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Hyundai Elantra Real World MPG 2012

745 messages,  Last post on May 18, 2013 at 10:29 AM

You are in the Hyundai Elantra Forum.

What is this discussion about? Hyundai Elantra, Fuel Efficiency (MPG), Hatchback, Sedan

Messages Page 61 of 76

#592 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy by cleanmpg

Nov 02, 2012 (1:48 pm)

Hi All:
 
While some complain, in my experience the vehicles that are falling the furthest behind their respective EPA ratings today include both the all-new 2013 Ford C-MAX hybrid and the 2013 Dodge Dart with the 1.4L engine. The Sonata, Elantra, and Accent can and do eat their EPA in far easier manner than those two in particular.
 
Having driven maybe 75 different fuel efficient vehicles within any number of segments this year alone all the while keeping very close tabs on the fuel economy including odometer offsets, aFCD offsets, temperature and wind compensations, and even elevation deltas, the 2013 Elantra GT in particular is one of the better offerings within the C-segment when it comes to ease of achieving yesterdays EPA let alone todays.
 
Not sure if Edmunds allows links as I just discovered this thread in a Google search?
 
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43477
 
I and a member of my team performed a head to head between a 2012 Elantra GLS with Auto and a 2012 Cruze Eco with Auto between San Diego, Death Valley, Las Vegas and back to San Diego. Nose to tail with drivers swapping cars and cars swapping positions every 50 or so miles showed the Elantra GLS achieving a higher percentage above its EPA than the Cruze ECO did.
 
I recently drove a 13 Elantra GT across the southwest to a fuel economy level that would scare the average Edmunds reader and I can only think of three vehicles that could best it out on the open road. The Passat TDI is one and that is the premiere Turbo Diesel in all of North America!
 
When I drive the vehicles available to me from the B, C and D-segment universe, the Elantra lineup always finishes ahead of the Focus, Cruze, Dart, Corolla, Jetta (even the diesel). Where it swaps positions (as in finishing 1, 2 or 3) is with the various 12 Civics (we all know about the poor interior in those ) and the Mazda3 with SKYACTIV. It sometimes finishes on top and sometimes in second or third depending on the topography and conditions but is always amongst the top three with the rest of the class falling far behind.
 
As for my experience and what do I do for a living? Test and review high fuel economy vehicles. Here is just a small sampling of the vehicles I have driven for tens to hundreds of miles in the past 14 days alone: The 2013 Sentra including 3 different trims, a stick and a number of CVTs, the 2013 Avalon Hybrid, the 2013 Jetta Hybrid of two different trims and I have a GS 450h that arrived in the drive yesterday afternoon.
 
While this may not have relevance to some, when it comes to fuel efficiency, the Elantra is at the top of a very short list of C-segment vehicles. If you are comparing EPA and MSRPs, the Elantra will always come out on top as well.
 
A restatement of an EPA rating is going to harm a company’s reputation but when you drive a Hyundai/Kia product and go drive a competitor at a similar price point, you will feel first hand where the value lies and the EPA is simply a number to be bested every time you turn the key.
 
Good Luck with whatever you currently own and drive.
 
Wayne Gerdes – Owner/Admin of CleanMPG.com

#593 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy [stevens5882] by dodgeman07

Nov 02, 2012 (3:01 pm)

Replying to: stevens5882 (Nov 02, 2012 8:30 am)
Only $60? You must not have very many miles on the car. Some models are droppng 4mpg (sticker versus actual mileage). That's up to 10%.
 
Some owners will be entitled to hundreds of dollars if they are high mileage drivers. And that's on mileage already covered. If they still own the car it will continue to pile up.

#594 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy [cleanmpg] by backy

Nov 02, 2012 (6:40 pm)

Replying to: cleanmpg (Nov 02, 2012 1:48 pm)
Although this discussion is for MY 2012... was the Elantra GT you drove a manual or automatic? I have the GT with 6MT on my short list for my next car.
 
