Gas Milage

[shanenin]

We bought a brand new kia rio in 2001(just $8000, with 5 year bumper to bumper, 10 year power train). It was rated at 27city and 33highway. We checked the milage for the first month, and got about the same as it was rated. Recently(5 years later) we checked the mileage again. We are now getting about 33city and 39highway. This is about 6 miles more then it was rated. Is it typical for a car to gain that much better mileage with the engine being wore in. What else could cause the great mileage? For what its worth, we slack on our maintenance.

[Bubba Bob]

Hi Shanenin,

Yes, it's absolutley possible. Infact, it's perfectly normal and expected to happen. Although, usually it would happen WAY before the 5 year mark. How many miles are on the car?

Congrats on the good gas milage.

ALso, hows the quality of the Kia? I know they used to be pretty bad, but recently ive heard a lot of good things about them! $8k for a new vehicles witha warranty can't be beat.

Edited July 16, 2007 by Bubba Bob

[shanenin]

The Kia has been good to us. It had a lock mechanism jam up several years ago, they fixed it. Other then that, not one repair. I would buy another one. My only concern is the safety of driving my family in such a small car. The small Kia against an SUV would not be a pretty sight(hopefully the family would be ok) :-(

edit added later//

We have a hard 60000 city miles. For all we know, it may have got the better milage one year later, we never checked. My wife was feeling that we were losing millage, so we decided to check. Boy were we surprised.

Edited July 16, 2007 by shanenin

[Honda_Boy]

yeah small cars can get demolished in wrecks particularly those involving larger SUV's and trucks. But I've seen it where a Civic demolished an SUV in a wreck. The side of any vehicle is a weak point so that was to be expected even though it was a civic hittin an SUV. Just be as safe as you can.

Increased mileage is indeed to be expected when a vehicle ages. The original EPA on my old car was much lower than what it was actually gettin. Ditto on my current car's mileage (96 Civic CX with a 99 Si motor/tranny/ECU) versus the EPA on a 1999 Civic Si. There is a weight difference but not enough of one to make a difference this big so you can tell the motor is broke in (950000 miles, it better be broke in).

[Steamhead]

yeaa.

i get like 12 mpg in my corvette. I also have to put premium gas in it because of the motor. It's not exactly the cheapest thing in the world.

(and the way i drive it doesn't help too much either >.>)

but also, if another car decides to hit me there's a 90% chance the other car will come out on top. my car is like.. an engine with some fiberglass and a couple seats strapped to it

[JDoors]

... Is it typical for a car to gain ... better mileage with the engine being wore in. What else could cause the great mileage? For what its worth, we slack on our maintenance.

Engine and driveline parts wear, which you would think would be a bad thing, but it allows things to move more easily so there's less internal drag to overcome. To a somewhat lesser degree engine computers "learn" your driving habits and adjust settings, which can improve mileage (that should happen pretty quickly though rather than over many years). Can't think of any other factors off the top of my head.

It's possible you'd get even better mileage if you strictly maintained the vehicle. Keeping track of gas mileage is one way to determine what's going on under the hood; if mileage drops there may be a need for service (such as a tuneup, new air filter, etc.).

[hitest]

Awesome gas mileage, shanenin!

I drive a 98 Malibu which runs cheap gas, regular 87.

It has a six cylinder engine, it runs okay.