Anyone else getting 20 mpg in a 2013 2.5 ?

[pt37]

Originally Posted by bmobuell

Update.... 20.5 mpg. On fourth fillup
1444 miles. And this last tank was suburban driving, lights about a mile apart, and some freeway and rural driving.
Tire pressure is right at spec.
That's rediculous.
How much longer should I wait before I take it in or call SOA ?

^ This is my daily commute. I have 5000 miles on mine and was getting 27-28mpg. Last 3 tanks have been 23-24 thanks to winter. I had an 11 legacy before and it took me about 3000 miles to start getting good gas mileage. I think there is a learning curve to hit the max mpg with the cvt. Paying attention to your fuel economy gauge helps.
Maybe increase tire pressure to 36/34. I think that also helps with the ride and handling.

[gls]

We are also in Michigan and get around 23 mpg in mixed driving, with 1200 mi on the odo. The temp has been in the low 20's in the morning, close to 30 during the day. I notice that the tach shows around 2500 RPM when cold at 35 mph, then slows down after it warms up. The RPM @ 65mph is around 2200 after it warms up, which also seems high to me. Is that normal?

[DrD]

I get around 20 in my 2.5, but it's a '12 and has a turbo... I do virtually no highway driving. 20 seems really low for a 2.5i, esp. the new one - I guess it could be breaking in - my mileage went up a mpg or two after a couple thousand miles. Have you tried buying gas from different stations and see if that makes a difference?

[Sandroad]

Check the stickies too. MPG thread has 137 pages with 1362 posts on gas mileage.

4th Gen Outback Gas Mileage

[paulmz]

I traded in my 2009 Legacy 2.5i Limited for a 2013 Outback 2.5i Limited in October. I could be crazy, but I do notice that the new fuel mileage computer calculates differently compared to the 2009. Here are a couple of things with the new system that I think affect MPG presumptions:

• Do you use your remote start? I never noticed a difference in the 2009, but the 2013 computer logs idle time as negative MPG. In the fall I averaged a good 3-5 MPG better compared to letting the car warm up. Even just sitting in traffic or at a stop light lowers the MPG.
  
• The overall MPG is greatly dependent on the initial efficiency after tripping the odometer. Depending on where I fuel up, along with where and how I drive, the MPG after the first mile will vary drastically. For instance, with mindful driving I obtained 43-MPG driving a little over 6 miles between the gas station and home. This high initial MPG affected the remaining calculation until the next odometer trip. There is an obvious difference in the calculation when there is a lower initial MPG.

In Duluth, Minnesota, my daily commute has a lot of hills. At a mere 10.2 miles round-trip, I currently average 21-MPG traveling to and from work, with approximately 60% being 55-MPH freeway and a recent outdoor temperature averaging 20-degrees. In the fall, however, I received about 24-MPG with almost no use of the remote start. Highway driving is a different story, getting averages anywhere from 28- to 34-MPG.

Of course, a lot of variables go into calculating MPG. I do find that I use the instrument panel's MPG gauge to alter my driving, ultimately increasing fuel efficiency. I see other posts of people comparing to Toyota's, Honda's, etc.-- but a Subaru just cannot be compared to other vehicles. Think about it... they are still highly efficient without the use of high-wear parts (potential exception of the CVT belt), hybrid systems, or other tricks that "improve" efficiency. With so many things that can effect miles-per-gallon, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is, fuel efficient or not, we love our Subaru's for countless other reasons.

[beninma]

Another couple hundred miles later my 2013 seems to be indicating it is not really going to drop below 24mpg even in really bad city traffic.

Did another awful 1-hour/25-mile commute in this morning.. lots of sitting, trip meter is right at 24mpg. If it improves any over this as break in finishes and I get that first oil change that will all be gravy.. my old car Acura RSX Type-S was getting 25mpg in the same driving on Premium so if the Outback can match it on regular that is pretty impressive given it is massively larger and has AWD.

