StangMahn

the trip computers now are pretty accurate, in my experience
as was stated, some engines just dont get the mileage others do, alot of it depends on gearing as well.
mpg isnt necessarily just based on the number of cylinders (6 vs 8), but how efficient the engine uses fuel. sometimes a 8 cylinder car could get better mileage than a 6 cylinder because the engine doesnt have to work as hard. That's why some supercharged applications can get 28mpg+, because it's more efficient

raekwon888

no im not sitting idle too much or in that much traffic too often.just normal city driving with a little highway here and there.

so since my engine isnt very efficient and uses more gas does that mean i get more power out of it?

nynvolt

Depends on what kind of gas you get in your state and what conditions you drive in. In southern California I average 12.5-13.5 city only driving in my GT. Thats stop light-40mph back down to stop light again. On the freeway I've gotten maybe 23mpg max with cruise control set at 80mph. But in not so optimum freeway I get 19-20mpg.

The V6 is only rated 2-5 mpg or so better than the V8.

I have been boggled by all the folks claiming 25+ freeway and anything over 15 city, just doesn't seem possible but I know the ethenol content of the gas you run will make a difference. The more ethenol the lower your mpg.

This is based on my experiance with my automatic equipped GT, I have owned and daily driven since dec. 2004.

But to put it in perspective, my 2003 Honda civic (manual trans) averaged 19-20mpg city when it should have gotten 30ish. Freeway it got 40mpg though!

clintoris

My wife has an 07 Fusion, and I get better mileage in my 06 GT. I get an average of 25 on the highway if I roll out of a gas station, right onto the highway and watch my computer average out for about 5 miles of highway driving. It stays pretty consistant for most of my 40 mile trip.. when I get onto surface streets, the mileage changes significantly. I will get right aroung 13-16 in the city if I stay out of it. The combination of both my city and highway miles averages out to about 19.
My wife, on the other hand, drives about 5 miles round trip to work and back. She really doesn't go anywhere else, besides school which is the same. She gets craptastic mileage in the fusion because it's all stop and go. We've taken that car on road trips and I've watched it pull 40 MPG on the highway. But, simply because the mileage dips down into single digits for any car during accelleration (unless you're freefalling, i.e. drove off a cliff ), city driving is going to kill your average.
The point that was made about the V6 not having the same torque as the V8 is probably the biggest factor. Especially when you get on the highway. You think those Hondas and Toyotas get great mileage at 75MPH? .... they're all wound up and struggling to carry their own weight against the drag. Below 55 MPH, they'll do great... just don't expect the world out of a 4 pooper just because it gets descent mileage ont he bottom end.
So, I'd have to agree and say trade yourself up to a GT. It'll pay for itself with the gas..... that is once you learn to stay out of it. I still have self control issues.... I've had therapy. I do alright.. but not always.

adrenalin

Last night I did a test. After 30 minutes of driving my gas mileage average was 11mpg. However, my rear tires lost half of their tread depth somehow

Kingfish

I always questioned how accurate the mileage function on the computer is, but my V6 vert shows 30-31mpg @ 65mph, and I normally get around 340ish miles out of a tank. I'd like to know how the computer figures instant economy - is it strictly fuel flow or manifold vacuum or some combination?

clintoris

I could guess that it's meetered by flow at the injectors? or perhaps since it's throttle by wire, the pedal position can give the computer an idea of how much flow there is on the fuel.

Any of you smart guys.... chime in.

Cavero

clean Air filter - just because K&N says you don't have to clean it for 50k miles doesn't mean you should wait that long.
change fuel filter
proper inflation on tires
get rid of all the crap in your trunk
get the induction system flushed -dealership service ~$150 where I am
Maybe O2 sensors.

Does the exhaust smell like its running rich?

Busted

I didnt see if you have the on board computer or not. If you do, are you resetting the MPG's after filling up??? I reset the trip, mpg's, avg speed, and something else...

