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Whoah! Pleasantly surprised by EX-L Gas Mileage!

19K views 41 replies 21 participants last post by  amigajoe 
#1 ·
I bought a 2011 EX-L last month. Today we went on a mini road trip from Chattanooga, TN to Asheville, NC. I was amazed at the real-world gas mileage. I averaged 28.3 mpg on the 232 mile trip, as you can see in the attached picture. Most of the trip, cruise control was set to 69-70 mph. This was not a downhill trip; Chattanooga's elevation is around 650 feet, while Asheville's is around 2000 feet. I found the mpg pleasantly surprising, as the EX-L is rated at 27 mpg on the highway (whereas the Tourings with their 6-speeds are rated at 28 mpg). Have other 5-speed owners been seeing similar mileage? And are Touring owners still seeing an additional 1 mpg boost, in the 29.3 mpg range?
 

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#2 ·
Our Touring: 27.3 doing a mix of hwy, back roads and a little stop-and-go. I'm confident, if all hwy, we could push that another one mpg +. Especially if I drive, not my wife ;-)
In any case, congrats on the gas mileage; For a 4400 lb vehicle, that's pretty good in anybody's book. Seems Honda made good on this one.
Off topic: The testing I did between EX and Touring I noticed the extra gearing (Touring) made it feel quicker at low speeds. Whether that is real or my imagination is the question.
 
#3 ·
Cruise control is KEY to great mileage. When I drive to my folks place (15 freeway miles, 3 local miles) I try to drive as gently with the accelerator as possible, I typically average 24mpg. When I use cruise control for the same trip, I consistently average 2-3 mpg better. What I do is if there is a slight incline, I will lower the cruise control speed and when there is a decline, I will raise it back up in attempt to keep it on Eco mode as much as possible. On local drives, I get about 15mpg.
 
#4 ·
We used to have a nice/simple thread to discuss this until trolls managed to lock it :( but yes, highway MPG is awesome. It will be difficult to match your exact road/driving conditions but in general I've seen that a high-end highway MPG is easy to achieve with CC. Wife also uses CC in the city when possible, and see the numbers (trip A). Me, not at all (see trip B, where I drove most of the time). She can achieve almost 1-2 MPG more than me in general...

Anyway, here is the old thread, it has some good replies just to give you an idea:

http://www.odyclub.com/forums/54-20...orld-fuel-economy-consumption-numbers-14.html

 
#6 ·
I actually averaged 29 mpg on the way home (Asheville, NC --> Chattanooga, TN). There was an elevation drop of about 1,400 feet on this 215 mile journey (6.5 feet per mile). I'm quite surprised. I imagined the "27 mpg highway" estimate was a highball estimate, and that real world performance would be worse. Not too often in this world you get more than you thought you were paying for.
 
#7 ·
Wow, I'll have to back off a little and see what I can do. Last summer on the 10% eth gas we get all over these days, on 100 degree days going cross country from TX to VA, driving very gently on the throttle but going 70-79 and only getting off the super slabs for fuel and bathrooms I manually calc'd my MPG on the whole trip and never got over 23. But it was HOT and AC was cranked up the whole way, and I had 4 plus luggage, tires aired up michelin's OEM. Since then I have gotten 18" with "eco" tires and put in Mobil 1 so I'll hope for better MPG on my trip to Disney this summer.
 
#11 ·
Many people forgot these types of factors with mpg's. Sometimes I'm disappointed in our city mpg, but I know there have times that I drive it more aggresively than others (late for church, appt, etc.) and the mpg takes a nose dive. Then my wife gets the mpg's back up with her driving style. ;) I'm not expecting to get 30 mpgs on the highway when we travel this summer because we will be loaded to the max with 2 adults, 3 kids, and packed to the gills with suitcases, books, snacks, etc. We usually got 24-25 when we traveled with the 2003 Ody on the highway (sometimes we would get an occasional 23 for a low or a 26 for a high) so I'm expected 27-28. I'm going to try to keep the cruise set at 70-72 the whole trip when the speed limit allows it.

People need to consider all factors when calculating mpgs: temps, loads, wind speeds, driving styles, land topography, fuel (different gas stations' fuels can affect it), etc.
 
