10 Tanks of Gas

Today I finished the 10th tank of gas in my new Fit. The EPA mileage estimates for a 2009 Honda Fit Sport with manual transmission are 27 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway. Here are my mile per gallon stats:

1. 33.91 mpg (317.0 miles, 9.349 gallons)
2. 33.13 mpg (310.4 miles, 9.368 gallons)
3. 33.84 mpg (337.7 miles, 9.979 gallons)
4. 34.93 mpg (339.6 miles, 9.723 gallons)
5. 35.13 mpg (341.9 miles, 9.737 gallons)
6. 35.93 mpg (330.0 miles, 9.185 gallons)
7. 35.02 mpg (327.0 miles, 9.337 gallons)
8. 33.71 mpg (277.3 miles, 8.225 gallons)
9. 36.98 mpg (346.8 miles, 9.377 gallons)
10. 35.68 mpg (357.0 miles, 10.005 gallons)

That gives me an overall average of about 35 mpg. Not bad! The car is totally stock, and I am primarily driving in stop and go traffic on the way to and from work. I try to start slowly, shift around 2500 rpm, and coast down hills. Also, I have not needed to use the air conditioning very much. The biggest factor, however, is the realtime and per-trip mpg displays on my dashboard.

There’s nothing quite like instant feedback. If I zoom up a hill, my realtime readout gets into the low teens and the per-trip display may drop a tenth of a point or more. Conversely, when I set the cruise control to 60 mph on a flat stretch of highway, I see the realtime mpg go above 40 mpg and the per-trip meter starts ticking upwards. I have to wonder what would happen if these displays were required in all cars. In fact, if you own a car made after 1996, you could add such a display right now by purchasing a widget that plugs into your cars OBD II connector. Although I have not used it, the ScanGauge II has been recommended by several people over at cleanmpg.com and fitfreak.net.