I bought a 2004 Elantra this past August. It had minimal body damage, almost everything refurbished, and only had 66,000 miles on it.

The problem: I get ridiculously low MPG. I was wondering why I've had to put so much money into my tank lately, so I did a test. I filled the car up as far as it would go, and I set my trip to 0 miles. On my entire tank, I got a measly 215 miles. The tank holds 14.5 gallons, so that gets me around 14-15 MPG.

The car is rated at at least 21, and from what reports I've seen, can average all the way up to 26 to 29. I checked the oil/air filter and did an oil change just because. The air filter shows signs of wear, but nothing substantial, and the oil filter is like-new.

Any ideas?

 

A lot depends on how and where you drive. Do you do a lot of high speed driving?

 

I know this is over a month old. Check your brakes, especially your emergency brake cable. I had our's hanging an applying pressure to the brakes. (This was after I had a brake job done.) When the rear shoes were replaced, it appears they had a twist in the cable on re-assembly. This was causing brake drag.