My wife has something similar on her 05 Escape, and we didnt know that you had to reset it.... and the thing wasnt getting over 8 mpg's. (she drives less then a mile to work)... Once we learned (from the dealer) that we needed to reset the computer, shes getting 11 or so..... Unless I take it to work (25 miles or so) then it gets better mileage.

My V6 Pony package gets between 20 and 23 back and forth to work... and the one road trip I did take it was up around 28 mpg's.... I might ad that on that trip i was also running triple digits and STILL getting passed..... but like mentioned here,,,, as soon as I got into traffic, it dropped greatly!

raekwon888

thanks for the tips. i dont notice any smells from the exhaust.

Cavero

Ok then its probably not running rich which would exhonerate your O2 sensors.

packard400

My 2005 V6 Mustang generally gets 17-19 MPG around town. On long trips (Like my trip to Hershey last month),
my Mustang gets 29-31 MPG. Of course, that's on the interstate using cruise control (65 MPH).

nynvolt

Just wanted to throw this in, my civic with very low torque got 37 mpg cruise set @ 80 (~3800 rpm*) and 40 mpg @ 70 (~3000 rpm*). So the torque theory mentions seems suspect to me.

*haven't owned the car since 04 so the rpms are estimates from memory

As a general rule of thumb, fuel economy is more directly related to displacement than any other factor...in GENERAL. Ofcourse driving habbits and upkeep are paramount but when comparing two engines on paper, the larger displacement the engine the lower the fuel economy. Thats why the 4 ltr V6 gets very similar epa estimates to the 4.6 ltr V8. The 3 ltr 350z gets a very similar epa because it needs to run in higher rpm range which changes everything. There is (I forget if it's Ferrari or not) 4.6 ltr that gets like 9mpg epa estimate city, same reason. It's a much higher strung V8 so it burns alot more fuel. So it's only a general rule of thumb, you have to compare compression ration and normal operating rpm.

On the trip computer, this is my hypothisis. The computer takes an average from measuring distance traveled to fuel burned. If your going down hill with wind flowing in the direction your traveling you can get the trip computer to read 100mpg or more if you reset it right at the descent. It has been extremely acurate in my experiance but you have to give it adiquate time to average under everyday driving condition to get a true reading. In other words simply resetting it then traveling a few miles on a free flowing freeway is not acurate to true fuel economy, its only acurate for that short trial but as you drive more and encounter changes in the road conditions and traffic you will see the mpg meter change. If you reset it right after a fill up and go hog wild or sit for a long time at idle, it will read like 9 mpg. The miles to empty are measure in the same way, thats why on a road trip I may see a 320 miles to empty after a fill up, because I have been getting better mpg on the freeway. On surface street driving only and I fill up after getting an average of 12.5 mpg it may say 150 miles to empty. The miles to empty will change also as your driving conditions change. It's based on your average mpg.

jcopin

i live on long island and with work and school day/night combines i hit 18 .. its because NY sux .. i cant wait to leave

it takes me 45 minutes in the morning to travel 7 miles to work.. lol theres too many friggin people here .. we idle most of the day .. my trip computer tell me i barely average 20mph in a mmonth..weekends included

Cavero

That's most of the DC metro area too. Kills me that it takes me 35 minutes on a good day, 50 min on a bad one to go the 9 miles to my dealership. Even more frustrating because its a 4 lane road with a 45mph speed limit most of the way. I could ride my bike there faster, but that'd defeat the purpose of going to the Ford dealer.

MARK

My wife has a V6 Pony Package with an auto, and it will not get any better than 15 m.p.g. in town, no matter which of us drives it or how we drive it. My G.T. with a stall converter gets 14 m.p.g. in town. I should have just bought her a G.T. to begin with and got a much better resale value. I love the Pony Package V6, but this city mileage is ridiculous. It gets 25 m.p.g. on the highway doing the speed limit, so that is good, but why such a large disparity in mileage between city and highway m.p.g. ?

raekwon888

finally somebody else is getting owned like me