#8 ·
My personal record best is 32.0mpg, NY to Boston. Calculated by hand, not the computer. Cruise control as much as possible at around 65mph on the Touring elite with 5 people and luggage. We recently did a 1,000+ mile road trip and got 27.0mpg average, still impressive for the size/weight.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Yesterday, 150 miles each way, rolling hills, but no steep climbs. Temps between 90-94 degrees F. Had the cruise set to 70 MPH most of the way, but saw upwards of 80 MPH a few times. A/C on Auto. About 45 mins of city driving. I got an indicated 28 MPG in my EX-L. Average speed in the trip computer said 64 MPH. Hand calculated mileage came out to 27.4 MPG.

Not my best tank, though! I had one that was indicating 29.9 MPG but came out to 29.1 by hand calc.

If I can find a photo host, will post a screenshot of the trip computer like Bigboat did above.
 
#15 ·
We started with 515 miles on the odometer, drove from Dallas to Hershey, PA, spent the day, drove to Greenwood Lake, NY, spent 10 days, then drove back to Dallas, ending with 4186 miles on the odometer. Over the 3671 miles we drove, mostly highway, but quite a bit of "city" driving, we averaged 24.3mpg as per the trip computer, and confirmed by careful record keeping in the Road Trip app I use. The best single tank I got, calculated by Road Trip, was 27.5mpg. This was with an average speed of 69 as shown on the Odyssey's trip computer.

Our van was loaded with about 600lbs of people (2 adults, 4 kids), and around 100lbs (best guess) of luggage. Our route to New England took us straight up the Appalachian Mountains.

I'm positive others would have better results. I don't drive with mileage in mind.
 
#23 ·
Did my first long distance interstate highway trip, a trip I have done many times. In my 2006, this trip would consistently give me +10% FE (20 >> 22). This time, FE down 10% (~25 >> 22) compared with the regular rural highway driving I do. Very odd, couldn't believe it. On the one hand, am very happy that the new Ody boosts FE in the kind of driving we normally do. Difficult to understand though, since this is the 6-speed, was expecting to get up near 26-27.
 
#26 · (Edited)
I want to bump this post up so people can continue to report their gas mileage with their 2012 Ody. I have a 2012 EX-L, which is stated to have 17/27/21 gas mileage, with less than two months old. It has close to 1,800 miles now because I did two 200 miles trip on high way. My city driving is mostly a 2 miles run in Houston to and from work stop and go style, with a 5 miles drive to the Chinatown on highway once in the weekend. I measured my gas mileage by actually calculating how many miles I drove by how much gas I used. I assume all the gas I used (usually from Shell) had 10% EtOH. The AC was mostly off. Anyway here is my experience:

Around town, I got 18 MPG. On the highway, in my first trip (from Houston to Austin), I did not use the cruise control much and drove mostly at 75-80 MPH, I got about 23-24 MPG. In the second trip (from Houston to San Antonio), I followed the speed limits — mostly 65-70 MPH with some area 70-75MPH, and I got 25 MPG. These roads are mostly flat and the wind conditions were about average. By looking at the mileage estimate on screen, as the speed is reduced from 75 to 60, the gas mileage increases so does the frequency of seeing the "Eco" word on the dash. I thus assume that to get the stated 27MPG, one would have to drive close to 60 MPH as much as possible. At this speed, the car is also remarkably quiet with very little wind noise. As the speed goes up, the MPG will steadily go down and the road noise will also go up.

With my experienced, I am very surprised to see the reported 27-28 MPG number as reported by many here. Did you actually calculate the gas mileage or did you only read the number off the computer? Anyway, I would love to have better gas mileage although I think my numbers are about average.
 
#27 · (Edited)
Most of my highway trips (Usually between 100-300 miles) I get between 29-31 MPG (never below 29) on my Odyssey 2012. Since owning the car I have not gone below 17.5 MPG driving mix city/highway (lots of light and city traffic). My accumulated MPG since owning are about 21 MPG. This is all from the trip computer. I have Trip A for the MPG since owning the Ody, and Trip B per Gas Tank or trip. I do use Cruise Control a lot on the highway when appropiate. I try to stay within Speed Limits, usually 65 MPH and sometimes go over to 70 MPH.

Happyvan, I am surprised by your 24-25 MPG. Did you treat your van nicely during the "break-in" period?
 
