('09-'13) Consolidated 2011 -2012 mpg Thread

[ForesterDave]

Originally Posted by 1154

2,000 miles on mine now. The first 1,000 miles were driven exactly how Subaru recommends to break the engine in. Mixed driving conditions. 21MPG average so far. Hoping this improves. But it's already better MPG than my 2008 Outback, so I'm happy.

20k miles and averaged 24mpg so far according to the on-board computer. Not disappointed at all either. You can't find better averages on any non-diesel AWD car made in the last 10 years out there.

[lsbeck]

New 2011 Forester Limited....26 mpg first tank of gas.

[ForesterDave]

Originally Posted by snoochie

I've been getting better mpg with each fill up. I'm on my 3rd tank of gas on my '11 Foz.
First tank: filled by dealer with Getty gas and got approx. 18mpg.
Second tank: I filled with BP and got approx 19.5mpg.
Third tank: I filled with Mobil and I'm down to half a tank but display is showing 20.5mpg.
Maybe I'll try Shell gas on the next fill. But I've had horrible mpg's using Getty and Hess with my old car.
Beginning to miss my tiny Honda Fit.. it averaged easily 32-35 mpg's with its small engine but I didn't even want to chance it with that car in the snow lol

Actually low horsepower works in your favor in the snow, making it harder to spin the tires. The best snow car I ever drove that did not have AWD was my 1970 VW Squareback, which had a rear air-cooled engine and only 65hp.

I was going to buy the Honda Fit before we got a huge snow here in the Seattle area. Wife and I decided we wanted AWD so Subaru was the only choice as far as I was concerned.

[penk]

Originally Posted by stan_t

20MPG average should allow you to go around 260 miles from full 'till the light comes on, at 350 miles on a tank you should be closer to 25MPG. How are you calculating this?

Don't drive far once the light comes on, you really don't have much gas left and you don't want to suck in air.

Stan

Yes i took it down almost to the empty mark.
The odometer read 335. i figured 350 'till dry.
so 350/16.9 = 20.7...if i remember right the dash read 20.7 also.
That's the 1st tank. I will update when done breaking in.

btw is there any permanent damage from running dry?

[ForesterDave]

AFAIK the only risk from running a modern engine dry is the fuel pump can overheat as it is inside the gas tank and relies on the gas around it to keep cool while operating it. There also might be dirt at the bottom of the tank that when run dry could cause trouble.

I never drive very long after the low fuel light comes on, it's there for a reason.

[1-3-2-4]

Originally Posted by penk

btw is there any permanent damage from running dry?

Not good to run any car dry while driving. Depending on the conditions, the lack of fuel could possibly lean out the fueling enough to cause harm (this will usually happen right before you suck the tank dry). Especially on your XT, I'd shy away from running it that low, and definitely stay out of boost. No need to surprise yourself with broken engine parts inside your crankcase.

[Subanoobie]

Almost 1000 miles and my MPG is about 24 with almost no, what you call, highway driving.

Most happy with the MPG. I can't wait to drive out of North Virginia where there are actually highways where people can drive more than 15 MPH. LoL

[VT_hawkeye]

Originally Posted by ForesterDave

AFAIK the only risk from running a modern engine dry is the fuel pump can overheat as it is inside the gas tank and relies on the gas around it to keep cool while operating it. There also might be dirt at the bottom of the tank that when run dry could cause trouble.

I never drive very long after the low fuel light comes on, it's there for a reason.

Here's the trouble I have with that: the factory documentation claims a 16.9 gal tank, but I've had the fuel tank light go on as low as 13.015 gal to refill (stopping at click). The lowest I've dared to take the needle (verging on red) has required 14.993 gal to refill. These haven't even been close to stated tank capacity.

I tend to do some quick math with the tripmeter when the red light first comes on, based on the average displayed mileage for this tank and assuming the red light is going on somewhere just above 13 gallons consumed. Once we get another full gallon down past that, I'll start looking for a fill, and I'm not gonna panic until we're another gallon down or the needle touches red.

[stan_t]

Originally Posted by penk

Yes i took it down almost to the empty mark.
The odometer read 335. i figured 350 'till dry.
so 350/16.9 = 20.7...if i remember right the dash read 20.7 also.
That's the 1st tank. I will update when done breaking in.

btw is there any permanent damage from running dry?

I've never been able to fit 14 gallons into my tank. Here is one of my threads where I got 24MPG+, going 317.6 miles on 12.883 gallons.

Found a picture of one of my 300+ miles on a tank fillups, this one looks to have averaged 23.6MPG:





Stan

[nicnic]

I had one fillup take 14.873 gallons. Overall average is 20.75 mpg over 23414 miles.

[MyHeartagram]

i consistently get 18-22 avg. 25-26 if its pure highway

2010 FXT...

[stan_t]

As much as I b*** about MPG threads, I'm always drawn to them.

It is amazing how much interest in mileage has been sparked on this site after Subaru installed the MPG gauge on '09+ cars. I wonder how much of this is due to having the gauge vs. the "different demographics" of drivers -- I suspect it's mostly the gauge.

It's also interesting how many different ways people find to calculate mileage. I've always just zero'ed out the trip meter at fillup, then at the next fillup divide miles travelled by gallons used to refill. This way you can tell trends of how your car is behaving and if you see a drastic change you know there is something wrong with the car (or gas).

Also interesting to observe that average mileage of X drivers is basically the same as XT drivers (pretty close to 20MPG) as well as that this mileage hasn't changed much since the fist generation Foresters.

Stan

[excipient]

With my 04 xt manual with the vf39 map I was getting 19-20 on average mostly city driving. With my stock 2011 xt with a perrin catback I'm averaging 18-19, before I put the catback on I was averaging 17-18 with mostly city driving. It's pretty funny considering the 04 had almost a 100 more horsepower than what I have now. I'm willing to bet it may go up again when I go stage 2.

[ngschmidt]

22 MPG up here in Alaska... 5-10 mins of warm-up every morning, and 2 miles of 15% grade to get home. So I'm a pretty happy camper. One thing to note, though, is that the new chain drive sounds NASTY when you start it in the cold... Agreed with the traction control, though. Just put blizzak WS-70's on in anticipation of the big melt, too, very happy with them!

[1-3-2-4]

Originally Posted by stan_t

It's also interesting how many different ways people find to calculate mileage. I've always just zero'ed out the trip meter at fillup, then at the next fillup divide miles travelled by gallons used to refill. This way you can tell trends of how your car is behaving and if you see a drastic change you know there is something wrong with the car (or gas).

Also interesting to observe that average mileage of X drivers is basically the same as XT drivers (pretty close to 20MPG) as well as that this mileage hasn't changed much since the fist generation Foresters.

Stan

Interesting, do tell. This is the only method I've every personally used to calculate mileage. While there is some inconsistency with when the pump stops from station to station, this is as accurate as I could get. Anything else seems like it would be unreliable. What else have you heard of people doing?

The X vs XT thing is a really interesting data point. I owned a little four cylinder Tacoma a few years ago, and that engine would only deliver about 2-3 mpg better than the much more powerful larger engine in the heavier truck. That little guy was under higher load to maintain the same driving conditions. It's all about load...

I, however, haven't seen similar mileage...but I'm also comparing against my STi with the six speed. That was good for about 19 mpg highway this time of year. My X is averaging about 26-27 under the same conditions. The Forester really grew in size from the SG to SH, which I believe accounts for a lot. The added height adds drag. Case in point, when I had my WRX suspension on the car (2.5" drop), my mileage was up a consistent 1.5-2.0 mpg.