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87 messages, Last post on Jun 24, 2008 at 12:29 PM
You are in the Subaru Crew Forum. Your Host is kcram
Your Community Leaders are ateixeira and rsholland.
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I confess, although I bought the car because of what's under the hood, I drive like an old woman in order to get the best fuel economy. Although on occassion I will call upon the rocket power of this fine turbo engine, I'm usually very, very light footed with the accelerator. However, I don't corner like an old lady, and I do take advantage of my powerplant's torque in some aggressive cornering. I drive mostly country/rural driving and interstate highway (I live in the Northern Catskills/Mid-Hudson Valley region of New York). I rarely exceed 65 MPH on the interstate in an effort to increase fuel economy. On long downhill sections of roadways, I often shift into neutral to lessen the engine speed and gas consumption. My old lady habits pay off with good fuel economy. My vehicle is EPA rated 19 MPG city/25 MPG highway. I tend to average 25-26.5 MPG with 90% rural/country/highway driving. The remaining 10% of mileage per tank is often stop-and-go traffic in suburban New Jersey and driving in evening rush hour traffic in Manhattan/NYC. If my driving excludes NJ/NYC rush hours and is completely rural driving, I can get 26-27 MPG. On long highway stretches of non-stop driving using cruise control, I can usually get 28-29 MPG, once even 30 MPG, as long as I don't exceed 65 MPH. All of these figures are mathematically calculated. I find the car's computer is usually overly optimistic by 0.8-1.5 MPG. My car, in non-winter months, is equipped with Pirelli PZero Nero M+S tires which I usually have pumped up 2-3 PSI above what Subaru recommends, which for my car is 35 PSI front and 33 PSI rear. These tires have a fairly high rolling resistance, especially in comparison to the OEM Potenza RE92 tires (but they handle so much better!). I normally travel alone in the car without any passengers with the exception of my dogs. My winter fuel economy tends to be lower, attributable to the use of winter tires, winter fuel composition, and colder operating temperatures. I fuel my car with 93 octane fuel mostly, but when 91 octane is available (most Sunoco stations) I will often purchase that if it saves me a couple of cents per gallon (my turbo engine requires 91+ octane). |
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Replying to: KarenS (May 16, 2005 6:33 am) 27 MPG for overall average (since around 10 to 15 thousand miles). Mostly rural/highway/freeway driving, very little stop and go. Only driver (me, of course) and some gear in car. Original tires (Potenza) usually kept as close to correct inflation as possible, 32/29 PSI F/R. Been using Mobil 1 synthetic engine oil since about 1000 miles on odometer, which is currently over 26 thousand miles. Run only 87 Octance regular gas, cheapest I can get-- annoying pinging included. Almost forgot to add... I'm a heavy user of Cruise Control.
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Replying to: subi4obs (Jul 11, 2006 8:15 am) Eric
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Replying to: rangner (Jul 11, 2006 2:22 pm) After realizing that the car must have spent a long time on the lot (actually came from Nashville, TN, about 100 miles from local dealership) I drained the gas tank to get any trapped bad gas out of there (are two sides to these, as you may or may not know, so that meant opening two different plugs). Then I changed the fuel filter. Well, I finally noticed the car will ping most when the gas tank gets below 1/2 full and especially if only at 1/4. Gas treatments were tried but I hadn't found any remedy by doing that. I think maybe higher octane helps but I only gave that a try twice. I almost always get gas at either Raceway or Pilot near home. Haven't checked into what percentage of other stuff might be mixed in. I think the majority of pinging-- aside from that caused (supposedly) by the tank levels-- happens only during acceleration and steady uphill climbs. Oh yeah... another thing too... there's also occassional high-pitched plunk noises during sudden decelerations (just once each time). Doesn't happen everytime but enough to be a bother to me. Sounds like a metal sheet being hit lightly under the car. I've found out that's possibly something about extra gas igniting in the exhaust pipe near the catalytic convertor, maybe, which is something I need to talk with the service people about when I take the car in for its 30K mile checkup. Another thing I had a lot with this car is the awful sulfur smells, another thing said to be about catalytic convertors having trouble with burning fuel cleanly enough or whatever. I don't know much about it, just what I've read or heard said. Luckily those are few and far between anymore, yet seemed to happen a lot during the first year or so. Thanks for asking Eric, hopefully not too much info given.  I really need to get a look at the Ethanol, MTBE stuff when I'm at the gas stations!
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I don't know if I've screwed up the math or not, but my wife drove the 2000 outback to nashville on a full tank of gas and when she got back I filled it up again taking 9.21 gallons. She drove between 70-75mph. Oh, and tire pressure was 32-33psi cold. With a round trip of 328 miles I figure 35.6 mpg?!! This is on shell v-power premium gas. Usually on regular I get 24-25mpg. I switched to premium because of somewhat regular pinging. Now it doesn't ping anymore and gets incredible mileage. I'll keep checking it to see if this mileage keeps up or not. I couldn't be happier!  Eric
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Replying to: rangner (Sep 20, 2006 7:55 pm) -juice
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Replying to: ateixeira (Sep 21, 2006 9:01 am) But the needle pegged at the same place it always does... I'll wait and see what it does on this tank. Eric |
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Replying to: grahampeters (May 16, 2005 2:58 pm) 1. 8.0 L/100 km ==> 235/8 = 29.4 mpgUS 2. 8.0 L/100 km ==> 282/8 = 35.3 mpgUK 3. 29.4 mpgUS ==> 235/29.4 = 8.0 L/100km 4. 18.8 mpgUK ==> 282/18.8 = 15.0 L/100km |
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Not many posts going on here so I'll mention my change from 87 octane (almost always cheapest found) to 89 octane. It apparently dropped from 27 MPG to 24 or 25 at first. Now after 3 tankfuls it's back again to 27. I almost never buy gas from places like Chevron, Exxon, Shell, etc. so it's usually Murphy USA, RaceTrac (or Raceway), Pilot, Wavaho. I remember when I tried Shell premium once (only once) and I think the MPG increased to 28. But that was a couple years ago so I can't say that with absolute certainty. I'm considering paying a little more for awhile and see if it helps stop the engine knock I've been plagued with. For now I'm still getting the gas at the cheaper places and I might move on to the expensive stuff at least temporarily to find out what changes happen. I'd have done this sooner if not for the bad timing of price increases. Interestingly, the car is rated at 21 city, 27 hwy. I probably only drive in city traffic 10% of the time so the gas mileage must be what's to be expected. |
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do people think a 3.0 Bean will get better mileage than a 2.5 XT OB turbo with auto ? I ask because its probably a choice between those two to replace my 98 legacy (unless the bums at SOA come out with a 2.5i with VDC).
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