I just bought a brand-new 2008 Subaru Impreza. The posted gas mileage for the car read 20 miles city and 27 miles highway. I've driven it about 100 miles and am almost at the halfway point of my 16-gallon tank. The average MPG reading on the dash is steady at 15-16 MPG. I expressed concerns to the dealership about how much gas it was eating up, and the answer I got was that "the car is new so it's calibrating. In about two weeks you'll start to get the average miles 20-25 city and 25-30 highway." Is this true? It seemed odd, the calibrating part. I've never heard of such a thing.
It’s possible that it could take time before you start to see better MPG ratings while the engine breaks in and the computer adjust to your driving style.
With only 100 miles and half a tank of gas, there really aren’t enough miles on the car to determine if there’s something wrong with it. Run through a few tanks of fuel and see if the mileage stays consistent. You may start to see mileage pick up after a while, or it may just be that your driving style or commute isn’t returning the best mileage.
Even though the EPA rating is 20/27 mpg city/highway, if you look on the window sticker you’ll see that there’s a range of what drivers can expect for both city and highway mileage. For example, a car could be rated at 22 mpg in the city, but the sticker will say something along the lines of, “actual mileage will vary, the majority of vehicles will return 18 to 26 mpg in the city from our findings.”
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I had a 2002 Subaru Outback and it got 19 to 20mpg in the city and 29mpg on the highway from the day I purchased it new. My 2005 Mazda Miata gets 24mpg in the city and normally 28mpg on the highway at 70mph. Both vehicles got exactly or close to the EPA rating. Since you are on your first tank I recommend going through at least three tanks to get your average. These days there really is no "break in" period on vehicles but still allow a realistic average. I would really expect your Impreza to get get better then 15/20 unless it's a WRX model and you are hot footing it constantly. Good luck, Subarus are great vehicles.
Don't forget, after your car breaks-in, the mileage is going to get better if you drive conservatively the whole time
Subaru hasn't had good gas mileage since they went full time AWD. I had a 4wd subaru brat and I never got under 38mpg. That was with 4wd high and the A/C on. I also had a 2wd legacy wagon that got over 35mpg all the time. I wish they would go back to 2wd and cut a couple of grand off their prices while they are at it. Even when the 4wd was manual you had to turn it off before you parked or wanted to coast, it was like you were towing a concrete block. You also had to be going under 50mph to engage it.
I have a 03' Liberty 2wd and I'm getting 10mpg-12mpg all around town and under 45mph. My wife who drives like a old lady can get 14mpg out of it. But I have to have it recabrated/reprogrammed or it won't downshift on the freeway after she drives it for awhile. The overdrive override will quit working too. After it is reprogrammed it goes back to getting 10-12mpg. It has 18000 miles on it and it has been recalibrated 5 times.
Subaru copied the AMC Eagle with their Outback model(and their previous feeble "Yama Yagi"trim package),but they took away the Eagle's Select Trac 2wd/4WD capability,and went with a boxer 4 instead of a straight 6.I dont think the average Subaru can do much better MPGs than a good running Eagle-6.And thats sad what with todays technology.Plain and simple the Subaru weighs too much.Why they would remain an AWD only manufacturer in these MPG focused days is a mystery.
In my short experience with Subaru cars i find that they are not the most fuel efficient, even with a 4 cylinder. The main reason, i think, is because they are all-wheel drive.
If i were Zorn i would calculate the mileage manually rather than relying on the mileage calculator in the car.
i agree with some of the above comments. the first 100 miles don't mean anything; nor should you trust the stupid on-board computer for such a short duration.
finally, the gas gauge should not be used as an accurate estimate of where your half or quarter tank is; these things are notoriously inaccurate. if you say the 100 miles you drove ate up 1/2 of the 16-gal tank, that means you really are getting 12.5 mpg!
I bought a 2008 Outback 3 months ago. For the first 3 weeks I noticed that the display showed I was getting 15-18 mpg. My wife complained that we should be doing better.
After 3 weeks I reset the mileage display (done by resetting the trip odometer). My mpg jumped up immediately. I'm getting 22-24 city and 27-30 highway. This seems to be a factory setting as I've heard this from other new owners.
Just fill up at the gas station. Drive 250-300 miles. Come back to the same hose and fill up again. Calculate.
Also, if your car needs 93 octane and you put in 87 it will use more of it. If gas in your car has to much ethanol - car will use more.
I noticed that when I fill at Sanoco my car uses more gas than same grade at Lukoil or Shell.
Too many factors to count.
Ask dealer to check timing on the car if everything else dont help.
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i bought a brand new 2006 subaru impreza wrx during xmas of 2005. that car is supposed to get 20/26 city/highway. i've driven 26,000 miles in about 2 years. the car really gets 15/20. i don't put the pedal to the metal. i accelerate slowly, and i rarely break 3,000 rpm. but the awd impreza just eats up gas like crazy.
tbh, pretty much all cars have sticker mileage that is higher than real life mileage. i know you bought a new 2008 impreza. but if you want to get somewhat better mileage, drive slower, and considering emptying some weight from the car, maybe having less people in the car :/... drive slower especially when the car was just turned on after a cold night outside.
consider taking out all floor/trunk mats.... consider even taking out the spare tire and related tools. all this is like 50 pounds. while this is a little risky, i've gotten about 1 mile better per gallon. while this may seem like a little, over months, this does add up.
you might want to consider going to cleanmpg.com and learn how to use some of the hypermiling techniques on the website.
or, worst case scenario... if your car is still new, low mileage... maybe u can take it back for some kind of refund and get a toyota yaris that gets about 30mpg :/
hope this in some way helps you