What is your city mpg?

I almost wish that the EPA had a few extra categories to prevent confusion because city driving conditions can vary so much. I really never paid that close attention until I was in the market for a Prius and I mistakenly equated the term city to mean constant stop and go trafffic. Since then I realized that the test simulates a lot a lot fewer stops that I usually have to make.

I know the EPA is planning on revamping the whole system, but I would like to see categories like "Traffic Free Highway", "Traffic Free City", "Stop and Go" and "Short trip".

When I take long trips during off hours through less crowded cities than NY I usually do better than the EPA estimates.

 

I think the main factor that affects your mpg is the length of your trips. My "city/suburban" driving typically involves short trips of around 10 minutes, lots of stop and go, and somewhat hilly. I'm often not able to get more than 40-something. The first five minute segment of any trip is always under the 25-mpg marker, often much lower. The second five minutes is usually in the 40s. After that, it can go into the 50s and often much higher.

The engine needs time to warm up. This doesn't just apply to the first trip of the day after the car has been sitting overnight. I find that even after I've been driving the car for a while then stop for a short time, to go to a store for example, the first five minutes after restarting the mileage drops down real low again. Maybe not quite as low as first thing in the morning, but it will never start off at 50mpg.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Michgal007 @ Sep 10 2006, 09:50 AM) [snapback]317305[/snapback]</div>

Michgal007, I get the same as you. I have an 8 mile commute (stop and go) and traffic to work in the city and I drive 72 in a 65 zone on the hwy. I get around 40 city (Auto A/C on) and 47-48 hwy. My car just hit 6k miles and has had one oil change to Mobil 1. I know because I changed it at home. In my opinion, the mileage on these cars is highly overrated even though I am still happy with 40 something mpg. How anyone gets 50 something in the city? I will always believe they have voided their warranty by making changes to their cars; some of them admit it like Evan. He added the E/V switch which I refuse to do. I think our point is the original cars do NOT get the mileage as claimed.
BTW, my brother just bought a Highlander Hybrid in June and he gets 24 combined and should be near 30. He is happy though as he replaced a GM Envoy SUV that got in the teens.

 

Almost all of my driving is city driving. The average is somewhere around 51.5 MPG. But like others have said, YMMV depending on a number of conditions.

 

er... i do about 80% city driving and i'm sitting at 59.2 mpg, 220 miles on the tank. if it were all city driving it'd be over 60. just broke 19k miles, only use the EV switch when coasting downhill, coming to a stop or going through a parking lot.

this is with me driving the car nice, which i've never really done for an extended period before. with my usual somewhat-aggressive driving i got between 48 and 54 mpg depending on the temperature that week and where i filled up last.

 

I have no idea. I drive a mix of city and freeway since freeways cut through the city. I have no idea what the percentage of the mix is.

I average about 50 mpg with 42/40 tire pressure.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Sep 10 2006, 12:48 PM) [snapback]317372[/snapback]</div>

Same here. My short trips around town really hurt the milage though. That's why I'm down at 48ish.

 

I get generally in the 50 mpg range. The best I ever got was 59 on the highway. All the mpg's I've had in the 60 or better range were from a good bit of off highway city like driving at under 40 mph.

There's only three ways my city mpg could sometimes get worse than the highway driving. One would be in traffic jams in city or on a highway with big AC loads and constant stop and go. Similarly a downtown section with stops at every block for lights would be bad. Finally mpg would suffer with lots of very short trips.

 

I use my EV switch to improve my bad mpg on short trips to work. It has nothing to do with my city driving trips where I get well over 60 or sometimes 70 mpg.

How you drive does matter. I drove into Boston to visit a friend and we rode around a bit to show the car. Then I let him drive it, same city same roads and same general speeds. He got about 10 mpg worse mpg.

Biggest mistake he was making besides rushing up to lights and jamming on the brakes so he got virtually no regen, was using a light foot on the brake so the car was wasting power trying to creep at every light.

 

What does EPA City Mileage rating have to do with Audio and Electronics?

P.S. Thanks for moving the thread to the appropriate forum. Can you please delete this post? Thanks.

 

I'm averaging 48-50 lifetime at just over 4000 miles, mostly 'short trip' driving (5 miles each way to/from work) with 15 stoplights, 15-20 minutes each way.

 

I do alot of short trips at times and hilly areas of our county. I also have a slightly heavy foot. I get 42-44 most days but when I was going from La Mesa to UCSD I was closer to 48-50.

 

I do better in the city then the highway. About 50 or so on the highway and 55 or so in the city.

 

Evan,
Thanks for the patient response. I get frustrated thinking my car would get stated mileage by the govt. ratings. I filled up today (6,100 miles) and drove 280 miles roundtrip on hwy avg 68-74 mph with outside temps in low 70's and got an average of 51 mpg. Now this was mainly hwy miles but maybe you have a valid point to the below statement. I have also quit using Sam's Warehouse gas and have been running Exxon for the last 3 tankfuls. Maybe this has nothig to do with it. Thanks for all of your input/time into this list. Dan

BTW, at 6000 miles you're just getting through the initial break-in period and very well may start seeing some improvement in FE...that will be tempered by the coming cooler weather, but by next spring your numbers are likely to be much better than they were the first spring you had the car. Also, drop your speed to 65 in the 65 zone..I bet your mpg jumps 2-3 points from that alone.
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