So far my MPG gauge has actually been reading a little low.. less than 1mpg, but at least it isn't overly optimistic like a lot of cars.. the last few cars I drove with MPG features in their trip computers were an Acura TL and an RDX that I had as loaners.. those were both wildly optimistic, to the tune of +5mpg over the actual fuel economy. I put 120 miles on the RDX loaner and got 13mpg when calculating at the pump versus 18-20 on the computer! The TL got like 22-23mpg whereas the trip computer would report more like 26-27mpg.

[Restlessk]

Just filled up my 2013 Limited 2.5 CVT. 22.8 mpg in 100% of what I'd call suburban driving ... 2-3 miles between lights, speed limits 50-60, never driving through anything remotely resembling rush hour (ah, I do love retirement!).

This for us represents a decline from new of about 2 mpg. I'll write that off to winter fuel, but we certainly have seen no break-in improvement over 6700 miles, including an oil change at 3750. And this is driving in Texas, where we're spared the mountains and drastically cold weather.

Raw highway mileage in the summer yielded us about 27.5, which has fallen to just under 26 in the winter. This is flat, open highway, driving between 70 and 73.

With my experience, I'd make a few assertions:

1. The 2013 model year, with a revised engine and transmission has resulted in a decline in mileage, with fellow owners on fuelly reporting the same thing. Strikes me that the mileage dropped about 2 mpg from earlier model years

2. The dramatic improvement that some report after first oil change or several thousand miles does not occur with the 2013s.

3. Those reporting 30mpg+ are likely dealing with fairly short trips at slow speed, with a limited amount of data being processed by the on board computer. The on board computer is very optimistic for the first 200 miles or so after being reset, before settling down to a number, that for me, is about 1 mpg high. If driving over 60 mph, there is no way my car could get anything approaching 30 mpg.

In all, I'm disappointed with the mileage, but for the form factor of the Outback, the mileage is still above average. I do believe that Subaru needs to do additional tuning of the 2013 drive train to meet their mileage claims.

[subiesailor]

both our Legacy 2.5 cvt very early 2010 model and the late 2010 OB 2.5 CVT never got better than 27mpg till we had nearly 20,000 miles on the car. Around 15,000 miles we started to see road trip mileage numbers creep up. Our old 2001 2.5 was very much the same way in this regard. Now with 44K on the OB we have seen 29-30mpg on the same trips to see family where prior years at lower mileage points we couldn't get the car beyond 27-28mpg regardless of how hard we tried.

As I have said for some time there are no 2013's on the road today with enough miles on them yet and I would expect to see mileage numbers creep up as the cars get some real miles on them. 6700 miles is nothing heck thats not even considered legally used in the State of CA which is 7500 miles.

[pgh]

As I have reported I can get 21.7-22mpg on my 10 on strictly city driving no more than 5 miles one way at speeds 20-40mph on winter fuel. Not bad. To be honest as with the new Impreza the new FB series engines with the 2nd gen CVT as good as they look on paper the older EJ series engine 2010+ seem to be better on fuel. My son's 10 Impreza with a 4 speed auto could match my 12 Impreza's MPG when I had it.

[mcbrew]

I reset my B trip meter this morning before I started the car. I was 40 degrees F outside. I started and drive to work with no warm up. I drove pretty conservatively, and most of the lights were green. By the time I got to work, it was showing 17.x MPG. At lunch, I drove about 15 miles, which included a bunch of stops, but more distance between them. I got back to work with 24.x MPG.

Like I said earlier, my display is corrected to -4, and it jives with pen and paper calculations to within a couple of tenths.

I know there's nothing wrong... I can get 30+ MPG on the highway... And I can have over 40 MPG showing by the time I get home if I fill up on a warm engine and reset the trip meter.

The reason some of us get bad mileage is just the sort of commute we have. Can put up with it, because my commute is (now) so short that it has dramatically cut my fuel bill. The fuel savings along pays for about 1/2 of my car payment.