Motormouth Online

 

Low fuel efficiency in a brand-new car?

By Ferman Lao —

Hi, Ferman!

I would get right to the point of my email and I hope you could help me out or shed some light on what I am about to ask you. My sister bought a brand-new Honda Civic with automatic transmission in April 2011. This is the model with the octagonal tail lights.

I'd like to know if you have any feedback from other owners of this particular model regarding its gas consumption. I'm asking because my sister and I find that the gas mileage is unusually high considering it's brand-new and it's barely four months old. The actual gas consumption is nowhere near what Honda claims, which is 10 kilometers per liter in city driving. There are some blog entries from users stating 7.5km per liter in city driving--which to me seems more realistic--but my sister's car reaches MUCH LESS than 7.5km per liter in city driving. We are really very disappointed with the gas mileage she is now getting in her Civic and she is seriously considering selling it already this early.

Hope you could help.

Regards,

Mr. T

Hi, Mr. T!

I don't have current information on how the consumption for that particular model is but I do have some info on the earlier model 2007 1.8 Civic. In standard trim it gets about 7km to 8km per liter in moderate traffic with a travel distance of about 10km per trip. Left in D, there's not a lot of driver-selected shifting and typically engine rpm will be no more than 3000rpm for most of the trip. That particular car was eventually modified with aftermarket parts, which helped it get about 9.5km per liter on the same route with similar driving habits.

I quantify this because driving habits is the single biggest factor, next to driving conditions and vehicle condition, when it comes to fuel consumption.

Taking too long to warm up the car, idling too long with the air-conditioning system on while waiting, keeping the shifter in D while stopped, being heavy, rough or abrupt on the throttle, and frequent short trips under 6km in heavy traffic conditions will normally mean you will get poorer fuel economy.

Low tire pressure, poor wheel alignment, camber settings and dragging brakes will contribute to poor fuel economy as well. Poor wheel alignment for example is worth at least 0.5km per liter. Camber and dragging brakes much more so.

When I used to drive in a spirited manner my old workhorse, a much older Civic, I would get only about 5km to 6km per liter from a 1600cc engine. This meant my engine rpm would consistently dwell a few hundred rpm shy of the redline. Changing my driving habits by shifting at the lowest engine rpm possible without lugging the engine, I was able to get 7.5km per liter. Optimizing the tune of my engine some time soon after allowed me to lower my shift rpm further and I was able to improve my fuel economy further to about 9km per liter. Now this was with a typical trip wherein there was moderate traffic and most trips under 6km.

What I would suggest you do is to mention it to the dealership where you bought the car and see it they can find some thing unusual with the car that may be contributing to its poor fuel economy. Fuel consumption data since you got the car and the driving conditions it's normally subjected to would be helpful for them to try to isolate what may possibly be wrong. It is unusual for a new car to get poor mileage and there are actually some modern cars that get better fuel economy once they've passed the 10,000km mark.

Finally, sticking to one particular gas station and always filling up the same relative time of day will also help isolate what may be causing the poor fuel economy your encountering.

Regards,

Ferman Lao
Technical editor

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  • jbedpan Sep 26 2011 @ 01:54pm
     
    I believe the latest Honda Civic 1.8S or 2.0S will have a gas consumption of 7km per liter. This is with the assumption of 50/50 heavy traffic and easy traffic flow. I have a civic 2000 model 1.6VTi and i get 9km/L because its a 1.6L and i put a fuel saver in it. For the letter sender - i guess the consumption you got is just fine. Check some Honda forums to compare your consumption.
       
  • Bruks_pt Sep 26 2011 @ 02:47pm
     
    Check the tyre pressure.. pressures lower than that recommended by the car manufacturer has a significant impact on fuel economy.
       
  • 17Sphynx17 Sep 26 2011 @ 05:39pm
     
    I think it's possible that the car hasn't been driven a lot yet for the past 5 months. At least I think it hasn't broken through 7500kms at least.

    From my experience, you don't really get the feel of the fuel consumption of the vehicle unless it passes that mark.

    Since we didn't get the total kms traveled by the vehicle up to present, we can not yet rule that out. Also, how low is low he mentions? If it's 5km/l that would be really low. But if its playing at 7km/l, then it is possible it is due to traffic conditions and distance traveled.

    How also has he done measuring of fuel consumption? Is it filling up letting the pump stop automatically then reseting the trip meter and filling up again? Or is it relying on just the measurement of the vehicle's computer? And has this average been on the computer since the very beginning? Caus ein my experience honda cars, need you to reset the trip meter to gain a better reading of the current instead of a total average from the very beginning.

    Hope that helps.
       
