In City Fuel Milage Low, but highway fine?

[electromike]

Hi, I just bought a 1997 Honda Civic LX and have been trying to track the milage. While I don't have anything fancy like a scangauge, I have been using a pen and paper.

On the Highway I get about 43MPG (not Us MPG) which is about 103% of what the EPA Highway standard says for my car, But
In the City I only get 83% of the EPA's City Mileage.

Is there something that could be off in the car, or is this just driving habits?
Anyone else experience something like this?

[cfg83]

electromike -

Welcome to EM! What is your average highway speed? Is the Civic an auto or a stick shift? What is the traffic like? I think you are saying 43 MPG/UK for highway, right? I went here :

Miles Per Gallon (U.S.) to Kilometer Per Liter Conversion Calculator and Table - Convert European Mileage: MPG to Liters per 100km

And came up with this :

MPG (U.K. gallons)      = 43.24
Miles Per Gallon (U.S.) = 36.00 
Kilometer Per Liter     = 15.31

Depending on whether it's Auto or Stick, 36 MPG/US may be correct in terms of the "New EPA" MPG test. Here are your drivetrain options for the 1997 Civic :

2008 Fuel Economy Tests

We mostly use the "New EPA" MPG standard here because it allows us to compare older cars to new cars.

CarloSW2

[electromike]

Ha.. umm, never mind, I guess I was looking at the numbers wrong, going by the new EPA i get 25/34 and it should be 25/32 for my Automatic 4-spd, 4 cyl, 1.6 L, Regular Gasoline, (FFS) , CLKUP.
I must have got the city from looking at the old rating as being 29.

[some_other_dave]

That said, you can beat the heck out of the EPA "old numbers" by modifying the way you drive... Check the "Driver's Ed" forum elsewhere on this very website, or check one of the other Hypermiling/Eco-driving forums that are out there. (I'm a fan of CleanMPG, but there are a number of others out there as well.)

-soD

[groar]

Welcome on-board electromike.

Which driving technique do you use ?
Coasting in neutral and inflating your tires over placard (a lot inflate until sidewall) will certainly help a lot in city. Stop your engine when it's idle during more than 15 seconds.

If you have several short city trips then a grill/radiator block will help the engine to heat quicker and to cool slower between trips. Also reorder your trips to have the longest first, so the engine heats quicker.

Read the 100+ Hypermiling Tips and the 60+ Efficiency Mods if you haven't yet.

Also don't hesitate to register your car in the garage and fill up your fuel log, this is a great tool to see how you improve and to motivate yourself. Others may help you to interpret your trend.

Denis.