Honda Odyssey Forum banner
Cancel
Create thread New Garage Forums

Gas Mileage for those who live in the city with minimal highway driving

Jump to Latest
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
L

Lartymarf

· Registered
Joined
·
87 Posts
Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi All!

Our 2018 Elite is our primary family vehicle and its job is to provide school drop off/pick up, waiting place for the adults while the kids are in lessons, getting groceries and take out food, and hauling family around to activities on the weekends.

97% of the driving is within a 3 mile radius with plenty of city streets and traffic lights. Both my wife and I have a little heavy right foot as required when we are running short on time for drop off and pick up at school. Most of you know how that is right? Pack and kids into the car and have them eat breakfast in the car while you zoom off to school. :cool:

I'm getting an average of 11.8 MPG consistently. I thought my car was broken, so I reset the trip computer and went on the highway and got around 30MPG, so PHEW! my car is not broken.

For those of you who drive short distances multiple times a day what kind of gas mileage are you getting? I have never seen anyone else on this forum or on FB groups quote numbers as low as I'm getting.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
You can't rely on the MPG reading the car gives you. Most accurate reading is by calculating it yourself.

With that said, there are a lot of factors that can affect MPG. The engine is less efficient when cold, so if you never have a chance to get to operating temperature, your MPG will go down quite a bit.
 
owns 2006 Honda Odyssey EX
View garage
  • Like
Reactions: Lartymarf
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#3 · (Edited)
Lartymarf said:
For those of you who drive short distances multiple times a day what kind of gas mileage are you getting?
Click to expand...
We get about the same on all three of our vehicles, but the Odyssey is currently averaging 12mpg - 13mpg per tank and 13mpg-14mpg per 10,000 miles( factors include finding street parking every day with lots of stop signs and A/C being on most of the time - ECON button doesn't help much). As for the MPG reading, it's accurate enough for me to not care since it'll sip gas either way.

All three of these readings are with about 20 minutes of driving - managed to get 24mpg with a 60/40 local/highway split. We've also seen an average of 27mpg on our last 800mile or so road trip with our 9-speed EX-L; nothing wrong with the car, short distance stop and go will always give bad mpg unless you're driving EV/Hybrid

edit; As for being heavy footed, I found that it doesn't change your mpg as much when there are a lot of traffic lights and stop signs (you can constantly floor it out of each light/stop sign and still get at least 10 or 11mpg in my case). I'm assuming that you get around the 200-220 mile range as well.
Image

Image
 
#4 ·
I find that if I do jack-rabbit starting at lights and stop signs, the ODY will definitely burn out! I don't need to waste gas and tires that fast. Plus the local police department loves handing out free ballroom tickets at your cost... 😁
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0dyfamily
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#8 ·
Lartymarf said:
For those of you who drive short distances multiple times a day what kind of gas mileage are you getting? I have never seen anyone else on this forum or on FB groups quote numbers as low as I'm getting.
Click to expand...
ours is terrible (10-14 city/suburban). But then again, every family car has been terrible/underperforms EPA ratings - 3x Acura MDX, Nissan Pathfinder, and now Honda Odyssey.
We tend to get 26-27 highway maximum, with 21-22 highway occasional even on long drives.

It's not just the driver - I tend to over perform the EPA estimates in my sedans. I get 20-22 in a V6, with 33-35 possible highway in a car rated much lower.

Much has to do with acceleration (to the speed limit), gas mix/blend, weight of the car, and other oddities.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
Yahmei said:
We get about the same on all three of our vehicles, but the Odyssey is currently averaging 12mpg - 13mpg per tank and 13mpg-14mpg per 10,000 miles( factors include finding street parking every day with lots of stop signs and A/C being on most of the time - ECON button doesn't help much). As for the MPG reading, it's accurate enough for me to not care since it'll sip gas either way.

All three of these readings are with about 20 minutes of driving - managed to get 24mpg with a 60/40 local/highway split. We've also seen an average of 27mpg on our last 800mile or so road trip with our 9-speed EX-L; nothing wrong with the car, short distance stop and go will always give bad mpg unless you're driving EV/Hybrid

edit; As for being heavy footed, I found that it doesn't change your mpg as much when there are a lot of traffic lights and stop signs (you can constantly floor it out of each light/stop sign and still get at least 10 or 11mpg in my case). I'm assuming that you get around the 200-220 mile range as well.
View attachment 169770
View attachment 169769
Click to expand...
It's good you get some solid highway mileage split in there vs all local city street for us. :)

I noticed that if I go heavy foot, my MPG goes down, average 10.x something now. If I am feathering the gas pedal and just going slower overall, it remains around 11.x MPG.

The range calculation also gets shorter, I think the computer is adjusting to the lower MPG we are getting.
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
DJVAN said:
I find that if I do jack-rabbit starting at lights and stop signs, the ODY will definitely burn out! I don't need to waste gas and tires that fast. Plus the local police department loves handing out free ballroom tickets at your cost... 😁
Click to expand...
Haha! One of the joys of being a car enthusiast dad is that with the Ody I can get the tires to chirp, get into the vtec rev range with the car engine screaming, and fool around with the paddle shifters like I was back in a race car. And then, within seconds, turn everything back into responsible dad mode piloting a minivan with the family leisurely to the next stop light.
 
#12 ·
I’m so happy to read this thread, I thought there was something wrong with my van. I use it exactly the same way- carlines and city driving/waiting. The lifetime mpg is 20.0 but that’s with long trips a few times per year to boost it up. Day to day, I probably get 12-14 mpg. If something happened to my Ody, I’d definitely consider Toyota with their 36 mpg but otherwise, it doesn’t bother me enough to get rid of my van.
 
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
About this Discussion
11 Replies
9 Participants
Last post:
C&BMom
Honda Odyssey Forum
posts
1.1M
members
432K
Since
2000
Odyclub community is the #1 forum to discuss all things Honda Odyssey: minivans, safety, service maintenance, mods, and more.
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
2005 - 2010 Odyssey 2011 - 2017 Odyssey 1999 - 2004 Odyssey 2018+ Odyssey Problems and Concerns