You can see the mileage I get with my 08 RTL as I drive in Washington state, which is about 80 per cent of my total driving. That MPG is tracking 205,000 miles with Fuelly. Using Fuelly is drop dead easy if you really are serious about tracking your MPG's.

 

cool, thanks for the info. i may look into that app. i was mainly checking to see if these numbers were normal. it seems the mileage i am getting is not. my daily driving route is fairly flat but i'm surrounded by mountains. anyhow, the engine runs strong and has been dealership maintained, i just don't get why my mileage sucks so bad.

i just filled up today at 270 miles. that is with about 150 of them hwy. i still think that's pretty poor.

 

I wonder if the truck was properly broken in... other than that wouldn't know what to do but check with your local mechanic. Seems low to me... is a full tank fitting? Say 20 gals?

I would subtract 3 mpg from the 2007 EPA mpg for realistic... new EPA guidelines are more accurate imo. So maybe you should get 13/18 if driving softly.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ratings.shtml

 

Fuel light comes on at just about exactly 18 gallons used. If you get about 200-210 miles till fuel light thats about 11.5 mpg. However, measuring your mileage this way is pretty inaccurate and when you say you filled about at 270 miles that really doesn't tell us much. You need to fill up at the same gas station and preferably the same pump and use the same technique each time. You then need to divide the exact number of gallons used into the miles driven to get an accurate MPG number. . . .

If you are indeed getting less than 12 mpg then something is probably amiss. For the earlier Ridges, I would expect 13-15 mpg in town stop and go mileage and 17-20 highway driving. Using the AC seems to drop MPG by 1-2. Frequent short trips will kill your mileage, particularly in the winter time and you can see as little at 10-13 MPG in such cases.

Are your tires stock size?

Is your tire air pressure correct?

Are they low rolling resistance highway tires similar to stock or something else? AT (and similar) tires and tires that are heavier than stock will KILL your mileage!

Have the valves been adjusted?

Have you had proper maintenance done including changing engine oil, transmission fluid, front diff, and rear differential? Was the proper fluid used and the right amount?

Air filter?

Anything else not stock?

Any codes?

 

I have a 2008 Ridge and when topping of the filler neck, I have put 25 gallons of fuel.

 

Yes you can do that. However, you are in the process filling the charcoal canister that is an evaporative emissions controlling device. Not a good practice . . . .

 

I just traded in a 2007 RTL with 186,000 miles. I averaged 18 to 19 MPG for the entire time I had the truck. Towing a boat reduced my mileage to around 13 to 15

 

If I drive a full tank around town, that is almost exactly what I have gotten since new in 2005.

My drive to work is 4.3 miles, as is reflected in the fact that my G1 is over 12 years old and only has just over 94k.

On a road trip to Utah, I got 22mpg at nearly 80 (speed limit is 75) from Las Vegas, NV to Lehi, UT, including a detour thru St. George, UT, and Rush Hour Traffic, from Provo to Lehi...

YMMV

 

I typically get 11.5-13.5mpg city in my 06. I've tracked 61k miles via Fuelly since buying 7 years ago. I've paid over $10k in fuel so I'm looking to get a CR-Z to save.

 

I work at home, so my only weekly driving is short trips to the gym 5 days/week and then any errands/leisure driving.

I get similar mpgs as you; anywhere from 12 to 14 ish. Short trips and a lot of stop and go driving will always yield low mpgs.

To maximize mpg, all the usual advice...slow starts with keeping revs below 3k, avoid stops when possible, proper tire inflation, etc.

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Trade for a G2.......[emoji469] We drive mostly stop and go traffic and we get 20 something consistently. On our few short highway trips we get around 25. I am pretty certain steady 75 mph would get at least 27-28 mpg.


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GenII's computer typically over estimates by a couple of MPG unless you were actually hand calculating?

Drive your GenII in real stop and go city driving for short trips and it will be lucky to ACTUALLY get 15mpg. All the Ridge's are heavy vehicles and the demands of true city driving combined with short trips is a recipe for poor gas mileage. You need a different type of powertrain (like electric or hybrid) to make substantial improvements.

On the highway cruising at 65 my 14 will get around 23mpg (hand calculated). I have no doubt that the GenII would better that by about 4 mpg. Its got a more efficient power train and better aerodynamics. Around town the benefits are minimal.

Fuelly shows an average MPG for the GenI at around 17+- and around 20+- for the GenII.

 

I agree, and disagree, on the G2 comments....

