[tdawson78]

Details:
2013 Outback Special Appearance Package (2.5i)
Paid 28.9k for the car from Grand Subaru (I thought this a good deal?)

3750 miles on car
3550 miles are highway
200 miles city driving

Car has never been above 4000rpm and I drive very carefully/gas consciously. I never drive above 72mph on interstate, or 65mph on highway. I coast into stops (the car feels like it might be "braking" a bit when I disengage accelerator? that may be the CVT?).. and have never been a part of what might be described as "adverse driving conditions". I live in Central Illinois. There are NO hills.

I'm getting 24.8 MPG average. My calculations and Subaru's claims tell me that I should be getting ~28 or more with this % of highway to city driving.

Does this fall in line with other Outback owners? Or is something amiss with the car?

Thanks for your time.


Tom

 

[4wheeldog]

You are fighting 2 issues that will improve with time: The car is not run in yet, and won't be until it has 10 to 15k on it. And, winter fuel is not near as good for mileage as the 3 season stuff.

Just a thought........I would give the car a few full power acceleration runs, if it were mine.......Once past the break in period, a little heavy acceleration helps to bring in the rings, and burn off any deposits in the combustion chamber, from all that coddling you have given it up to now. Good luck.

 

[tdawson78]

FYI - gas mileage steadily worse. I've run it out a few times, and am only getting about 22MPG at 70MPH on flat interstate (no wind).

I'm thinking this isn't normal. Does anyone else have similar issues with 2013 models? I get 24ish city, 22-23 highway, up to 25-26 if I drive 55mph.

Thanks!


Tom

 

[RiNkY]

I'm averaging a disappointing 23.8MPG - The Shed (Subaru Outback) | Fuelly

I specifically went with the 2.5 over the 3.6R because of the MPG, at this point maybe that was a bad call!

A solid 50% of my driving is busy city freeways during the daily commute, which rarely involves coming to an actual stop, but does involve lots of braking / acceleration.

 

[tdawson78]

Yep, sounds very familiar to what I'm getting. I'd like to hear more views on the 2013. The only other person I know is running about 22mpg but they drive mostly in town.

Very very disappointing, especially as I love everything else about the car.

Won't be able to keep it at this gas usage however. 20% lower than expected.

 

[jogosub]

Try to switch to a different brand of gasoline and record your mileage... you may find a differnce in mpg right then!

 

[adgjqetuo]

I'm only on my third tank of gas since new, but I averaged 22.5 and 24.1 doing 50 / 50 hwy and city so far. The tank I'm on now is 75/25 hwy and city so I'm interested to see if it increased any - on board is reading 25.8 I believe so far.

I'm a moderate accelerator - mostly around 3k, sometimes 4k.

I'm not too worried about it. The sticker says 26 combined doesn't it? The EPA 30mpg is all highway flat roads, no stopping - unless your taking a road trip in the mid-west I doubt that will ever happen.

My wife's car we bought brand new and we were getting 5-6mpg under the rating for almost 10k miles before it picked up to normal mpg.

I don't expect to hit optimum MPG until summer 2014. 10K brings me until about October 2013 right when they switch gas types again, so by the following Summer she will be very broken in and the better fuel will be out.

Stop worrying about gas mileage and enjoy your outback! If you wanted great mpg right out of the gate you should have bought a hybrid.

Get past two or three oil changes then report back. New cars need time!

 

[subiesailor]

Winter temps bring mileage down big time. Even here in CA where our cold mornings are in the high 30's mid 40's my average for the week has dropped from 24-25mpg around town to 21-22mpg with winter blend fuel and cold temps. That is with a car that has 40,000 miles on it.

Summer time we easily get 24-25mpg around town. 70mph speeds are about 4mph too high for the best possible high way mileage and you won't see those super high 20's and low 30's till you have 10,000 miles or so on the clock anyway.

 

[RiNkY]

I'm not massively concerned about 24mpg - My previous vehicle was a 5.6Ltr V8 Nissan Titan 4x4 that struggled to get 12mpg. So with my 1200 miles a month I drive - the gas savings are still pretty much paying the payment on the Outback!

As I had been tracking on Fuelly tho, I wanted to give the OP some additional data.

 

[tdawson78]

Road trip in the midwest can describe the entirety of this car's mileage. (4k miles). I'll wait a bit and switch gas to a diff station/pump and do some recording before bitching any more.

.5 miles to the interstate, 28 miles of interstate, .5 miles to work. This is what this car does and any other type of driving is only "better" in terms of gas mileage.

I'll give it more time. Before "winter" fuel, it was still very disappointing at under 25mpg "overall" which is really "highway".

Will update after next tank.

 

[Aorys]

Yes, I am getting similar gas mileage on my Subaru too! Oh, wait, I drive a 3.6R. Yeah, your mileage sucks.

 

[edawg]

By now, the MPG should be near 30 with that drivin pattern so try the easy things: gas blend with less ethanol, tires at 36psi, remove any weight you may have added.

