Clean>Rice

ever since i got my car, i have been getting MPG thats around 16 or 17... . i DONT gun it at every light, or make abrupt accelerations/ stops. i usually put on cruise control on my way to school on the 241 Toll Road. For the 07 TL, i am supposed to get 19 city and 29 highway. most of my >2000 miles have been on streets tho, with speed limits around 45 mph. I am just wondering if my car is defective or something .

but seriously 16-17 mpg....ON PREMIUM.

maybe i should take out the seats in the back, the spare, etc hahah

jdmitr22

hrm try resetting your battery, i get on it ALOT and im at 20mpg.

TL2498

Tire Pressure?
Alignment?
Air filter?
Oil change?

TeknoKing

resetting the battery?

Check air filter, check tire pressure, if you drive around dusty roads I would recommend seafoaming.... Since you are in Cali, is your A/C always on?

Do you hear any abnormal engine noise? How's your wheel balance and alignment? Do you constantly press on the gas to maintain speed, or do you accelerate and let the momentum take over? There are many factors..you will have to deduce this yourself.

G'luck,

aalsaadawi

How many miles do you have on your car?

wasupdog

iTrader: (2)

combination of city driving and ac? doesn't sound abnormal if that's the case.

01tl4tl

Is this a brand new 07? the engine takes about 1,000 miles to get broken in and mileage comes up.

Also that in town stuff-- its not just how fast you get going- its the rpm used- keep it under 3000 for max mileage
Get into Vtec~ 4700+ rpm to redline and it eats gas like an old V8 engine-
that would be, a lot, ---- to the younger crowd

Its normal for the first few tanks of ownership to go quickly, thats about you enjoying the new car and getting used to driving it.
Driving habits like slowing well before a red light- so the light turns green and you are still rolling... and ease back to speed--that saves a lot of gas
I use my cruise in town all the time- if 35 mph or over- its on cruise-
AND get your foot away from the gas pedal- even resting on it sends more gas

01tl4tl

6 speed manual trans or automatic?

chillout24

I would get similar mpg on my '04 doing similar driving. I've found it improves to at least 18 mpg if I use Chevron gas (Shell perhaps will give better mpg but I haven't tried it yet).

lawwailok

i do most city driving and speed usually below 50mph. and i have a/c on most of the time, but i still can retain 19 mpg constant. OP's mpg seems a bit too low.

Clean>Rice

well, i usually dont use the A/C, especially recently. maybe during the summer. i just roll down my windows in the front and pop my roof.

tire pressure is like 34 front, 33 back i think...

i have less than 2k miles on it.

its basically new and i dont only drive this car; i sometimes drive one of my dad's cars like the 2G TL.

my car has a lot of drone for stock tho....like when i drive into my community, slow down for the speed bumps, etc....it just rumbles haha.

TeknoKing

Clean>Rice, you should not have any worries....considering you have less than 2K (which is amazing on a 07....I have 7K on my 08...)

Your car is still breaking in since you are really not driving it much, plus you will see an improvement after the first oil change.

Clean>Rice

yea it was brand new, CGP 07 auto tranny. got it in Aug/Sept of 07. it might be because my usual daily commute (to school lol) has some hills on the way home. i dont take the toll road both ways. when i go down hills, i take my foot off the gas hahah

KJSmitty

Concur with above,

I remember my 04 having 5-6K miles or so by the time the mileage really settled to what it is today. I will also say it's the first vehicle I've owned that exhibited this magnitude of mileage increase as she gained miles etc.

Drive safe and enjoy!

Clean>Rice

i see...but still i feel 16-17 is really really low...i drive highway one way, i go like under 70 with cruise control...

Clean>Rice

i use gas from Costco. last time i used other ones i got even less....lol

chillout24

Did you try Chevron? It's the only kind of gas I've used that improves my mpg.

umaya87

I have 07 base and I get 24-25 for combined 40% street 60% freeway

Mlauderdale1000rr

Im getting 16 city and 30 hwy

ecliptics

when i first got my car, i was getting around 17-18 mpg too.. but it was pretty much just lead foot w/o even knowing it. you get more conservative ways of driving the more driving you do.. i avg at least 20-21 with a lot of city driving now hwy ~26-29

TLingham

I have the same problem. Great highway mileage (29-31) but terrible city mileage(16-19) even when I'm trying to drive slowly. At $4+ per gallon of premium, it's pretty bad for such a small car.