#28 ·
Happyvan, I am surprised by your 24-25 MPG. Did you treat your van nicely during the "break-in" period?
It has been driven normally. As stated, if I drive the car around 60-65 MPH, I expect the gas mileage to be better and close to 26MPG, which is close to the stated 27 MPG that was most likely measured at 55 MPH by the EPA. Do you have a Touring or just a regular Ody? The Touring is supposed to get 28 MPG due to the better efficiency with the 6-speed. Car.com did a van shoot out and the TE got 27.2 MPG in that test. Thus having 29-31 MPG is nothing short of remarkable, even if you have a TE. I still think that when talking about gas mileage, it is better to actually calculate how much gas is consumed vs the miles driven, as stated in the owner manual. The on-board display is just an approximation.
 
#29 ·
One correction, the Touring earn a 25.9 MPG number in the test conducted by Car.com (see below). Any way this only reenforces my curiosity that some of you can get such high gas mileage number when driving at speed over 70MPH.

CarEPA mileage
(city/highway and combined)
Trip computer mpg
2011 Honda Odyssey Touring Elite19/28 (22)25.9
2011 Volkswagen Routan SE17/25 (20)25.1
2011 Chrysler Town & Country Limited17/25 (20)23.2
2011 Dodge Grand Caravan Crew17/25 (20)22.7
2011 Toyota Sienna XLE16/22 (18)22.0
2011 Nissan Quest SL19/24 (21)21.4
 
#30 ·
I've actually gotten 30-31 MPG highway with the 5 speed in my EX-L.
 
#31 · (Edited)
I want to keep this thread alive. Come on guys, this has been viewed 2800 times but only a small fraction of you tell us what your mileage is. Please participate.

Why such a wide range of difference in gas mileage? It is widely speculated that the use of ethanol can decrease gas mileage and the gas in the Houston area all has 10% ethanol. What can this much ethanol do to gas mileage? I was reading a report from Consumer Reports, in which they compared side by side a car driven by regular gas or the so called E85 (85% gas, 15% ethanol), and the decrease of gas mileage was substantial: The ethanol myth

"Fuel economy, however, dropped across the board. In highway driving, gas mileage decreased from 21 to 15 mpg; in city driving, it dropped from 9 to 7 mpg. You could expect a similar decrease in gas mileage in any current FFV."

Below is a quote from a report in the NY Times:

"Gallon for gallon, pure ethanol contains one-third less energy than gasoline, and the ethanol industry acknowledges that E10 reduces mileage by about 2 percent.

Some drivers think the change is notably greater. Chuck Mai, a vice president of AAA Oklahoma, reported that his organization has been getting calls from members blaming E10 for mileage drops of 8 to 20 percent.

Drivers in Tulsa, he said, are complaining to their local service stations , saying, “ ‘I used to get 28 mpg; last time around, I’m getting 25. What’s going on?’ ”

Knowing this, if you would like to share with us your gas mileage, please be mindful of the many factors that can affect gas mileage: driving habits, speed, load, car conditions, and of course whether or not you use gas with ethanol.
 
#33 ·
CA with crappy ethanol.

For my 18 mile commute I get about 23-24mpg (only 2 miles are not freeway).

For road trips to Los Angeles from the SF Bay Area I can get 26-27 cruising at 80mph on Interstate 5. Overall pretty happy.
 
#34 ·
I'm seeing similar mileage to the majority here. There is potential for even better ... however, you have to drive with a very light touch. Between 45 mph and 65 mph I have repeatedly achieved 32 mpg. This assumes deliberately holding the throttle in one position- no extra gas for hills and such. Conversely, somewhere around 38 mph and below the mileage starts to drop, then quickly goes south.
 
#35 ·
Am I the only one that is skeptical of what the computers in the vehichle are saying ? I mean, have you actually done manually calculations and compared them to the computer ? Has anyone ? Not trying to be buzzkill at all, but I have a friend that is always telling me that 28mpg in a minivan is impossible and I want to prove him wrong. (I pick mine up today or tomorrow)
 
#37 ·
I always calculate gallons filled divided by miles driven when I fill up. The computer is only an estimate and is usually optimistic. I'm fairly certain 28mpg is doable if you keep your speed low enough on the highway. I'll be taking a 1200 mile road trip this summer and plan to test that theory out. :)
 
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