Hey David,

I'll be happy to share the what, where, and how about my driving as objectively as possible. FYI, I'm an accountant/CPA by training so my background is to document my work :-). Also, I roadraced motorcycles for about 8 years which helped me get "in tune" with a vehicle and how it feels (I think).

My Accent driving (random order);

Very few trips less than one hour or once the car is started I usually drive at least 45-60 minutes before stopping. FYI, I noticed with the on-board avg mpg that gas mileage really suffers in my Accent until everything is warmed-up.

I drive 90% of the time using the cruise. Thumbing up and down quickly to raise or lower the speed, one thumb up or down equals about 1 mph.

Check out my other cars in my Fuelly garage which are mostly my fill-ups. My wife mainly drives the Rogue and the 95 Subaru has now gone on to my daughter (she doesn't track her fuel). Notice with my driving I average about the EPA estimated highway MPG. see - https://www.fuelly.com/driver/tbb10785

Driving the same car, take the Rogue for instance, I average 1-2mpg higher than my wife. Why? Longer trips, I driving closer to 65mph on the interstate versus 70mph for her, and I believe I coast a bit more when coming to a stop.

MPH - I usually drive no faster than an indicated 68-69mpg, which is actually 65mph. If the speed is posted less than 70mph I just drive the speed limit.

I try to coast to stop as much as possible without becoming a big traffic hazard. Also, I try to time stop lights so don't have to come to a complete stop at each one.

Tire pressure - OEM tires 40 psi. Snow tires 35 psi (not sure the extra pressure actually helps)

I watch my revs when pulling out and try to keep them under 2,500 rpm's but usually see the lower gears shift close to 3,000 rpm's. Again, if traffic demands it I get up to speed so I'm not a traffic hazard.

When coasting to a stop. If I can time it correctly I let off the gas way ahead of time and slip the tranny into neutral. I really not sure this helps or not. Traffic doesn't allow this very often either and sometimes I just don't mess with it.

Gasoline - 87 octane of whatever station has the lowest price.

Oil - Amsoil OE 5w-30 with an OEM filter. I do my own oil changes every 5,000 miles. First oil change at 1,500 miles, second at 5,000 miles, third at 10,000 and so on.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbb10785

When coasting to a stop. If I can time it correctly I let off the gas way ahead of time and slip the tranny into neutral. I really not sure this helps or not.

That doesn't help and can actually hurt MPG (as well as being illegal). Putting a car in neutral means the engine needs fuel to continue turning. When you coast in gear, the computer cuts off the fuel because the inertia of the car is turning the engine via the transmission. Yes, there is a bit of drag that way compared to coasting in gear but it is more than made up for by not using fuel. Also, I've found that giving just a slight bit of throttle as opposed to being completely off the throttle helps the coasting in gear. Also, the lockup converter puts more drag on the car while coasting. One tap of the brakes ever so slightly disengages the lockup converter helping the car to coast longer.

 

Hi all, thanks for contributing,

Marathon, you've put that well, driving like there's a carton of eggs on the roof. I too have felt like a traffic hazard.
I've had a slight increase, maybe, since I changed oil (at 5200) with Mobil1 5-20 synthetic (+ Mobil filter), to 34 mpg. I'm going to ride this tank more in the "normal" manner and see what happens. I've been in "eco" the whole time, the next tank wll experiment with it off.
I've less than 1 stop per mile so it's more, IMO, like highway than city. Some hills as well. My average trip though is about 14 miles, relatively short I suppose. It seems that real city driving would result in 25mpg! I hope not.
Looking outside, it's snowing, I'll let you all know about it.
Again you guys have been helpful, I appreciate it.

 

Thanks NovaResource! Yep, your post is exactly what I had read about the new fuel injection systems (well it's been out a while now, lol). Thanks for the tip on the easy tap on the brakes.

I'm always trying little things with my driving if for no other reason just to entertain myself since I average about 800 miles a week of seat time.

 

Sorry, it's 5w-20 Amsoil not 5w-30, our Nissan Rogue takes the 5w-30.

 

I've noticed an increase in mpg AND less pinging/chugging when I switched to full synthetic on my third oil change. When I talk about average mpg, I'm not using the computers, just a simple tripmeter reading / gas.