The Starbuck

Even if he did it would make no difference at all in overall MPG.

Deutch194

Maybe a little more info would help. I average anywhere from 22-23 mpg. My commute is 10 miles one way over lots of hills and it takes me about 20-25 minutes, no highway. My current average speed is less than 30 mph. I usually shift before 3k rpms, but I get on it when I get the opportunity. Usually 3 or 4 times each way to pass when I can.

If I'm on the highway with cruise set at 80, I get anywhere from 28-30 mpg.

I have an '06 6-speed.

joeybabyluvsu

how do u check the MID again??....I just got my TL-S friday and havent had much time to read the manual....thanks again guys....Hopefully I can get better gas mileage myself cuz i got a quarter tank left with 210 miles on my brand new car....thanks all

shooter

Based on my own experience, the MPG will get better after the initial 2k-3k miles ... of course it still depneds on how you drive overall .... some of the OP above offerred very good suggestions about how to ... etc ....

Leave your windowns down & pop the roof would reduce your MPG reading IMO ....

Silver_Surfer

My TL-S gets 19mpg with a CAI. I only get Chevron or Shell gas.

joeybabyluvsu

how do u check the MID again?

MR1

MPG depends not only on driving smoothly but also traffic. Lots of stop-n-go will kill your MPG regardless of how many miles you have on the car.

What we think of as lots of traffic is also relative. Big city traffic is different that suburban usually. The nature of my job has me idling with air on way to often and lots of traffic. My city MPG satays around 15-17. Highway MPG is closer to 28-32.

csmeance

if doing above 43 MPH, shift into SS and put it in 5th gear, that will keep the revs lower and get better MPG.

Black0ut

I actually have the same problem...16mpg most of the time (city) highway is 25-27
I have my tires filled w/ nitrogen to recommended pressure, CAI has new filter, just got an alignment a couple months ago, use amsoil 0w30 full synthetic oil, don't drive crazy (at least not ALL the time) and RARELY use the A/C

i give up! i need an experts help!

WRXtranceformed

Couple things I used to do on all of my cars for better gas mileage (there's probably a thread for this somewhere but I'll post up here anyway).

1. Keep air / fuel / oil filters changed / cleaned.
2. Tire pressure set properly like you mentioned with an alignment that's in spec
3. Lose all unnecessary weight. Don't keep crap in your car, lose the spare tire / jack / jack hardware if you feel comfortable with it.
4. Even my friends have tried to call BS on this, but I swapped out all of the fluids: engine oil, gear oil, tranny fluid (CHECK THIS FIRST - some cars MUST use OEM fluid, especially in A/Ts... I got burned on this once) etc. to Royal Purple. Instant 3-4+mpg highway and city. I thought it was a fluke until I switched back to Mobile 1... and back down it went.
5. The most obvious is driving style. Do a search on the interweb for a ton of tips that you'd never think about.

The bottom line though is that the car is what it is. You didn't buy a Prius or a Jetta TDI, you bought a gas guzzling 6 cylinder Acura

JCL622

dude 16 isnt bad, if i averaged out 16 i'd be pretty happy.


12MPG for me

ChemicalLew

I'm an engineer and love to analyze data, so here's the history with my two TL's. A typical week's drive includes about 230 miles, including 13 miles each way to/from work - mostly highway - and various reasonably short trips around the city (Louisville, KY). There's almost no traffic in our city compared with other cities of our size or larger, so I almost never sit still in traffic. I LOVE to get into the VTEC, but don't do it all the time. And, I always use premium gas.
One thing to note - all of the numbers are based on the amount of gas I paid for, not the MID readings. They have to be based on a flow meter installed on the fuel line, and I have too much experience with flow meters to rely too heavily on that information.

2006 TL 6spd - bought new. While I owned the car, I averaged 24.3 mpg. The best I got was on a trip to Cleveland last November when I got 30.5 mpg. The worst was when I took it to Putnam Park for a HPDE driving course. I got 18.2 mpg over two days, including the drives to and from the hotel. On the track, the MID was between 8 and 12 mpg.

2007 TL-S 6spd - bought as a factory rep car with 9,000 miles - I've only had this one for a couple of months. Since I've had it, I've averaged 23.6 mpg, but have been on a lot of trips. Best was the drive home from the dealer in Virginia (through the Appalachian mountains) - 29.8 mpg. Worst was 19.5 during a normal week. I was probably driving pretty fast...

