EPA Mileage Ratings..Am I missing something?

[Pritch]

Today I returned a Hyundai Accent I was driving for a review. The EPA says it gets something like 8.3 liters per 100 KMS in the city and lets say 6 per 100 on highway, I dont remember.


I never came close to those numbers. The best I did on the highway, and I mean driving like a complete grandmother with blue hair and horn rimmed glasses, was slightly better than the city rating. In the city, still driving miss daisy, I was using nearly double the rating they gave.

I know there are various other factors at play. It was cold where I live. I forgot to turn the seatwarmer off on the passenger side, i had the music kind of blasting, oh and there were a pair of my workboots in the trunk. But really...what am I missing?

I often quote these EPA figures in my reviews and now Im very seriously questioning their reliabillity since ive actually measured.

[XTrail1]

Today I returned a Hyundai Accent I was driving for a review. The EPA says it gets something like 8.3 liters per 100 KMS in the city and lets say 6 per 100 on highway, I dont remember.


I never came close to those numbers. The best I did on the highway, and I mean driving like a complete grandmother with blue hair and horn rimmed glasses, was slightly better than the city rating. In the city, still driving miss daisy, I was using nearly double the rating they gave.

I know there are various other factors at play. It was cold where I live. I forgot to turn the seatwarmer off on the passenger side, i had the music kind of blasting, oh and there were a pair of my workboots in the trunk. But really...what am I missing?

I often quote these EPA figures in my reviews and now Im very seriously questioning their reliabillity since ive actually measured.

What I find interesting is that some brands come very close and sometimes meet it like both my Echo and X-Trail, while others don't come close at all. Another example is the Impala, where I find most owners will say the mileage is great.

[The General]

I believe that the only cars for which my average came close the Natural Ressources Canada numbers were the Yaris, Civic Hybrid, smart and Highlander Hybrid.

Every other vehicle ended up consuming way more fuel than indicated. These numbers are supposed to be a "guide" and only that. I for one sure as heck don't trust them.

[jww]

What I'd like to know is what constitutes Transport Canada's driving conditions so that I could replicate to see if I can produce the same numbers. One can only imagine that they run a car breifly in a wind tunnel or some other controlled environment then run a pre-determined calculation that somehow accounts for weight, drag, etc. And I suspect that they let the manufacturers do all this themselves after passing some kind of certification that either is out-dated or not controlled very carefully.

Of course, thjis is all supposition and since I don't know myself specitifically I'd be interested in learing how this all works - in theory that is.

jww

[Pritch]

JWW/General

What were you getting from your Yaris in terms of mileage??

Yes a guide only for sure. I drove a Ford Escape Hybrid from Toronto to Sudbury yesterday and got 7 liters per 100 km!!! (It has an onboard cmoputer which says I was using 9.2)

pretty interesting, just wanted to compare

[The General]

I managed 6.5L / 100 km. I am typipcally hard on a test car so I was very impressed.

[Hammerjoe]

6.5 that is not impressive at all... with a diesel you could get tops 5 easily and more likely even lower than that...

[woohoo!]

Fuel economy numbers for all cars are conservative. The tests are run in the most ideal of conditions, at slow speeds, like 75-80 km/h for the highway test... who drives at those speeds?

Factors like air conditioning, elevations, hills, cold/hot temperatures, winter tires, are not taken into consideration.

Look in the owners manual which will tell you at what speeds to shift a manual transmission, it's nuts... like shifting into 2nd at 15 km/h and such...

[The General]

6.5 that is not impressive at all... with a diesel you could get tops 5 easily and more likely even lower than that...

Yes... But I did not test a diesel. A diesel engine is not available in North America. What I was trying to say is that even though I drove the car hard, I managed a very reasonable fuel consumption. If someone was to drive "normally", they would probably be able to get much less than that; between 5L and 5.5L for example.

[snoproblem]

My family rented a Hyundai Elantra over the Christmas holiday, and we were pleased with the fuel mileage. I looked up the figures, and we were close to the estimate (around 40 mpg, highway). The car was nearly brand new, as well. I imagine those numbers would only go up, after a year or so.

As a side note, the car made quite the overall impression. I certainly wouldn't sneer at the prospect of owning one. :thumbsup:

[neseh]

Hi, everybody, Happy 2006!

Now I started to believe that date on fuel from manufacturer is way far from the truth.

My 4 cly Accord, bought in May, 2005, is around 13L/100Km all city trafic (comparing to 10L city as per spec.) Isn'y it too much?

However, in the summer time, I managed less than 11L/100 all city. I asked General, and he told me that it could been better after break in.

Is it only because it is winter, or from now on, it will only get worse than that, that sucks!

Any body has Accord out there, how about yours?

[The General]

Winter consumption is typically worse. The heater is on, the defrost and heated seats are on, snow on the ground makes forward motion more tedious...

This is one of the principal issues with fuel consumption guides. They never take winter into consideration. Their numbers are based on ideal conditions therefore it is very normal that real-world numbers are higher. I think they should do it the other way around...

[Pritch]

ever drive something where it seemed to get the same mileage whether you drove like grampa or drove like your pants were on fire?!

The Dodge charger is like that.
I got to learn that if I kept using the full blown hemi engines capabilities, I would get the same sort of mileage as if i was polite to it, or so it seemed.

Of course, I took full advantage of this.

[pogs]

How about a Forester or CRV...what have people been getting mileage-wise?

Thanks,
pogs