My 2009 accord is giving my a meager 17.5 mpg with a mix of city and highway driving (60/40).
This has a 4 cylinder engine with automatic transmission
I only have 17000 miles on this car so far. The best mpg I have gotten in the past three years was 24.5 on a complete highway trip. I had calculated mpg number by hand multiple times.
It feels ridiculous with my car's mpg when a BMW SUV 6 cylinder and gets an average of 18.5 mpg (in my friend's car).

I asked the honda service during maintenance and they keep saying I need to drive atleast 20K miles before I see any improvement. This does not make sense and I understood from various threads in this forum that the car breaks in about 5K miles.

Can any one please help me where to start so that I can improve my mileage?

 

Dragging brakes?
Suspension alignment?

I agree it sounds bad to get that mileage. I don't recall having to wait that long for any car to start getting respectable MPG.

 

I am also interested in this subject, as my wifes volvo has been getting on average 16mpg and I don't want to go spending money on spark plugs, fuel filter, etc if its not going to help.

 

1. I normally check the tire pressure regularly to ensure they are at 32psi.

2. Although you probably can go little longer on the air filter. I usually change my engine air filter every 15,000 miles. I change the cabin filter too, as that is actually more filthy (but, the cabin filter has nothing to do with fuel economy ).

3. Do regular oil and oil filter changes.

But, I also have to ask, how are you calculating average mpg?

I gotten approximately 25 - 29 on my 2009 EX with a mix of city and freeway on the OEM tires. That jumped up to 27 - 32 mpg when I switch the OEM tires to low roll resistance Michelin tires. I don't think I ever gotten an average mpg of 17.5 mpg even when new. But, that could depend on where you live.

 

Thanks folks for the quick replies.

I need to work with dealer about the bad suspension alignment. My car had an accident that required alignment in 2010.

regarding service i.e. oil change etc and I am very prompt and infact I drive so little that service guys ask me to come back one month later even though I am due for service on the basis of months.

As far as the MPG calculation. Here is how I calculated recently. Drove the car till the yellow light came in. Reset the trip counter Filled the tank and got about 16.5 gals. Drove and filled it two more times (16.1 and 16.7 gals). Total gallons was 49.3. My trip counter reading was 880. 880/49.3 = 17.88

 

The mpg calculation methodology is accurate.

 

There is something very wrong. My 2005 accord coupe 4 cyl gets 24 city/34 hwy.

 

Does it sound ok You may have had a spark plug foul out or a plug wire bad or not sealed correctly.

 

A) agree w/ you

when rotate your tires; tell the peeps your mpg woes and ask them to check to see if any brake is dragging as wheels are elevated.

a thought:
B) are you the most gentle driver on the road? if yes, then try this: go for an hour drive using lower gears to keep rpm >4000. get the motor to work some.
this approach works for restoring my motorcycle mpg when it's been ridden around town too much and mileage drops by 25% (only I run it to higher rpms).