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the aero probably has 17" wheels (or maybe you have 16" winter tires), which will decrease your gas mileage from the arc's 16" wheels (my assumption on what you have on the cars). Decreased gas mileage is one of the downsides of the 17" performance width and size! Either way, I'd second checking the tire pressure, if only for self defense.
From your post, I couldn't tell whether your SE was a sedan or a wagon; if it is the sedan then the SE vehicle is also lighter than your wagon, which will also add up some, even if the epa doesn't think so. Are you lugging around extra stuff in the wagon or using the roof bars? Either will have an impact. The thule racks I put on my car have an amazing amount of wind resistance, and they come off as soon as the use is done.
The other thing that occurs to me is whether the cars are really driven equivalently. Even if the percentage of rural/highway is the same for both, there will be a significant difference if the aero is driving more short runs without getting fully warmed up or if it has extended idling or warm up time while doing errands, etc. Both of these could impact mpg significantly.
Lastly, are you manually calculating your gas mileage, or going by the SID's calculation? Are the SID's correctly programmed for the tire sizes on each car?
My car get's a couple of mpg's difference just with the size being different that the program. This could add up with the miles driven and how far off it is on the diameter. Remember that there is some variance between actual dimensions and tire size on your car between tire brands and models. If you aren't still running oem tires, that may be part of the variance, too.
All in all, with all of these potential reasons (including Dean's) the variance you report isn't that significant, although it would seem so to me, too. The prior owner of my car regularly got 30mpg+ with mostly highway miles. I've only seen that number rarely because I've got lots of short hops and city time even when most of the tank is highway. (Yeah, I might go a bit faster on the highway, too. But I'll leave that point for another day.) I have seen better than 30 w/almost all highway road trip miles at between 65-85 mostly, especially when the honey drove a chunk of it in the 65-70 range!
On the other hand, even with a heavier foot, I (think) I generally get a bit better gas mileage than the honey, because I'm much better at leaving following distance and anticipating traffic, intersections, and traffic lights, and am not on gas / on brake / on gas as much as she is. She'd do MUCH better than me on equivelent highway rides, though b/c I'm a fair amount faster that she is. In rush hour mostly stop and some go, I bet it's almost a wash, because the bigger issue is the time spent idling.
I used to have a company truck that pretty much varied between 11-14 mpg. It was so poor that in approx 40k miles, I never saw more variance than that regardless of what the driving split was.
If it makes you feel any better, I'd guess I'm down 1-3 mpg's over the summer averages (but I'm not looking!)Definately check Dean's list, and good luck!
posted by 68.163.23...
, Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:28:13
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