I noticed something quite evil this morning. I realized I had left my sun roof at tilt overnight (thankfully no rain), so I turned the car on to shut it so I could wash the car. Well, I didn't want to turn the engine off stone-cold, so I sat in the car waiting for the temp to come up some before switching it off.

So, in a few minutes of idling, I noticed my gas level go down TWO notches. I've noticed this in traffic before when I got stuck at a light for a while. At the time I just marked it up to it still being the break-in period, but I'm at 750 miles now.

Has anyone else noticed problems like this? I seem to do fine for gas milage even with stopping and starting, but sitting idle KILLS me. I got 17.9 mpg my first measured tank, and then 16.1 my second tank (more city driving the second time).

I am planning on running a little test this week. Going to go to the gas station and fill up. Then turn the car on, and sit at idle for maybe 10/15 mins (take along a good book) and then fill up again at the same pump and see how much gas I burn off. Just seems unnatural even for a rotary how much disappears when sitting still. Any takers to do the same test and compare results?

 

My idle gas consumption is higher than any other car I've owned, but its getting better. My wife and I got to a wedding early and we decided to sit in the car for about 15 minutes with the car on. The fuel gauge barely moved. I have about 896 miles on my car.

I am still not too thrilled about my fuel economy though, although it has gotten a bit better too. First tank freaked me out! :-)

 

there is another thread on this and many said it's happening to them too