As best as I can tell from fiddling with the buttons and reading the FM, it seems that there is no "instantaneous" read out for fuel mileage. Can this be???

 

Yes, I couldn't believe it either. I think it was a big oversight on their part. Hopefully they will change it or provide a software update to do it. They already collect all the info.

 

Go to the trip computer and you'll get an instantaneous read-out.

 

All I saw was AVG. The only way you can get close to instant is to reset and then watch it. Even the salesman said the same thing. Tell me if you have a better way.

 

That would be the only way that I know of. I'm not sure why you find this such an important feature- my guess is that it would still be an estimate of the current driving environment if the instantaneous were available "on demand".

 

I find it useful to see what direct effects things like tire pressure, fuel grade, AC compressor and the like. Monitoring fuel consumption can also help you tell when something is going bad or starting to malfunction.

Sometimes it is merely interesting to see the effects of road surfaces and wind on the car. I can visually watch it a little and get a trend analysis and sometimes its been handing to use on other cars as to when it is actually better to shift to a lower gear even when you aren't lugging the engine. People don't realize how many thing can dramatically affect mileage. I don't want to constantly reset it to see the instant reading.

 

One nice thing on my '96 328i is that there is a small gauge for instant fuel economy, so you can watch that go up and down. It's in the same area as the speedometer, so you can see how they move together. It's not to the precision of the trip computer though, and after it goes above 40 mpg, it can't really give you any detail except for being pegged.

 

Not to be negative, but I mentioned on day one the computer was missing this feature, but people said it wasn't necessary.

Instant econ is the best feature, outside a tire pressure monitor in the trip computer.

Hope to see it next year. The Accord has it!

 

I agree. And it is just fun sometimes to sneak up behind a truck and watch the mpg rise. One thing I have confirmed is that a higher gear almost always yields higher mpg...there are friction losses in the engine which are less at lower rpm. Another thing is that going up a grade yields mileage more than 1/2 of what I see on the level...so if you could coast down the grade with the engine off, using no fuel, you would have better mileage than just being on the flat! This also has to do with some of the fuel used being used to overcome friction in the engine and producing heat. Downhill you have neither of those considerations. I know that there is no free lunch, but next time I am in Reno I will try running up to Tahoe and coasting back to see if my mileage is actually better than typical for a flat road!

Anyway, bring back instant mileage readout!

 

What's the big deal? Do you get a big thrill seeing your instantaneous MPG shoot up to 80 miles/gallon when coasting downhill?

My IS-300 had a fuel economy gauge; I thought it was the most useless gimmick ever put onto a car, and a waste of dashboard space. Distance-to-empty, which the TL trip computer does have, provides you with precisely the same information in a much more useful format; I can see why Acura didn't bother trying to squeeze an instantaneous MPG line into the MID's trip computer page.

 

maybe in the future they'll come out with a Navi update that will have a new trip computer...... There are some empty slots on the menu list(with the calculator,calendar, and theother thing)

 

If you do not want one that is just fine. However, so people do. If it was there you could ignore it at your hearts content. Since it is NOT there, the people who want it are disappointed. And yes, it is just code as it has all of the info going to it.

And by the way, my 1985 Mercury Cougar had instant gas mileage. I do not think is much to ask a 2004 near luxury car to have this.