pmartone

I was hoping for better fuel economy on my 2010 TL SHAWD TECH, but I'm wondering if it will get better since I've only got 1,500 miles on the car so far?

As you know, the window sticker indicates 17/25, and so far I've been driving mostly highway (60 mph) and averaging about 18.5 mpg. (I do not have a heavy foot, and I even coast in neutral sometimes when traveling down hills to save fuel.)

My dealer told me I should get close to 30 mpg on a long highway run, which of course I don't believe.

When I'm looking at the instantaneous MPG read-out while I'm cruising on flat terrain at 60 mph, the display only registers 22 mpg. Therefore, I don't see how it's possible to ever reach 25 mpg on a long highway cruise.

Perhaps the New England cold weather and "winter" gasoline mix are reducing my fuel economy, or I have not yet benefitted from an engine "break-in" yet, if there is such a thing?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thank you.

couch257

It took me about 1500 miles for me to start seeing better mileage on my 09 AWD. One thing to remember here in New England is the reformulated gas for the winter. I have had worse mileage in the winter because of this.

prepreludesh

That sounds like pretty poor gas mileage...

A couple of tips... when going down a hill, don't put your car in neutral, because that disconnects the transmission from the flywheel. The engine needs to keep turning since the car is still "on," so the injectors take over and keep injecting fuel. If you'd leave it in drive going down a hill, the wheels are forcing the transmission to keep turning which is also forcing the engine to keep turning. When your car is going forward and you are not pressing the gas pedal, it is not injecting gas into the engine because the engine will already be moving and the throttle will be closed (no air = no fuel).

It's a little more complex than that, but that is the basic science of it.

As for why you can't get more MPG than 18.5 with what I believe you're hinting at more highway miles, I don't know. Cruise control does wonders in boosting your MPG's, but I've found terrain had a unique effect on my mileage when I was driving my TL SH-AWD 6spd.

If you are driving in hilly areas, your cars mileage will be WORSE because it takes a significant amount more of fuel to power the car up the hill. When your car is going down a hill, you'll gain half of it back (assuming the up part is equal in length to the down).

Also, wind resistance has a huge part of fuel mileage as I noted rather astonishingly on my trip to Ohio and back. After crossing over the Ohio River and going through Cincinatti, I noticed my fuel display was showing me averaging 29mpg! I thought it was a glitch in the system but it kept right up and was increasing in .1mpg incriments all the way up to 29.6mpg when I finally had to pull over for fuel. Then when exiting the car and almost getting blown over by the wind (which was going in the direction I was travelling) I pinpointed how I was getting such great gas mileage.

On the way back from Ohio to Tennessee, we hit a rainstorm halfway there and the blowing winds were blowing right at the car, my gas mileage went down to 23.3 and never really recovered. As a constant in both scenarios, my car was travelling around 78mph both times.

The TL is a big car, and the front and rear profile are huge too. To think that it has no effect on fuel mileage would be wrong.

The only thing you can do to improve gas mileage in the 4th gen TL SH-AWD is to #1 take off from a stop as slow as possible and #2 remember that when highway driving, the slower you go the better mileage you get. #3 use cruise control in any area more than 40mph sustained.

One modification that may help improve mpg performance might be the Takeda intake, but the jury is still out on that one. We'll have to wait for somebody with some experience with a long roadtrip and a Takeda intake with previous information on that same stretch of road, to give us their verdict on if it improved gas mileage or not.

One final tidbit... the 8th generation Honda Accord user manual distinctly says how the Accord's engine will reach the "broken in" point anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 miles and gains in MPG will probably be noticed. I wouldn't argue against the fact it could be the same for our cars though.

Luxury and performance do come at a cost though!

venom550pm

i live in western mass, and on a 2500 mile road trip in september i got an average of 24.5 mpg for the whole trip. The best tank i got was all highway at 65 MPH and i got 27.9 mpg. i'm going to be doing a 500 road trip for work to Maine on Friday, i'll post my mpg when i get back.

fastmd

I have 500 miles on my car and travel almost 200 miles a day for work (90miles each way), I am currently calculating 22.1mpg with an avg speed of around 70mph.

Kingmeow

It is probably the cold weather. I commute up to Boston for work on a weekly basis from NJ. I got my TL back in early September. After the break in I didn't notice much improvement in MPG but I have been hitting the 25 rated MPG. However, now that the cold weather has settled in, the 25 has dropped to between 22 and 23 with everything being kept relatively constant - same route, same local traffic when in Boston, same gas stations, etc. Sometimes I get a flat 22 but never under 22.

Also, check your tire pressure. On one trip in warmer October I decided to juice it up to 34 psi and I got close to 27 MPG. If I remember correctly the best I ever did was 26 MPG with the recommended 32 psi tire pressure, again same conditions that I'm facing now.

