Accord 05 VP Poor Gas Mileage

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>I bought an Accord '05 Value Package (AT, 5 Speed) in August last year.
> Since then I've been trying to measure my gas mileage. The sticker on
> the car showed the EPA estimate as 24(city)/34(hwy) mpg. Now, I've been
> driving mostly on highways since. I would split it as 70% hwy, 30%
> city. Yet, I've been consistently getting 22-23.5 mpg from this car. I
> would also like to add that I rarely drive during rush hours on the
> highways, meaning I don't brake much once I'm on the highway.

Do you use cruise control and stick to a constant speed? Some cars are just
plain inefficient when asked to change speeds, for reasons various.

> I was told by many people that I should check the tire pressure, as it
> could be a major reason for poor gas mileage. I checked the tires and
> they all came out to around 26 psi which is way below the 30/32 psi
> recommended for the car. So I filled the tires and kept monitoring the
> pressure, always keeping it around 32-33 psi cold since November last
> year. Still, the mileage hasn't improve at all.

Hmm. Your tyre pressures were well low. This makes a big difference to
some cars. Our previous car was especially thirsty with the rear tyres low.
After extensive experimentation :-) I ran him with slightly above standard
pressure at the front, and 5 PSI above at the back - it balanced out the
handling and improved (reduced) long haul fuel consumption to the tune of
around ten percent.

> When I took the car to the dealer, I was told that they will not
> inspect my car till I had atleast 5000 miles on it, which according to
> them is the break-in period (even though my manual says the break-in
> period is 500 miles). Then, I contacted Honda directly. The customer
> rep told me that no dealer would inspect the car till 7500 miles as
> that is the break-in. Then during the conversation he changed the
> number to 10000 miles. When I told him that my honda dealer told me
> 5000 miles was the break-in period, he changed the number again to
> 4000-4500 miles. It seemed to me that the customer rep was just trying
> to make excuses for not checking my car.

Heh. When new, it's tight. Your donk (engine) won't be working at its best
for "many" thousand miles. If you don't stretch its legs (find the red line
when properly warmed up, work it hard up hills) from time to time it may
well not be run in for a good sixty thousand miles.

> Now, I am no expert in cars. So I'm not sure what the typical break-in
> period should be.

It varies according to use - the initial 500 miles miles may well be
critical, after that, many handbooks recommend "gradually increasing
performance of the vehicle up to the maximum permitted" or similar wording.

> But is it normal to get such poor mileage that I am
> getting from my car? I have tried taking all precautions while driving
> like slow acceleration,

Ding! Slow acceleration does not always compute to lower fuel consumption.
It will vary by car, environment, road (etc.) but moderate acceleration
tends to get the best results. Hard, red line acceleration just uses lots
of fuel. Too gentle acceleration prolongs it over a longer distance, so
there's less time cruising. Gentle or timid acceleration with a short
cruising period is thirstier than moderate acceleration, your engine will be
spending lots of time working relatively hard and a short period of time
cruising.

Also, where possible, lift off a big distance from your exit.

> driving at 65 mph on highways and no
> overspeeding, driving slow till the engine heats up, no idling the
> engine, etc. Is there something I can do to fix this poor mileage
> problem? I have driven other cars and never had such a problem so I
> know that it's not my driving that could be causing this.

What were t'other cars and how does your mileage compare?

> Also, I would like to add that most of my car trips are 5-8 miles long.
> Could that be attributing to this problem?

Elsewhere, yeah, we've established this as a major cause.

--
The DervMan
www.dervman.com