I've not had any problems meeting or exceeding EPA ratings on Elantras of any model year... even the uplifted ratings on current cars. But it's incomprehensible for a company like Hyundai, trying to build market share in a tough field, to make a mistake like this... assuming it was a mistake, as claimed.

#595 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy [backy] by aviboy97

Nov 03, 2012 (8:25 am)

Replying to: backy (Nov 02, 2012 9:13 am)
Great opportunity for Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, and all the rest to pick up share from Hyundai/Kia.
 
I agree that this is totally stupid, and I do not think this can be chalked up to accidental "human error". Sorry, I just don't buy it. I could understand if it were one car, but with several?
 
Employed by a competitor to the Elantra, I do know that we are ready to pounce when given the opportunity.
 
I do feel terrible for those who have expressed displeasure with the fuel economy of these Hyundai/Kia vehicles and now their observations have been confirmed by the company. It's just not right.
 
On the bright side, the Elantra is still rated pretty well at 38mpg highway, which still makes it competitive. But, I think the PR damage is pretty severe and will take a while to bounce back from.

#596 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy [cleanmpg] by longo2

Nov 03, 2012 (9:29 am)

Replying to: cleanmpg (Nov 02, 2012 1:48 pm)
You are not the first to run a "real world" highway mpg test on the new Hyundai Elantra, other highway test have shown the Elantra beats the posted number 40 mpg as well...BTW, thanks for the effort and attention to details that you put into your story.
 
"Elantra - 40mpg highway rating, 45.613mpg actual, 114.0% of EPA"
 
I don't think Hyundai should have caved to all the political pressure and done the same kind of tests you did and then stood their ground with the posted results.
 
Big FAIL on Hyundai's PR dept...they should have set up numerous tests like yours and then beat back the Haters with numbers actually HIGHER than the sticker. .this "refund the difference" idea is pure stupidity!
 
Highway mpgs are elusive numbers to check but the route you took could easily be repeated by anyone with any brand of car to see if their mpg would meet or beat the sticker numbers, my feeling is 90% would see their pure highway mpg's a lot better than they thought.
 i.e. in my VW Jetta TDI, when you re-set the "Avg." fuel economy to zero while highway driving with cruise on, the numbers pop 5 to 10 mpg more.
 
I doubt that many Elantra owners have actually filled their car at a roadside station, gently pulled out on the freeway and driven for 5 or 600 miles, 8 hours, on a 'posted speed limit' cross country trip,rolled back into another roadside station and re-filled, divided the miles driven by the gallons used and then had a real "highway" mpg number.
  No driving into town for lunch, no pulling off the road for antique store browsing, no parking at burger joints with the motor running..you know, all the little things people forgot they were doing on their "poor highway mpg" rants.
 
Everyone who has ever had a mpg dash readout in their car should know by now they are rarely ever spot on. My VW Jetta speedometer reads 5 mph faster than I am actually driving so my mpg readout is always off as well.
 My Garman GPS mph calculation is spot on tho, with the ever changing posted speed limit readout in another corner of the display.
 (Just to be sure I have a Valentine 1 radar detector on as well..I hate surprises)
 If you have ever driven cross country through all the Texas speed traps, a good radar detector will pay for itself on the first trip.
 
To sum up, Hyundai has NOT posted false highway mpg's...and I am really disapointed they didn't make public real world, the pure highway mpg numbers that car will do....under pure highway driving...not commuting through rush hour, running errands, they driving back home and calling that "highway driving"
 

#597 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy [longo2] by m6user

Nov 03, 2012 (9:14 am)

Replying to: longo2 (Nov 03, 2012 9:29 am)
There are highway tests and then there are highway tests.Straight, steady speed hwy tests are not equivalent to the EPA tests. You can run all the "private" tests you want but unless they exactly duplicate the same regimen the EPA tests are run on they are irrelevant. The EPA tests are for comparison purposes and don't equate to anyone's particular "real world". I think that is a point that many people miss. The tests that manufactures have to use for posting and comparison purposes are the EPA tests, not your's, mine, some blogger's or a car mag. If they cheat(or somehow error) on those and get caught they suffer the bad PR and fines that Hyundai/Kia is now experiencing. That is why most manufactures are so darn careful with those tests.