What I've noticed is that the driving style has MUCH more to do with gas mileage than most anything else. Mechanical problems are an obvious exception to this, but I've NEVER had a Honda engine problem, and I've been driving them since I was 12 years old. Transmissions are another story, but I digress...

Try pulling up the trip computer on your MID and resetting it. Drive the way you normally do for a day. The next day, reset it again and pay try to accelerate as slowly as possible every time. Don't worry so much about hopw fast you drive, only how long you take to get to the speed. You'll be amazed at the difference.

Based on the OP's numbers, I'd have to say that 1) the car is in break-in mode, 2) there is something seriously wrong with it, or 3) they are driving VERY agressively.

My
Lew

MR1

You never sit in traffic and little stop and go for you per you. How can you jump to a conclusion if you don't have data to analyze?

With all due respect, my car has over 40k, there is nothing wrong with it; I don't drive VERY agressively. Still, we have very different experiences with MPG. I know you were not talking about me but think you failed to take some things into consideration which lead to incomplete/inaccurate response.

As stated a few post above, 'the car is what it is.' If your driving circumstance is good, so can your mileage be.

ChemicalLew

I offered my experiences with two different TL's, then offered 3 possible reasons that the OP's mileage may be different. That's not drawing a conclusion, that is providing more data for someone.

However, the fact that the OP's number falls below my worst experience in 30,000+ miles in 3G TL's leads me to believe that there is something statistically different. This could be the car, the driver, or the conditions. I got better mileage driving on a race track, accelerating as quickly as the car could for 2 hours.

I think that it would be obvious why your mileage is bad (and you would not go looking for answers here) if you're stuck in traffic and sit at drive-thru's every day. If youre not moving but the engine is burning gas, your mileage will suffer. Maybe that's not obvious. From the OP it sounded like he averages 45 mph. The car should get very good mileage at that speed, so long as he is not constantly bouncing above and below it.

Take it for what it's worth - or don't.

Cyberdemon

Cruise control = worse gas mileage. Your car works harder to maintain you at a constant speed (especially if you're going up/down hills) rather then using your foot to regulate the throttle.

The automatic takes an even further toll on that, so does idling. In a manual transmissioned car if I'm on the highway and I lift off the gas, the car is using zero fuel. By only giving it small bursts of throttle on the highway and letting it coast the rest of the time I have no problem getting 30-31mpg on the highway in my Type S. I maxed out at 34 on a trip home but that was primarily crusing down hill through the mountains at ~60mph with very little traffic.

The flip side is when I'm driving around town and driving quickly with a heavy foot it's going to drop into the high teens. But even my old Sentra only got around 18-20mpg in city driving, so for a V6 with 110 more hp I consider only a few mpg drop livable.

Clean>Rice

ok, im gonna explain my daily commute so i might be able to figure out whats going on.

start my day, right after i leave my community, going mainly downhill towards the on-ramp of the 241 toll road. there are a few lights on the way, 2 i think. once i get on the toll road, i usually set the cruise control to 70 if there are no other cars or 75 if there are other drivers on the highway. Problem is, most of the toll road is up hill, until the very end where the toll road ends, where it is downhill all the way to the pay-station. After that, i make a turn and then another quick turn to go into my high school.

i think one of the main reasons i get bad mileage is that i idle a lot at school because i dont have afternoon classes, like many other students. When lunch arrives, all of the students who dont have classes try to get out of the parking lot and usually a line forms. i usually wait in line for 5-10 minutes.

On the way home, i dont take the toll road. i go local, with roads going up and down hill. speed limit goes from 50 to 55, to 45.

The reason i have so few miles on the car is because the situation mentioned above is basically all i do. I rarely go onto the freeway (I-5) unless i am going to Costco to shop for stuff and gas up.

thanks for all of your time guys.

MR1

I think you found the murderer of your mileage.

ChemicalLew

x2

Running steady at 60mph you burn about 2 gallons of gas per hour. Idling you burn about 3/4 of a gallon per hour. That's $0.05 per minute.
If your total daily drive is 10 miles and you spend 10 minutes in the parking lot your mileage could drop from 21 or so to 16 or 17.

Study for 10 minutes before you leave and the parking lot will be empty

rajunwild

It also depends on how fast you get up to speed. If you let the vehicle shift itself at the correct rpm's then you will get the proper mileage, but if you gun it a little just to get to the speeds, then you will see the drop.