Phew!!! Finally got 20mpg - car is 3 wks old and 2700 mi.....
 

I knew the gas mileage "issue" before I got the car. But, with $2.10 premium, I was missing my '94 BMW 325is that got 23mpg - in town- no matter how hard I drove it.... and 28mpg on the highway- at 80mph.

My RX-8's mileage has been improving as the miles I've driven accumulate, as others have been experiencing. But I've felt the bottom of my stomach fall out a few times as I've bombed around town for 20 minutes or so and literally watched the gas gauge drop and then a day later get 210 miles before the low gas warning light goes on...

Is there any statistical info on the rx8club website that reflects the mileage we're all getting? I know there are polls and informal surveys here, but has anyone compiled anything that's statistically accurate and meaningful?

I hope someday I can get the rated 18/24 with the car - or exceed it. For the people who are reporting 27mpg tanks, are they totally and ridiculously pussyfooting the car and driving only for mileage? Or are they occasionally running the car up through the gears and getting some nice fun driving time on these tanks?

TIA

I can get 27 mpg If I keep it at or below 75 mph on a hiway trip.

Thing is, a car like this isn't very fun at 75 mph :)

can you guess how fast you have to go to get 16 mpg on a tank, on the hiway?

lowest tank was 18.1 and the was a flog the car night. best has been 24.2 on a trip from ft laud. back to orlando.

usually i get about 21 to 22. 80% highway.

beers
john stewart

lowest has been in the 12s, highest (100% hw) was 21ish. 16 avg with 50/50 hw/city

I typically get 17-19 in suburban/rural driving. I'll took a 650 mile trip this past weekend, at moderat highway speeds with some stop-light traffic, and got 25 mpg.

I have got 27.5-27.6-27.7mpg all with the cruz set at 65mph. All hwy and surely not as much fun as the twisties. I just wondered what it could get if I kept my foot out of it. All this is done after a tender breakin period. New at 65mph I got 23.5mpg, so expect around 4 more mpg after 10k miles. This is a better improvement then 12 previous Rotary cars I've owned....

I'm close to 13K miles and have yet to do any better than 21 MPG. It's probably possible to get 25+, but only under certain, narrow conditions... essentially traffic-free highway cruise control at 65 MPH or so. Even a little bit of stop and go traffic or 75+ MPH cruising will bring your average down to the more realistic 20ish MPG.

Don't expect 25+ MPG under more "normal" driving conditions.

Is there a speed (or more realistically an RPM) that is most effecient to cruise in? I'm thiking of the dyno plots that have been posted and the A/F ratios shown on this site, but I don't know enough to know if some "optimal" point for cruise could be extracted from them (realising that every care is different, I'm looking for generalities).


TIA

search for statistical analysis. soemoen did one on fuel economy here. the biggest diference seemed to be driving style if i am remembering correctly.

driving at 90 isn't more *fun* than driving 75 on a hwy. unless you drive on really curvy highways or you're an idiot who swerves in and out of traffic, hwy driving is generally boring at any speed.

Re: Phew!!! Finally got 20mpg - car is 3 wks old and 2700 mi.....
 

either that or put it in neutral downhill.