I have a 2007 Civic EX with Automatic Trans.
Have only had the car for about 3 to 4 fillups worth of driving, but so far my mileage calculations are running at only around 24.5 to 25 mpg.......

This is my wife's car and it is driven almost exclusively in 35 and 45 mph zones around town - very little hwy mileage.
I realize the 30mpg city/40 mpg highway mileage ratings are only EPA estimates, but <25 mpg seems low to me.

Anybody have any experiences with mileage to share?
I have seen some stories about people doing alot of highway driving actually getting 40-42 mpg.
Am I being unreasonable about mileage expectations for city driving?
I'm badly in need of a sanity check.......

 

Well for one, with a new car mileage gets better as time goes on, because the engine needs time to break in

another big factor, is where do you live and how cold is it there?

when you leave to drive anywhere and it's 30 degrees out, and your engine is cold the Oxygen sensor is cold and doesn't work properly until it reaches temperatures of like, 300 degrees or something high...

so when your engine is cold, you're getting worse mileage because since the oxygen sensor isn't "activated" yet, it overcompensates and richens the mixture which results in using more fuel. The more short trips in which your engine has to warm up in, results in worse mileage

i'd say it's more the breaking in thing than that, but the temperature certainly couldn't help if you're in the northern part of the country

 

Thanks for the reply!
I'm actually in NC, so the temp issue isn't an huge concern (although it was 18-20 degrees this morning!!).

The break-in issue is kind of what I was wondering about (only about 800 miles on the car so far), but I was still expecting better than 24-25mpg.

I talked to the dealership yesterday and they said the same thing about the mileage improving a good bit after break-in.
However, the dealership did admit that they had not heard of any pre-break-in mileages on new civics as low as 24-25mpg yet.
Basically, they told me to keep a check on it and if it did not improve a good bit after we got 2000-2500 miles on the car to bring it in for them to check over.

I really need to train the wife to drive my blazer (she's never driven an SUV), so I can take the civic for my 35 min commute to work. That outta bring the mileage up............

Thanks again for the reply!

 

take it on a good sized weekend trip with some highway driving and see if that improves it

 

I have 06 lx and I use it mostly for high way. I got around 35mpg. I broke it in slowly and it now has 10,000 miles on it. 40mpg hw is a lie.

 

NOTE: Correction to my original post: We have an LX, not an EX. Don't know what I was thinking there.........

Well I'm almost at 2000 miles on this car which is considered the break-in period (according to Honda.....).

Gas mileage calcs are stillcoming in at 22+ to 24 miles to gallon and have seen no real improvement. Typically getting 220+ to 240+ miles per fillup at about 9.8-10.3 gals per fillup.
The wife and I are both dissapointed with this mileage so far. Still seems low to us.
Guess its time to take it to Honda to let them check it out like the Sales Manager told us to do
if there was no improvement by 2000 miles.

Anyone else have experience with a new Civic EX or LX with the 140 hp engine driving mostly city milage? If so, what mileage are you getting??

 

Did you check tire pressure?
Overall, the main factor in gas mileage is driving style. If your wife races from one traffic light to another, you are not going to get a good mileage whatever you do.

 

Yeah I have a 2007 Honda Civic LX and I'm getting between 20 and 25 mpg as well.Ibought it in November and have about 1,000 miles on it so far. I commute in 30 - 40 mph zones. The local dealer told us a lot of people are complaining about the gas mileage. (The Chicago cold might have something to do with it ... and the tires are inflated correctly)

 

Thanks for the replies Misha and sikandarkhan.
I'm glad to finally hear someone else has the same issue and has heard that others have complained as well.

Our tires were inflated correctly, but haven't checked in a couple weeks or so.
I'll check to confirm.
My wife certaily does not have a lead foot, so it's not that.
I certainly don't baby it when I drive it, but don't keep my foot to the floor either.

Just filled up yesterday and got a mileage recording of 21.5 mpg - our worst yet.
Interestingly, this reading occurred after our first real cold snap that lasted several days.
We are thouroughly dissapointed at this point, since our main reason for buying this car was mileage. Ifwe knew the mileage would be this bad, we would have boughtthe Accord.............

I'll be calling the dealership this week to have them check things out.
Maybe we have a bad or misadjusted oxygen sensor.
If they can not find anything wrong, I will be complaining to Honda big time on this one.

 

I have the 06 LX and I drive it back and forth to work in bumper to bumper traffic and around town and get 32 - 37 mpg.
I currently have on this tank 253 miles and it is showing half full. I have 10 squares lit up.

32 is the lowest I have ever got and I did that by testing one tank of gas by speeding around, flooring it to pass cars, letting it idle till it was warmed up, jack rabbit starts etc.
you should get better than 30 all the time. Now 40 could be reached if you were on a long hwy and kept your speed steady.