#598 of 745 Told you so! by eweiner

Nov 03, 2012 (9:13 am)

I have been posting here since the beginning of the year that the Hyundai MPG estimates are simply wrong.
 
I have a 2012 elantra limited and I have only gotten as much as 39 miles to the gallon by driving for an extended period of time at an excessive highway speed of 65 mpg.
 
For the rest of my driving my MPG has only been 24. Not even 29 miles per gallon that Hyundai says I should get with city driving.
 
I feel completely ripped off by Hyundai having bought a car that I expected to get routine high mileage only to find out that it is an average car that only gets average mileage.
 
The compensation offered by Hyundai is quite frankly too low. It does not compensate me for any future miles post their announcement of having been wrong. This seems to me to be unfair as I still own the car and will continue to drive the car yet I will not get the mileage promised me and the mileage that drove my purchase decision.
 
I have driven my elantra for just about one year and I have kept track of every single tank that I have purchased. I can assure you that I have not come close to an average of even the low in number from Hyundai of 29 mpg city.
 
Hyundai owes me quite a bit more than the paltry amount of money they are offering to compensate me for their mistake their life.

#599 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy [m6user] by longo2

Nov 03, 2012 (9:43 am)

Replying to: m6user (Nov 03, 2012 9:14 am)
If you actually read the extensive "cleanmpg" test story earlier on in this thread you would know that what they did was a real "Highway" mpg test.
 
They ran a Chevy Cruze and a Hyundai Elantra through a day long highway trip on the west coast, with lots of curves, bends, dips, traffic, hills and heat.
 
Both cars got BETTER mpg's than the window sticker. However the Hyundai got even better mpg's than the Cruze.

#600 of 745 Re: Hyundai & Kia admit false fuel economy [longo2] by m6user

Nov 03, 2012 (10:00 am)

Replying to: longo2 (Nov 03, 2012 9:43 am)
If you actually read my post you would know that I didn't say it wasn't a REAL highway test. Anybody can get on a highway and give a car a "real highway test". I said it was not the actual hwy test criteria that the EPA uses. The EPA uses a very strict regimen which just going from point A to point B on a highway does not replicate even if it is hilly, curvy or hot out. I'm not saying the EPA test is anybody's "real world", I'm just saying that any hwy test that does not EXACTLY replicate the EPA criteria cannot be deemed the same.
 
And the fact that both cars got better than the window sticker means absolutely nothing because it wasn't the same exact test the EPA uses. If you run different tests, you may get different results....how shocking.

#601 of 745 Re: Told you so! [eweiner] by backy

Nov 03, 2012 (10:02 am)

Replying to: eweiner (Nov 03, 2012 9:13 am)
First, the EPA fuel economy estimates for the Elantra have now been confirmed by the EPA itself to be 28/38/32. Very close to Hyundai's original numbers. And you've been able to exceed the highway number in your driving.
 
Second, the EPA (and Hyundai's statements re fuel economy) are clear that "YMMV". So while the EPA overall estimate is 32 mpg, not everyone will be able to hit that number. Some will exceed it. You appear to be in the former category, based on your driving patterns.
 
Third, re compensation... you are being compensated for miles already driven, and miles you will drive as long as you own the car, plus 15 percent for your inconvenience. How is that unfair? What do you expect?
 
If the Elantra's EPA rating had been 28/38/32 mpg at the time of your purchase, would you have still purchased the car?
 
Since those numbers have now been validated by the EPA, it appears your issue now is more with the EPA and how they test cars, than with Hyundai.

Messages Page 61 of 76

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