2010 Pilot - Poor Fuel Milage

[Racerxxx]

I purchased a used 2010 Pilot last Fall with 18,000 miles on it and noticed right away that it gets poor fuel mileage. I check it recently and it was between 13 and 14 miles per gallon in normal around town driving. Our manual states our Pilot should get 18 MPG in the city and 25 MPG on the highway. Does anyone else have any experience with poor mileage or any advice on what to do or have checked?

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by Racerxxx

I purchased a used 2010 Pilot last Fall with 18,000 miles on it and noticed right away that it gets poor fuel mileage. I check it recently and it was between 13 and 14 miles per gallon in normal around town driving. Our manual states our Pilot should get 18 MPG in the city and 25 MPG on the highway. Does anyone else have any experience with poor mileage or any advice on what to do or have checked?

What do you consider "normal around town driving"?
How long a typical trip?
How much idling?
How do you measure you MPG?

[Racerxxx]

I consider normal around town driving to be mostly my wife driving kids to school and sports events, going to the grocery store, out to dinner, We live in a small town with occasional short highway trips to get to some of these places.

Typical trip would be 10-15 miles.

Usually warm Pilot up on Winter mornings for 10-15 minutes.

MPG is measured by the trip meter on my odometer.

Thanks for helping me with this!

[ltp646]

Originally Posted by Racerxxx

....
Usually warm Pilot up on Winter mornings for 10-15 minutes.

.....

This may account for some of your low MPG #???? Vehicle not moving but still burning fuel. Modern vehicles do not need to be warmed up, unless you want the inside of the vehicle warm and toasty. just drive slowly the first mile or so.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by Racerxxx

I consider normal around town driving to be mostly my wife driving kids to school and sports events, going to the grocery store, out to dinner, We live in a small town with occasional short highway trips to get to some of these places.

Typical trip would be 10-15 miles.

Usually warm Pilot up on Winter mornings for 10-15 minutes.

MPG is measured by the trip meter on my odometer.

Thanks for helping me with this!

Cut out the "warm-ups". That is like pouring gas down the drain.

Do you check every tank? Do you usually fill full tanks or partial tanks?

[hp2004]

Get used to it, they aren't the most econimical suv on the planet. Plus, like N Jay said cut the WUps aren't necessary.

[titleist]

Originally Posted by Racerxxx

I consider normal around town driving to be mostly my wife driving kids to school and sports events, going to the grocery store, out to dinner, We live in a small town with occasional short highway trips to get to some of these places.

Beyond the warmup, short highway trips are never going to yield an average tank up to 25mpg. I don't think you'll ever really see 25 unless you've got cruise control set on 70 mph for an entire tank (long vacation scenario).

[domano 68]

MPG is very dependent on how you drive. Light acceleration, lots of coasting to red lights, top end speed of 60 mph, etc can improve your mpg greatly.

Just to prove a point, I took a few trips in my wife's Pilot driving rather slowly and doing the things mentioned here in this post. The trips were a combination of city driving and highway driving. I averaged 25 mpg or so.

Do this: Reset your avg mpg, start the car up, and do your normal warm up. Notice the mgp while doing this. Take one or two normal trips and write down your mileage. Now reset your avg mpg again. Do not warm up your Pilot and take the same two trips. Write down your mileage. It will become extremely clear in the numbers how much gas you are wasting with the warm ups.

[AndyC]

It's tough to see great fuel economy on a 2.1-ton gas-powered vehicle that has the aerodynamics of a 1950's toaster. Monitor tire inflation, use the heated seats, if so equipped, instead of a lengthy warm-up, and remove your barbell collection from the cargo area.

[N_Jay]

Better yet, don't use the heated seats. Tech electrical load also affects MPG.

Get in and drive gently, and remember the brake peddle affects fuel mileage much more then the accelerator.

[hkellogg]

drive a prius

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by bigdaddy

idling definitely does not waste any gas. certainly not pouring money down the drain.see below.
How much fuel am I wasting by idling my vehicle?
The cost of idling your vehicle for 10 minutes every morning can add up. You use about 0.026 gallons of gasoline for every 10 minutes, which costs us about 5 cents.

On a 10 mile drive for a 20 MPG car, it is a full mpg loss.

[rocky]

Fwiw I've experience 14-15 mpg on three distinct types of scenarios
Towing big trailers at high speed.
Driving very short commutes under 10 miles in either freezing weather or very hot max ac demanding weather.
So it can be perfectly normal.
As others say, cut out the wasteful warm up.
If you want the cars heater on ASAP, get an engine heater installed. They work great.

Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app

[mmm666]

It is normal. To get better mileage, check tire psi. Turn off the fan/heater,ac, heated seat. drive slow in local. 60-65 mph on highway.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by bigdaddy

Wrong! You can sit down with your calculator and come up with millions of scenarios. Bottom line is it costs 5 cents to idle your car for 10 minutes. If you think thats "pouring gas down the drain",so be it.

10 miles 20 MPG is .5 Gal.

Idling 10 min is .026 gal (your number)

Idling 10 min then driving 10 miles is .5 + .026 = .526 gal.

.526 gal for 10 miles is 19 MPG.

You can argue with me, but you can't argue with math.

It is not quite as noticeable with city driving.

17 MPG drops to 16 and 1/4.

Of course if you idle 15 min and only drive 5 miles the number get even worse.

By the way, your numbers might be good for an warm idle, but I bet a cold idle is much worse, since you are lengthening the time to get the engine up to temp.