Overall, I think it's the cold weather.

fsttyms1

As the motor breaks in it will get better. Also its winter and in many areas they have the reformulated gas out now for that and you will see a difference. I get -50-60 miles less to a tank in winter with my 2gtl. My expedition is about the same as well (a little larger loss in winter months)

My TL didnt start achieving the best performance/mileage till after 10k miles

prepreludesh

So judging by your response.... You just bought your TL on Sunday, January 3rd?

fastmd

I bought it on 12/31/09 and started using on Monday 1/4/10.

docboy

Good deal taking advantage of the sales tax deduction

ayanomich

For what it's worth I recently got as much as 37MPG from Vegas to LA and back in my 07TL/NAVI....overall trip was 34MPG at about 70-75 MPH......while other carmakers are trying to increase MPGs, seems Acura is going backwards, at least with the 4G TLs.

pmartone

Thanx for the informative replies.

Yes, the TL SH-AWD a big, boxy, and heavy car.

I should have stated that I'm not so disappointed with the fuel economy per se, it's just that with the new EPA standards that came into effect in 2007, which were supposed to indicate lower, conservative, and more "real world" numbers, I expected to actually approach the stated values of 17/25 MPG.

Have I wrongly assumed that 25 MPG highway means that on flat terrain, with no weather or wind and fully inflated tires, that the instantaneous MPG reading on the supplemental display would be close to 25 MPG with the cruise control on, while traveling at 55 mph? (Under these conditions, approximately 21-22 mpg is displayed on my car, and I'm wondering if this is normal.)

KeithL

I have about 13K miles and honeslty the MPG is plus or minus 5% most of the time since day one, some of this is how you drive regardless of miles. I must say this TL of the 6 I have is the hardest to get decent HWY MPG. pampering the car on stright level run at around 60-65MPH I can get it up around 25, but go much faster or climb a slight incline and it drops. The powertrain loss and weight kills this car. My Type-S used to get 26-27MPG easily on the HWY without much effort. My AWD best I get consistently is 24MPG. Papmering it on my commute drive daily I sqeak about 20-20.5 on average on rural roads doing about 40-45 MPH with lights every so often.

prepreludesh

I suppose we really need to see the roads you're driving on and have somebody else's TL drive on them to know for sure. I know that from Clarksville TN to Nashville, by the time I end the roughly 38 mile trip, I'm averaging 25 to 26mpg (personal best is 26.6mpg).

However, on the return trip, traveling the same distances and roads, I average 24.0mpg even. I found this to be because I'm traveling slightly downhill the whole time to Nashville, but uphill on my way back to Clarksville.

The TL's fuel economy estimate certainly was estimated for flat roads and no wind for sure!

Pete2010

I got 24.5 MPG on every tank on my 1000 mile drive from Boston to MI, driving about 70-75MPH. For a 2 ton AWD car with 300hp, i thought it was pretty good. I don't worry too much about MPG because I'm driving a 40k car performance sedan. If I was worried about gas I would have bought a civic.

Six Shifter

Just passed 8400 miles on the way home from work today (as an aside, my first "A1" maintenance message came on at 8399). Prior to putting on the winter Blizzacks at the 5510 mile mark, I was getting just over 26mpg per tankful. Mileage has only dropped by just under 1 mile per gallon with the winter shoes.

Pete2010

Interesting, I noticed a 1-2 MPG drop in my gas mileage after putting on my Wintersport M3's... What is is about the winter shoes that lowers your MPG? Probably just closer to 1MPG, but I drive pretty static routes so it's noticeable.

09tlsteve

I saw my average milage go up from 21-22 average to 23-24 average between about 1000 and 5000 miles. Best MPG = 29.5 for a round trip/full tank (just as much up as down) with 30-40 minutes of stop and go and 20 minutes of city driving. Freeway was 75-80 mph (no AC).

I believe the EPA estimates are without AC, and I'd bet they are at 65 mph. 75 mph will make a noticable difference. Even if it is colder outside, the AC is sometimes on in 'Auto' mode. I manually turn the AC off when it's not needed.

I'm happy to be able to exceed the advertised MPG. At 75-80% freeway (yes most of them are still free in CA) I get 23-24 all the time.

crxb

I have about 11,600miles on my 5AT SH-AWD - city mpg about 18 highway I can get 24. One summer highway trip where I really tried I got 30. - realize perfect conditions - relatively flat and no traffic congestion - just pure 60 -65 mph. On that same trip I once got 35 mpg w/ my 04 5AT 3G

TLevation09

After 15K miles, I am still in the 21-23 range (70% highway), a bit worse in winter with 19" snow tires.

KeithL

Here is my history actually calculated over 13K miles. the average for me has been 20.7 pretty consistenlty since early on

http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/m.../car/7690.html

And this was my 08 Type-S:

http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/m.../car/6660.html

And for giggles my 2007 Camry Hybrid driven in same conditions...

http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/m.../car/3352.html

TLNV

It has always been my experience to lose between 1-2MPG as well with winter shoes. The reason was explained to me as softer compound etc which creates more rolling friction. I notice it on both winter shoes and new 3 seasons, when you first get any new tires your MPG's generally take a small hit because of the increased rolling resistance (full tread, tread type, compounds used etc). As you put miles on them and the tread is worn down, you have less rolling resistance. I always see a hit in MPG's when new, then watch the MPG's slowly creep back up through the life of the tire.

Skywalker23

i've never gotten more than 22mpg., i do 55 highway miles daily w/ premium gas @ $2.89 in northeast Jersey. Honda's VCM sounds awsome right about now...