Other things I've learned since owning the car... eco does help, but your habits have to drastically change to milk the most out of eco. Accelerating does take a lot longer, especially when trying to reach 65mph speeds. The car manual does not say if eco mode changes your gas injection volume... but it does change gear ratio settings (hence the longer accelerating length). If you do city driving, it's useless driving in eco mode unless you want to **** other drivers off and if you love waiting on red lights... So, as far as I know, eco mode changes how your transmission works and I'm not sure about what it does to gas. I did not notice a difference in mpg when turning on eco mode when I'm cruising at 65mph.

About mpg.... lately I've been doing some site visits for my job, at least once a week, so that's about 260 miles round trip of 70% highway driving. I then average about 110-120 miles before the gas light comes on, so as little as 370 miles (average driving) total. I also know that when the light comes on, it will take over, or almost 9 gallons to fill it up... so just doing the math there, I'm over 40mpg. Now if I just go to work for a full week, which is how long gas will last me, I average 35-37mpg (35mpg if I'm carpooling two heavy set people). My MPGs were below 35 when I was using regular oil. So yeah, synthetic oil helps.

To those still having below expected mpg, you have to really pay attention to your driving habits. My overall driving habits have changed since I've owned the car. At first I was getting "crappy" mpg than what was advertised, but I've come to learn that the 40mpg does exist under certain habits. And I've only started to hit 40mpg after 9k miles. I'm not at 12k miles. So hang in there and work on your driving habits and yes, the onboard computer that calculates average mpg is off... so don't trust that. It actually calculates average mpg different than how you simply divide your trip miles by the amount of gas used to fill it up (as long as you zeroed it out prior to filling it up last time).

@tbb... what oil filter are you using?

 

Hyundai OEM filter

Thanks for your post above!

 

Okay fellas, this is what I got since I bought the car. ECO on and ECO off, doesn't matter. Like I have said before, this is me driving the car "egg cartons" and all,as well as in "normal" guy mode. I drive an average of 70-80 miles a day on the freeway and use cruise control the majority of the time. My average "real world" speed is between 60-70mph in the HOV lane. City driving is normal and not heavy on the pedal at all. My computer consistently shows 33.5 to 36 mpg on the freeway and 32/33mpg around town. I believe the best I'm going to get with "MY" driving style is between 29 and 32 MPG's. And you know what....... I'm okay with that. It's way better than 10.5 mpg I was getting before and I have XM radio. :-) I am going to try the synthetic oil however.

1/03/12 to 1/08/12 10.32 gals in= 29.75 mpg
1/08/12 to 1/18/12 10.33 gals in= 30.59 mpg
1/18/12 to 1/24/12 10.58 gals in= 28.73 mpg
1/24/12 to 1/30/12 10.10 gals in= 29.70 mpg

P.S. I use the Mileage app on my DROID X to log all my vehicles fuel stats.
mileage@evancharltion.com

 

The 30mpg I'm averaging is certainly better than the 20-24 I was getting in my VR6 Jetta. But the constant nagging question for me is: was it worth it? My buddy has an 08 Honda Fit and averages 38mpg. Granted, he lives in a smaller city where traffic is more free-flowing, and he drives the manual. Still, I was anticipating-with conservative driving habits and a vehicle with much better advertised mileage-getting at least in the mid-30s.

Honestly I'm still flustered, compared to my previous vehicle. How can a vehicle with 2 fewer cylinders, 2 more gears, 400 less lbs, and a small host of other mileage-related improvements only get - with CONSERVATIVE driving - 6-8mpg more than my old car, which I drove with comparative reckless abandon?!? And let's not talk about technology and weight. As I said, my Jetta was 3-400 lbs heavier, and had more airbags than you could imagine.
I have yet to turn off Eco mode. I'm loathe to do so seeing as mileage was the determining factor for me buying the Accent vs the Fit. And I'm still bitter that I have zero fun driving this thing and get barely better mileage. Bah humbug.

 

Don't worry your milage will improve if you use a few of the active eco features on the accent such as the active eco mode on the left side of your steering wheel and accelerating at a moderate rate of speed to allow maximum fuel economy.