I have a 2006 Civic LX and drive approximately 800-1000 miles per week. I have had my Civic for 16 months and have 61,000 miles on it. My commute has 18 miles of county roads with a 45 or 55 mph speed limit and about 40 miles of intersate with70 mph speed limit. I have two stop signs between home and work, and only a few red lights on my last mile in the city.

As gas prices continue to climb, I've done my own experimenting. On my county roads, I set my cruise control to exactly the speed limit either 45 or 55. On the interstate, I set it to 65 mph and turn up my XM radio and enjoy the drive and let everyone fly past me. I regularly get 38-39 mpg and it has become somewhat of a fun game for me to see how well I can do with a light foot. I used to get about 33-35 mpg for the same drive when I did not pay attention to how I was driving. Now, I rarely go over 3000 rpm on my tachometer.

Ok, I am 51 years old and my driving habits and priorities have shifted as well. The highest mpg in my Civic was 42 mpg, on a non-stop 500 mile one way interstate trip. One time, but it was fun!

Admittedly, with practically no traffic and being able to use all cruise control I probably have more ideal daily driving conditions for optimal gas mileage than most.I do enjoy this car, a good value and it looks cool.

Hope this helps. I'm a newbie here, thanks for everyone sharing your tips and thoughts.

 

Excellent mmarler! The next step is to use your brakes less. Each time you step on the brake pedal, look at the speedo to see how fast you are going. Try to get your speed down to under 25 MPH every time. That means you must anticipate traffic. If you have a manual tranny (I do), then additionally you can coast down to that speed. Do you drive in a hilly area? Increase your speed on the downhill sections and lose speed going uphill. Try never to accelerate on the uphill sections. I drive about 75% city driving and still get 36 MPG or so regularly. My local (Rock Island, IL) Hondaservice managersays that most ('06-'07) Civic owners tell him they are gettingaround 28 in the city. Keep us posted.

Note: I have been keeping a detailed log since 1973 of mileage on my cars. It has definately been a learning experience.

 

The window sticker mileage estimates are changing in 2008. Here is a link to what the estimates would have been for the 2006 Honda civic. They claim the new estimates are real world obtainable, not just pulled out of the air. It seems the hybrid mileages suffer the most under the new standards. You can link to other cars and years here also.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/calcu...umn=1&id=21737

 

Thanks so much Gene, I'll try coasting more and backing off the brakes.

I also appreciate your link to the www.fueleconomy.gov website.

Take care, good to have folks around like you who have actually logged real world mpg rather than just checking it a time or two.

Malcolm

 

My average on an 06 coupe with auto has been about 34. oddly thought, last summer when it was 100 degrees here everyday, i got 36 mpg.

 

Now that the weather has warmed up a bit my mileage is also going up. I got 430 miles out of my last tank of 11.2 gallons. That comes to 38.4 MPG.At least 75%of that tank was city driving. I am finding it is much harder to get good mileage in the city.

I try to fill up at the same pump at the same gas station every time to keep things consistant.

 

Now that my Honda '06 LX has some miles on it and the weather has warmed up, my mileage is going up also. I went 415 miles on 10.571 gallons my last tank for 39.3 MPG. There was still one bar on the gas guage. 100 miles of that tank was a road trip with two bikes hanging off the back of the car on a bike rack. The rest was city driving.

Open up the attachments to see my logbook. You can see the lowest mileage during January and February and a steady rise as the weather warmed up.

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Studies by transport canada and other agencies have found this to be true on most new cars. The manufacturers state: road conditions; braking; speed; etc. etc. etc cause this to happen, who knows for sure.

 

Wow.

I am definately not the only one with MPG concerns! Been posting like a crazy person about my new 2007 Honda Civic Ex Automatic Sedan with my so far disapointing gas mileage. I keep HOPING The Break in will help, but I admit I'm impatient and keep wanting to research the hell out of this subject. I'm not even at 500 miles on the car yet, only on my second tank of Gas. My first tank, by my estimates got about 23 MPG, which is disapointing to put it mildly. Since tank 2, I've really tried to improve my driving, especially the way I would accelerate from a stop. Braking is going to take me a little longer because I still press the pedal like it's my old car, this one needs alot less pressure.

After tank 2 I'm also going to try and change Gas. Figured at the very least it will be better for my car, if not my MPG. So I will be going from Arco to probably Chevron.

I went out to my car here at work and just checked my tire pressure. From the dealer right now they are all exactly at 34 PSI. But the book says it should be 32. Should I lower them or would it not make a big difference?

 

*Bumping* For the tire pressure question.