  • rdjl_13 Sep 26 2011 @ 06:20pm
     
    I have a question. Our 1996 Toyota Corolla with a 1.3L engine (not EFI) has a fuel consumption of 6-7 km/l. Is something wrong with our car or it really has a poor fuel economy??? I am really wondering because it only has a 1.3L engine and it's soooooo weak but the fuel consumption is sooooo high. Thanks. Hope Sir Ferman Lao and other pro's here can answer. Thanks. :)
       
  • Erik Sep 26 2011 @ 06:42pm
     
    Get a Toyota. Powerful and highly torque-d low end RPM will just need slight depressing of the gas pedal that will give you fuel economy. Too much torque that stop and go traffic will not even need pressing of gas pedal rather break pedal! Car will run in idle rpm (~700 rpm).
       
  • enzo2301 Sep 26 2011 @ 09:36pm
     
    you could try resetting the trip meter. we did it in our 2010 crv 2.4l, we reset trip b, and it registered as high as 14km/l. trip a just stayed at 7.8km/l since last april.
       
  • enzo2301 Sep 26 2011 @ 09:40pm
     
    you could also inflate your tires with more pressure. dpending on what you want but not to exceed the maximum pressure, and not to stay too close to it. the max pressuere for the bridgestone dueler ht's of our v is 44 and i inflate all tires to 38 when i would only drive within cavite, and i inflate it to 36 when driving out of town. and try not to have the rpm higher than 2, and if you cant do that, try not to have the instant fc meter go down by half when driving.

    try to feel the ride, a crv is different from a civic, which makes a difference from the way i would drive the crv to a civic. it depends on how you do it
       
  • dtkiko Sep 27 2011 @ 01:03am
     
    Diyan maganda mga diesel CRDi's sa tipiran sa consumo sa fuel even on heavy-traffics.

    i get 10.5 km per litre city-driving sa DMax 3.0 Ddi-iTEQ (i'm even a revver in between gears and not fond of lugging the engine, nor hearing the transmission rattling due to lack of oil pressure before down-shifting). i rev 2000 to 2250 rpm in between gears making sure that when i upshift i am around 1400 to 1500 rpm minimum at the onset of the higher gear, which is where the peak torque of the DMax starts.

    Now that i've installed a Racechip Pro diesel EFi-tuning kit, not only that i gained sizeable power output even just by seat-of-pants feel at a lower-low combo of B and E notches in the two dials, my fuel efficiency also improved tremendously ---- 13.5 km per litre on city-driving! WOW!

       
  • Erik Sep 27 2011 @ 08:24am
     
    My 2007 Corolla Altis (AT) gives me around 11-14kms/Liter at 85,000 kms (Unleaded).
       
  • TEXAN-boy Sep 27 2011 @ 09:06am
     
    don't get fooled by these car manufacturers, in real-world of driving, you should always consider 25% less even with US EPA estimates.
       
  • Erick Herrera Sep 27 2011 @ 10:04am
     
    Tama lang yan. FD owner here
       
  • maklo02 Sep 27 2011 @ 11:08am
     
    Bale wala ang pagkatipid sa gas ng kotse mo, kung di ka naman matipid magdrive. Trust me, I used to be a gas guzzler driver until I learned some fuel saving tips. Higher percentage of a car's fuel efficiency rely on driving style:)
       
    • walphie Sep 27 2011 @ 12:18pm
       
      1000

      Kung matipid nga yung sasakyan, eh jack rabbit and tailgate-happy naman yung driver, wala rin, babagsak din fuel economy.

      Our old 2007 FD used to get 9.5km/l average, lead footed na yung nagmamaneho nun. When I'm behind the wheel, I usually average 11 km/l, mixed city and some SLEX driving (note, this was during the construction pa of Skyway Phase 2) Mixed city includes Makati rush hours at that.

      The FD's K-series 1.8 engine is actually very fuel efficient, especially compared with its contemporaries even within Honda's own VTEC engine lineup. In the same driving conditions, yung 1.5l namin ng L-series VTEC City gets similar mileage figures as the FD. Considering may 300cc na difference in displacement, matipid yun.

      To the letter sender: have it checked, wait until you pass 7500km to 10k mileage, check tire inflation, and most importantly, don't drive like a maniac. Don't tailgate and overspeed--sayang ang gas sa constant use of the brake.

      Eto ang rule ko dyan: If you find yourself using the brake way too much, you're either following too closely, or driving too fast for the road you are in.
         
  • RaffyDavid Sep 27 2011 @ 08:43pm
     
    Dear Mr. T,

    Does she fare much better with other cars?
       
  • crispinbasilio86 Dec 04 2011 @ 05:27am
     
    FO consumption Guide:

    http://www.billgollan.com.au/files/fuelconsumptionguide.pdf
       
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