Gas Mileage

I just bought a new Honda Fit. Last Friday I filled the tank for the first time. Will the gas mileage improve a little as I get a little more miles on it. Just curious.

Probably not. Engines are machined to much better tolerance ans the surface finishes are finer than they used to be. You don’t really need to break-in a car the way you used to. You’ll continue to get the great mileage you do now.

Its going to improve considerably. Dealers claim to give you a full tank of gas to start with, but they watch the gas gauge and shut the pump off as soon as the needle hits the F mark. You need to measure your fuel economy over several tankfuls, discarding the first one after the dealer filled it.

yes, it will improve a bit once everything gets broken in and you get more familar with it.

Start your actually mileage record now at your recent fillup, not the mileage when you took the car. As Keith said, you did not really get a full tank from the dealer.

Having read a number of Honda and Fit message boards, many owners find improvements over the first 5000 miles.

Don’t get in the habit of overfilling the tank,stop at the first click.

The economy improves after 2,000 miles and you should get to the maximum after a little more than that. You are breaking-in the entire drive train right now. It’s not just an engine that needs a little time. It needs good treatment until the rest of the moving parts get loosened.

I will answer your question with a question:

Are you driving the car as one is supposed to for proper engine break-in?

If you are, that means that you are consciously avoiding driving at a constant speed. Even though that is the preferred method of breaking in a new engine, that is also not the way to extract maximum mpg from the engine. Once you have reached the plateau at which you can drive it “normally”, your mileage should improve.

As others have said, the engine will also yield slightly better mileage once it loosens up a bit. And, as has also been previously stated, that “full tank” from the dealer was not really full.

Give the car a bit of time, over at least three fill-ups, in order to determine what your actual gas mileage. And, if it is not what you think it should be, the best solution is to improve your driving style and habits. With the computerized engine controls on cars nowadays, a new car’s gas mileage is mostly attributable to the way the the driver operates that vehicle. As it ages, maintenance will be a factor also, but when a car is new, the driver is the most significant factor in terms of gas mileage.