I've had mine for just under 2 months.

I drive it 99% of the time for short (sub 8miles) trips in stop and go, city/congest 2 lane hwy) traffic that is also hilly.

I have done the manual MPG calcs, as well as the system's calculations. System says I usually get ~16.5-19mpg. Manual calcs say I get ~16.9-18.1

I drive largely in econ mode and I watch how I take off and use the gas. I go speed limits but, given traffic and lights, even on the 2 lane hwy, I can rarely get up to 50mph. I watch the onboard tell me my mpgs go down .2-.4 every time I go up a few certain hills I have to do daily.

So, while I think the G2 isn't bad, I get nowhere near what others say they get. A lot of it is the roads traveled. I do admit, I am jealous of those that say they consistently get 20+

 

225,000 miles tracking with Fuelly. It is what it is...

 

I would echo eurban's comments in post #5 completely. Tires and tire pressure are a big factor. If you have A/T tires like I have for the past 4-5 years, your mileage will suffer even if you keep them at the optimum pressure of 32-34psi. Driving style and conditions are the next biggest factor. Short trips with many stops and go's absolutely kill fuel mileage. My typical commute is 4 miles to work and back through many red lights and I don't get above 40mph most days. I see about 13-14mpg. When adding in 50% highway mileage to drop off my son in the morning, my mileage goes up to about 16mpg. When I had highway tires and did a full 100% highway trip in the summer, I have seen as high as almost 24mpg.

Lastly, I would add to keep an eye on the fuel you use. Lower quality fuels can have an adverse affect on mileage, so I only use top tier stations like BP, Costco and Shell. Many will disagree with me, but I've seen mileage improvements from using mid-grade and premium fuel. The G1 RL has a 10.5:1 compression ratio which is a touch high for a naturally aspirated engine. Gary Flint (original designer) was quoted as saying that the RL's engine achieves maximum timing advance when using a fuel with an octane rating of 90. This is why Honda recommends premium when towing. I used a few tanks of 87 when I first bought my truck and it just felt a little sluggish. I put in a tank of premium and it felt much better within a short distance. I also saw about 1mpg better fuel mileage. I use premium all the time now simply because Costco premium is about the same price as 87 anywhere else and I fill up only once every 3-4 weeks.

So, check your tire type and pressure, ensure all your fluids and filters are fresh and clean, keep your foot out of the gas and brake pedals and use good fuel.

 

2018 RTL White Diamond Pearl black interior... Driving 360 miles home on I-75 and US 301; staying below 75 MPH, the display showed 31.2 MPG when I arrived home. The highest average displayed was 31.8. Driving another day, on country road and around a small town, showed 22.5 MPG.

 

Lubercon, although your vehicle only has 66,000 miles, after 11 years have past, may be the spark plugs have never been changed. I have heard of some kind of timing belt that should be changed at 100K miles and wonder if people had the vehicle for 30 years and it still does not have 100K miles, would they neglect changing it.

This thing about dealer maintained, I mean do you actually have an entire script of every thing that was done and when it was done?

 

Honda used to call for the timing belt service to be done at 7 years or 105k miles - whichever came first. They have since revised that to read only 105k miles under normal service or 60k miles under the "severe" service intervals. Over my many years of activity here, I've seen only a handful of confirmed timing belt failures that have cause catastrophic damage. Most were on trucks where the belt had never been changed and a few hundred thousand miles had been driven. The belts are very strong and durable, but they do need changed after awhile. I would personally recommend following a rule of every 10 years or 120k miles - whichever comes first. That's a personal observation and not one that has been published or endorsed by Honda.

Nonetheless, replacing the timing belt or the spark plugs, for that matter, will have very little if any impact on fuel mileage. The OEM plugs are iridium and last for a VERY long time. I replaced mine at about 110k miles and they still looked like they could have easily gone another 50k.

 

The average for my '08 was just over 17 mpg.

 

Depends a lot on the actual type of driving, and just calling it around town or highway doesn't take into account all the factors. My 2007 gets about 15-15.5 mpg around town, but many of those trips were 12 miles to work on some roads without a lot of stoplights and only moderate traffic. If you have more stops, shorter drives, accelerate too quickly, etc., you're going to get worse. But 300 miles on the freeway sounds very low. I usually get about 19 m.p.g. on the freeway, with much of that at 73-78 m.p.h., and going over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I can get 21-22 mpg if I'm going 60-70 and don't have too many steep mountains to go up.