas station.

My 2 questions are:
Is it normal that I only drove 150 miles on my first tank ? (I wasn't driving crazy)
How much more or how many miles or how much gas is left in the tank when it shows you 0 miles to empty ?

P.S. - Is it possible that the dealer has put shity gas in my car like a regular gas 82 or smth. ?
I figured they don't have to care about type of gas, they have to make sure the tank is full and at no charge. Am I right ?

Thanks !

 

Personally, I've gone about 30 miles beyond the "0" indicator. Maybe it can go more...(I know it can), but I just don't want to test it out...I might as well stop being lazy and put some gas in...=)

And, my first tank lasted me around 170 miles. It gets better from there on (as long as you drive on the highway). I have observed 32 mpg on the highway, but only 15 mpg in the city.

Rest assured, the mileage does improve as you put some more miles on it.

 

they dont call you mad russian for nothin yea that is normal because the engine is still really tight, so your mpg is really gunna suck until it breaks in. On my cross country trip, i was averaging about 450 miles to fuel light, and thats with 10k miles on the car.

as far as goping past it, well they say its 18 gallon tank, and when i filled it once where it was reading 0 on the miles left, i filled up at 14 gallons.

there is no way your dealer would give you 82... hmm they are from brooklyn, nah just kidding... I havnt heard anything from here that said that their dealers were ripping them off on the cars first drink.

 

1. Lots of ppl get the similar results as you did.

2. You know I hate to see the similar topic having been brought up twice in the same day.

http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91439





Edit: Agree what Ron A said, below...

 

I don't think it is normal to get only 150 miles from a tank of gas. Even if they put regular gas in (87 octane), the mpg difference is usually minimal. This means you are getting only about 11 mpg.

I know Brooklyn driving, but even that shouldn't cause that low mpg, unless you only drove in Brooklyn (but you said you were on the highway, so this is probably not the case), or you let the engine idle for long periods of time with the A/C on.

Either way, I wouldn't panic at this point. Fill up the tank and periodically check the MID for the average mpg. But don't do this right away after the fillup becuase the average mpg starts out low and then rises up to a true average after driving 50-60 miles or thereabouts. Too bad we don't have instant mpg readout.

 

First of all, you are assuming the tank was completely full when you bought it. What does the MPG readout say you got?

Second, I often see posts saying that their cars get better mileage when they are broken in. I have owned 47 cars and have never seen this actually happen. I have some theories on why people think they do, but I keep very good track of my mileage and have NEVER seen it improve with breakin miles.

I think many people drive a car differently the first few tanks - especially a car with good performance. They take every opportunity to try out the acceleration. Yes - I know - many of you say you drive easily because it's new and you want to break it in right. I don't believe very many people actually do this. Also, when a car is new, I know I take every opportunity I can find to drive the car - which means frequent trips just up to the corner stores and such. This is when you get the worst mileage.

I personally am averaging about 25 in my TL in typical driving. I took a trip from Houston to Dallas and back a few weeks ago. Mostly highway, but some stop and go driving. I averaged 30 for the entire trip, and was getting 31 on the highway.

 

ive noticed that u dont get a FULL tank of gas. when i first got my car it was right on the line... the blue line.... but if u go and fill it up FULL it goes all the way past the blue like and thats like an extra gallon or half a gallon. 150 was probably the same as what i got but they dont give FULL tanks of gas...

 

Picture of Full Tank at time of pick up

I will post more new pics.

 

That's definitely full. You're not sitting in front of Nathan's with the engine running and the A/C on (as I said above) trolling for bathing beauties, are you?

If you get a few miles into this tankful of gas, and your MID shows a low mpg again, you should take it in and get it checked, because this definitely is not normal. Sometimes there is something wrong with the emissions or electronics systems which may not cause the Malfunction Indicator Light to come on.

 

After doing my calculations on mileage, I do believe that my mileage did increase, while my driving habits were relatively constant.

I do think that jjc5 brought up a great point about short trips. When I got my car, for the first week, I was taking the car on a LOT of frequent and very short trips, which obviously does not help the mileage. I didn't take that first couple of weeks into consideration.

However, even discounting that, my mileage has improved over the first 1200 miles. Haven't any significant jumps since then.

 

I was getting in the area of 25.5 miles per gallon on my first tank. Now it's getting close to 28 in around town driving/back and forth to work.

To jjsc5;

I have seen differences in and engine's ability to deliver improved fuel economy after a period of break in, but usually not more than around 2 MPG.. nothing like going from 11 MPG to 24 MPG.

 

Hi jjsC5... Got a good looking car there... same as MINE!!

But, I have kept track of new cars and have seen an increase after awhile. I had a Mazda GLC that went up about 3 mpgs from about 5,000 to 15,000 miles. Since I was driving about 25,000 per year back then it did not take me long either... Stayed up there no matter what I did and I drove the shit out of that car!!

My Cougar went up about 1 mpg after about 10,000 or so. Not much, but you could see the difference on a three or four tank run... I do not compare on just one tank as there are way too many things that can affect mileage.

Right now, I am just over 5,000 and do not see any increase on this car yet. I do hope I do as I am in the 22 to 23 range and would love to get to the 26 or so range.

 

Get used to it. This is a performance car and as such it's actually doing quite well.
With 3300 miles on mine I'm only getting 21 mpg in combo driving. I did get 26.5 on a mostly highway trip though. This is in contrast to my old 1990 Accord 5sp which gave me 27 around town and 32 on the highway. But the car feels so good that I've stopped caring.
Oh, BTW, I've also found a Hess Station in Northampton, MA that sells premium for 1.91/Gallon.

TL-Rocket

 

I managed to get 27.93 MPG a week ago for around town and to and from work. While I do not live and work in a major city like New York or Washington, D.C., I do work in Fairfax Virginia and go through Manassas to and from work to avoid route 66 (don't wish to take the chance of getting stones thrown up on the paint or windshield). Manassas and Fairfax have their share of traffic and, of course, lights, residential and business streets, and stop signs. I suspect if I was really careful after a full break in and a switch to Mobil 1, I could touch 29 MPG in the same driving scenario.

Incidently, these numbers come from the old tried and true method of dividing miles driven by gallons burned. I do the fillup at the same station and the same pump with the car in the same position and after auto-shutoff, I round to the nearest 5 cents. So the number are quite accurate.

 

My first tank from the dealer got 16.7 MPG, everyone since then has been going up (21,22,23,24). It could be they did not fill it all the way or it was really tight. I am so anal about this stuff, I use the built in calendar in the NAVI. You can list them and see all fill ups on one page and keep track of it. I calculate it the old way and record the MID values.
But lets see if it keeps going up.

 

Do the numbers from trip computer go to calendar automaticaly or you enter them ?
How do you do that ?
Sorry I have my car for 4 days only, and havent had a chance to play with it yet.
Thanks !

 

My first tank yielded 19 MPG (270mi / 14.1 gal). The MID was right on with it's calculation as well. I wouldn't trust the first tank. It's impossible to tell how much fuel was really in the car when you get it. The second tank will be more valid because you will be the one filling it up again.

This is on par with the car it replaced - 2002 Accord EX V6. My Accord would get between 19 and 20 MPG during my routine driving (all suburbs/city driving AC always on). I was happy with 19 MPG on the first tank from a car that has 70 more HP than the Accord.