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SUVs Honda Pilot Honda Pilot Real World MPG
981 messages, Last post on Oct 23, 2009 at 12:54 PM
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Hi all, would like to thank those who have posted extensive explanations of how they've achieved their various levels of gas mileage. I haven't posted for a while so I'll try to return the favor. We're usually averaging in the low 20s for mileage here in Northern New England....hilly commutes of usually over 10 miles one way....and generally we experience 23-25 mpg on longer trips in the region. Most of the roads we travel are two-laners (our closest interstate is about 50 miles away) with 50-55 speed limits. In summer last year we achieved 25.7 on a 400 mile round trip, with speeds around 50-55, all on two-lane roads, some hilly terrain, little use of the air conditioner, some use of the cruise control. I always factor in the odometer error, which is currently running at 2.3% (for every actual 100 miles driven, the odo will show 102.3). And if I can't fill up at the same gas station, I try to make sure on these mileage runs that I at least fill up at a station at the same approximate elevation as the previous one. There will always be some inaccuracies, but the more we measure, the more MPG data we get, and the errors eventually cancel out to a large degree. But that's old news.....again, a couple of months ago, we got 25.1 MPG in similar driving conditions, similar temperatures, etc etc, on a 326 mile round trip. On this run I was struck by how long you can coast, say on a downhill portion, or when slowing down for a lower speed limit as you approach a town, without hindering traffic. But that's in low traffic density situations. We are considerate of drivers behind us! We haven't had a chance to do much urban driving, but I strongly agree with the poster who explained that there are different types of "city" driving, and that the amount of idle time stuck in traffic (the times you're getting zero MPG) has a big influence on overall MPG. Please pardon my digression here....but I'm recalling an 8,000 mile trip from Sacramento to Boston and back, with a side trip through Canada, that I took in 1972.....driving a 1965 split-window VW bus. After that trip I vowed I'd never take a VW bus on the road again.....although it was reliable and reasonably comfortable, it was like driving an empty cardboard box....the vehicle was constantly at the mercy of any wind, with crosswinds and headwinds a major problem! However, even back then I was tracking gas mileage.....my log shows that we got low 20s most of the time (sound familiar?) and on the Eastbound leg through Nebraska on I-80, with a tailwind, we got 25 MPG. Even back then a 7-passenger vehicle with lousy aerodynamics and a carbureted engine could get that much under the right conditions....and admittedly, the boxlike shape of the bus enhanced the effect of the tailwind. Finally, one poster recently suggested that drivers who claim 25 MPG or higher on their Pilots are using crack. Well, I've never used crack or any other illegal drug, and I have no plans to. I checked Edmunds' gas mileage recommendations, and then checked other websites for information on how to get good gas mileage. Nowhere could I find that using crack has any effect on gas mileage, so I'm not sure why that poster would make a comment like that. Have a great day. feet2fire
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Replying to: feet2fire (Aug 06, 2008 5:09 am) Posters like you are describing come and go. They generally don't have the intelligence to discuss a topic. They just make their stupid statements and run hide! Or maybe the monitors throw them off.   Your post was informative. Kip
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2007 EXL AWD with 24,000 miles. Averaging 17.6 mpg overall. Best case is about 20mpg for mostly highway tankfulls. Worst case is about 15mpg for mixed city/highway tankfulls. While I believe that my mpg is rather par for the course for a 4WD first generation Pilot, I have come to accept and respect posts at both ends of the spectrum - the people who are suffering around 10mpg and the people who are enjoying around 25mpg. We are all driving the same machine (except that 2007/2008 models are engineered to rev higher than earlier models). The great variances between those who get the worst mpg and those who get the best mpg can be explained by many variables. I'll mention some variables I can think of, but probably no such list would be complete. 1. city driving vs. highway driving 2. speed on highway 3. in stop and go, how fast or slow you accelerate to come up to speed 4. hilly or flat area 5. tires and tire pressure 6. # of passengers 7. cargo 8. use of A/C 9. use of cruise control 10. attention to required maintenance Although I am averaging 17.6 mpg in my Pilot using it the way I do, I believe I could be in the 10mpg range if I did nothing but drive in NYC, and I believe I could be in the 25mpg range if I did nothing but drive on the highway at a low speed. Put another way, if I got in my Pilot and followed the 10mpg posters and the 25mpg posters for an entire tankfull, each of us with about the same passenger/cargo weight, I expect that my results would be very similar to theirs. |
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THought I would throw in my mpg on our 3 month old 08: 2008 2WD SE Low of 16, high of 22...right on target. My Formula 1 inspired wife's habits tend to drop the mileage to the high teens. Our 1st road trip recently showed the 22 on two tanks, averaging 75-85 on the road |
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I think city mileage is hard to agree on. some times in NY city it takes you over an hour to go 10 miles on the BQE. You are burning gas standing still. No point in blaming the manufacturers. If you do a lot of city driving, i.e more than highway you are better of with a hybrid.
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Replying to: mercara (Aug 07, 2008 4:40 pm) |
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We just completed our 2800 mile trip in a 07 Pilot EX-L AWD. We stopped in Orlando and Tampa to do the tourist thing. Ft. Myers had a little city driving while we stayed a week. Atlanta was brutal as we didn't take the bypass around the construction going down. We had 2 adults, 2 children, full luggage and drove between 72 and 75. AC was on 100%. The avg mpg was 21.5. A high of 23.7 and low of 19.0. The same trip last year we got 22.0. |
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Just got back from 700 + mile trip, VA and NC freeway driving. Tried setting the cruise to 70 versus my usual 75, and did not run the A/C in the AM as it was not necessary - estimate A/C on 75 % of the trip. 498 miles on one tank, took 18.38 gallons, 27.095 MPG. Best prior at 75 cruse was 24.619, A/C probably 90 % of the time. I have been developing a "light right foot" with the aid of the green ECO light, and have been getting 18 to just above 19 on all in town short trip tanks. Morale of this story: the ECO light helps train your foot - relaxing the pedal when going thru the gears in town gets the light on pretty quickly as the tranny gets into 5th. The engine has plenty of torque and pulls just fine in the higher gears at low speeds - lifting off slightly will get it to upshift earlier and into the ECO zone. Love Honda engines !
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Replying to: oldguy5 (Aug 10, 2008 4:07 pm) Isn't it amazing, the increase in mileage just dropping the speed from 75 down to 70 ! When your "Personal" speedometer gets used to the lower speed you may want to try dropping down to 65 and see if that will help you pick up another couple of MPG. I recon you have the 3/4/6 cylinder technology. And it takes less energy to "Push" the Pilot through the air at 65 than 70. So 65 may activate the ECO light even more. At 70 my '03 AWD Pilot is more in the 23 mpg range, and at 65 it moves up to the 26 MPG range. You are getting 3-4 mpg better at 70 than I am. If you can do that at 65, Your 07 may very well be capable of moving into the 28-29 mpg range. Kip (OLD GUY ALSO)
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Replying to: kipk (Aug 11, 2008 2:00 am) VCM TECH DESCRIPTION I wonder - do the 3/4/6 VCM engines indicate whether they are in the 3 or 4 cylinder mode ? - they should ! I'm sure 65 might give a better than linear increase - but that gets you into "single-finger-wave" territory. I'll spend some more time at 70 before I push my patience - I'm just getting used to dropping from my usual 85 in my '91 Legend Coupe on long trips to 70, but I do notice that on my typical 350 to 500 mile interstate day, the total trip time is not much longer - probably because I don't need to stop for gas.
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