Anyone else getting ~17mpg in short trips?

[91Beater]

I'm getting absurdly low mileage in mine
On long trips, I can get upper 20s

Have 4EAT 2WD here.

[MConte05]

Define short trips.

17mpg sounds about right if you make lots of trips under 2-3 miles. Especially if you start it when cold. The engine runs rather rich while it warms up, combine that with stop and go traffic (stop signs, red lights, slowing down, people turning, etc.) and it is rather easy to see why you get such crappy gas mileage on short trips.

Heck, the EPA rating was 18-19mpg for the Leggy for City driving, so combine that with frequent startup's from cold, and 17mpg is perfectly normal.

[kimokalihi]

Hmm still seems pretty low. My na awd wagon got 26-27 mpg with 4EAT amd I made a lot of short trips a out 3 miles to school and back.

[subaruguy509]

I get about 20 in the city and about 26 on the highway in my 5 speed all wheel drive 1993 wagon.

[topsecret888]

This topic is still being talked about after all these years........lol
Just go to fueleconomy.gov and search for 91 legacy 4wd gas mileage.
It's 18 city and 24 hwy......for a combined of 20 mpg. Average true mileage is 20.8 mpg.
I myself get around 20 mpg, so it's definitely matching up with the established mpg from the EPA.
This being a 4wd with auto transmission. I supposed the manual gets a little better mileage and it shows the same
18 city/24 hwy with a combined of 20 mpg. So, auto and manual gets about the same then? Anyone claiming to get high 20s is either mistaken or submitting false information lol
We buy subarus for their all wheel drive capacity and not for gas mileage obviously. If you want to get good gas mileage, get a toyota corolla or honda civic...

[Legacy777]

It really depends on your driving habits and how fast you're going. The manual cars tend to not get as good of mileage on the interstate due to the lower gearing.

[subaruguy509]

I know how to figure out my gas mileage, and being how I drive my car with respect and it being a 5 speed. 20 city & 26 hwy is extremely accurate for my driving.

[topsecret888]

All of us can actually take the mystery out of guessing what miles per gallon the legacy 4WD gets just by checking the facts posted by the EPA. It's not guesswork and should be absolutely accurate. For example, if i said I'm getting 30 mpg in my automatic 2.2 legacy, then you can definitely say that's a lie. With utmost certainty. Truth is, 20 mpg in a 3300 pounds 4 door wagon with all wheel drive is not too bad. I just read an article on Motor Trend last night reviewing the new 2013 Honda Accord Sport with 2.4 liter 6 spd manual 4 door. Guess what mpg this car gets? 22mpg! That really sucks, I'd say. So much for progress.

[kimokalihi]

You could get 30mpg with an auto if you drove it right. I got 27mpg in my auto wagon and I surely wasn't trying to set any records. There are people getting between 60 and 85 mpg driving geo metros with some mods and hypermiling.

[topsecret888]

I would never risk myself with hypermiling, no matter what, it's just not worth it! I'm not too sure you can get 30 mpg in a heavy 4wd auto trans wagon, it's pretty much stretching it, so I'm highly skeptical of that figure. I'm not implying that ur lying or anything but the facts simply don't support that. I'm always easy on my cars and don't lead foot so, the EPA rating is correct and true.

[kimokalihi]

Driving habits determine everything. Those epa estimates are just that. Estimates. What the average driver can expect to see. The average driver is taking the freeway which may result in better or worse mpg depending on the gearin of the vehicle or going in the city with stop and go. A person who commutes mainly highway like myself (not 60-70mpg freeway) can easily achieve better mpg than the epa rating by driving about 50mph and slowing down a little sooner and coasting in gear thus consuming no fuel, running higher tire pressures and whatever other tricks you might wish to take advantage of.

[topsecret888]

One trick i'm going to resort to is something u just mentioned. That's running higher tire pressure. For example, my tires called for 35 psi, but i'm going to inflate it to 44 psi. I think this should net me another 2 mpg......lol...nothing to laugh at when gas price is no longer "chump" change.....lol

[subaruguy509]

I run my tires at 50psi and they all for 44psi. I do a max of 55-60 no matter what highway I am on, and coast down all hills. I don't care if you are driving 70, I know that 4 cylinder cars can do 70 easy, but it is much harder on them versus a 6 or 8 cylinder.

[Apex3]

I get 17 in my AWD Turbo, so that sounds low for a 2WD NA to me...Spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter.

One trick i'm going to resort to is something u just mentioned. That's running higher tire pressure. For example, my tires called for 35 psi, but i'm going to inflate it to 44 psi. I think this should net me another 2 mpg......lol...nothing to laugh at when gas price is no longer "chump" change.....lol

Less traction and more tire wear to gain 2mpg, smart.

[Alphius]

Lol.
There's so many variables in driving that the EPA rating can never be perfectly accurate. I'm not going to go on some long winded diatribe about it, but that's the gist of my arguments.

I know for a fact that I easily beat the EPA ratings for my car. I average 26 highway and 20 city.
I personally track my gas mileage with hard numbers computed at every fill up since I bought my Legacy almost two years ago. I have well over 20k miles of accurate gas mileage numbers. In that time my 5-speed turbo car has seen as low as 16.3mpg with lots of city driving and lots of full throttle 18psi runs up to speed. My all-time max was driving at an exact 60mph over a mountain pass for an entire tank. That one was 28.8mpg; I could easily do better on flat ground at 55-60mph. When I speed up to 70-75mph I get closer to 26mpg instead.
Lifetime average mpg for my Legacy Turbo has been 22.45mpg. The majority of my tanks of gas fall between 20-24mpg and I mostly drive city, and I am not afraid of a little positive pressure to get up to speed.

Back when I had a highway commute to work, I easily got 31mpg tank after tank with my '96 5-speed AWD wagon, but that's not really relevant here.

[Legacy777]

I too track my fuel mileage on every tank. I've been doing it since I've had the car in 1995. I unfortunately didn't put that data in electronic form, so I'm not sure I could find it for that far back, but I've probably got at least the past 10+ years or so. If and when I go through all my paperwork I'll have to put them into a spreadsheet.

[kimokalihi]

I do too but I don't write any of it down. Just like to see how my driving has affected the mpg every tank.

[Alphius]

Current graph below. I store this data for every fillup:
Date, Miles, Gallons, $ per Gallon, Full Tank Cost, MPG, Cost per Mile