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IMHO and experience, the mpg w/vary tremendously on driving conditions. Everyone here has a different definition of City driving (including the EPA)
It really depends on how much STOP is in your city driving definition. If it is entirely stop and go and sitting driving, with red lights at every other block, and you are doing short drives, this will give you MUCH lower mileage regardless of what you are driving.
I see over 30 mpg if on the highway and not pushing too much. I'm averaging mid 20's overall with mixed driving, but have seen some mid to high teens on the full tanks where I've been sitting in logjammed rush hour traffic in Boston combined with only short trips (all of less than 4 miles) I think my lowest tank ended up being in the very low 20's, but it may have been in the teens. I also have many short drives, and carry equipment in the trunk. I check every tank, as an old anal habit, and the SID's reasonably accurate except for a once glitch I couldn't figure out. I do a lot of very mixed driving which varies from mostly highway to mixed to all rush hour/constructionzone/ie mostly stopped driving.
Take a look at your average mph on the sid to compare YOUR situation. If my average mph is over 20mph, I generally am also over 20mpg. If it's in the 30mph range, its at least in the high 20's or over 30 mpg. But I've had tanks which my avg speed was closer to 12mph (really lousy driving, rush hour in the rain w/several accidents blocking traffic), and the SID was under the 20 range, even though the calculated mpg was a bit higher on that particular tank.
If you're running ac, lights, seat heaters, defrosters, DRL's etc., or low tire pressures, you will be working the pulling a lot of work off the engine. If you have a lot of idling time, that will also bring your average speed and gas mileage down. Mine suffers from the number of very short drives and carrying weight in the trunk.
Some of these other posts of city driving are talking about timing lights and driving w/a light foot, etc. These are excellent suggestions, but I consider that mixed driving. That is VERY different than getting caught around a "big dig" detour or toll booth jam and having a 45 minute or 2 hour backup, which often moves ahead just often enough to make it not worthwhile to shut down the vehicle.
My hunch is that while Lou is a gentle driver, with lots of highway miles to average in, he rarely has full tanks of driving w/my definition of "city" stop & go driving. FWIW, I'm a less conservative driver, but still strive to be smooth, which makes a difference. After all, I can vouch that his prior car now has over 95K miles and lots of original brake pads left! My experience in 10K miles is that it doesn't take much driving on the highway to pull the average mpg and mph back up if you've been sitting in stopped city driving, even at 70-80mph.
FWIW, I used to be responsible for a 200+ fleet of mixed vehicles, and some of them averaged less than 3 mpg due to almost all idling time at work sites. I had a commute and averaged high teens w/the same truck model.
I know this has been long but if you have some of these situations, you MAY have really low mpg's. If your driving hasn't changed much and your gas mileage is lower than before (and your prior vehicle wasn't a 500cc powered something) get it checked out. You can try these links, too, but they are somewhat generic.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/moinfo.shtml
http://www.mpgplus.com/
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/17-tips.htm
let us know if you figure out what YOUR reason for the low gas mileage is ;-)
posted by 141.154.50...
, Sun, 20 Oct 2002 21:36:17, Mon, 21 Oct 2002 12:59:43
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