Then run 1 more tank and take these data points to the dealer. Check other threads for sticking brake caliper, computer codes and / or CVT whine threads. Something is sub optimal here. Break in and new oil might only help 3 MPG or so... You need 6 or more to get to the cars potential hwy MPG.

 

[147_Grain]

Been averaging 22.3 mpg (50% city / 50% hwy - and a lot of short trips) in a new 2013 Outback 6-cylinder on Chevron mid-grade 88 octane fuel. MPG should improve after 3,000 miles with early LOF changes that got rid of high-friction metal particles in the engine and transmission, which were both serviced this morning at the dealer.

 

[Aorys]

Just a Few MPG Difference

Been averaging 22.3 mpg (50% city / 50% hwy - and a lot of short trips) in a new 2013 Outback 6-cylinder on Chevron mid-grade 88 octane fuel. MPG should improve after 3,000 miles with early LOF changes that got rid of high-friction metal particles in the engine and transmission, which were both serviced this morning at the dealer.

Yep, there seems to be a difference of just a few MPGs between the H4 and H6. I thought my H6 would get around 16 MPG, but I have been pleasantly surprised with mileage in the low 20s (combined) and high 20s (highway). I just joined fuelly.com, so let's see how the mileage holds up. I still have fewer than 600 miles on the odometer.

 

[mat_919]

I just registered to post problem that keeps me up at night. Similarly like others I have disappointing fuel economy with my 2013 Outback 2.5i CVT. I have had an eye on Outbacks for a good 2 years now and when Sandy claimed my 15 year old Grand Marquis it was time to get it. I was going to get manual transmission; both for fuel economy and to make routine, short but boring drive to work (usually less than 12 miles) more enjoyable. However, since I live in NY Metro area friends and a dealer had me convinced for CVT claiming better fuel economy. Currently, I still have not enough statistical data since I did only two fill ups but things are seem not good. I almost don’t take my eyes from the mpg gauge and my first tank was 24.1 mpg with 250 miles highway and the next one only 19.4 mpg with city driving only. That is nowhere close to promised 24. This is very bad, considering the fact, that I was able to squeeze 19 mpg in the city, from my old V8, 4.6L Mercury. I understand that there is a brake in period and economy might improve in time. Regardless I felt I should share my findings as there are more people concerned. Currently I use 87 octanes HESS gasoline. Drive to work and back 8 miles each way with 4 miles traffic lights and one exit on expressway. I never go over 60 not once over 3000 rpm. I do however warm up the engine until blue light goes off which takes about 3 to 4 minutes at about 2000 rpm as per:
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/maintenance-2013.html
I noticed that in order to lower rpms to warm up the car; once you start it put it in Drive and then back to Park. Car will default to 675 rpms (source below), until warm.
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/outback/outback2013.html
I am not sure should I do that. I will monitor both this post and my car and post future results.

 

[RiNkY]

Sad thing is I rented a 6.2Ltr V8 Camaro SS for the weekend while we were in Monterey and even driving the Pacific Coast Highway over from San Jose and down through Santa Cruz and playing with the power of the thing, it averaged 2 mpg worse than I'm getting in a 2.5Ltr 4 Cylinder!!!!

 

[AWDFTW]

I just registered to post problem that keeps me up at night. Similarly like others I have disappointing fuel economy with my 2013 Outback 2.5i CVT. I have had an eye on Outbacks for a good 2 years now and when Sandy claimed my 15 year old Grand Marquis it was time to get it. I was going to get manual transmission; both for fuel economy and to make routine, short but boring drive to work (usually less than 12 miles) more enjoyable. However, since I live in NY Metro area friends and a dealer had me convinced for CVT claiming better fuel economy. Currently, I still have not enough statistical data since I did only two fill ups but things are seem not good. I almost don’t take my eyes from the mpg gauge and my first tank was 24.1 mpg with 250 miles highway and the next one only 19.4 mpg with city driving only. That is nowhere close to promised 24. This is very bad, considering the fact, that I was able to squeeze 19 mpg in the city, from my old V8, 4.6L Mercury. I understand that there is a brake in period and economy might improve in time. Regardless I felt I should share my findings as there are more people concerned. Currently I use 87 octanes HESS gasoline. Drive to work and back 8 miles each way with 4 miles traffic lights and one exit on expressway. I never go over 60 not once over 3000 rpm. I do however warm up the engine until blue light goes off which takes about 3 to 4 minutes at about 2000 rpm as per:
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/maintenance-2013.html
I noticed that in order to lower rpms to warm up the car; once you start it put it in Drive and then back to Park. Car will default to 675 rpms (source below), until warm.
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/outback/outback2013.html
I am not sure should I do that. I will monitor both this post and my car and post future results.

Wasting a looooooooooot of gas letting it idle for that long. That's not what the blue light means. Blue light just means "below operating temps". Start it, and drive gently until it is off. Your short pure city commute isn't going to help much either.

Right now is a bad time for MPG. Cold engine to warm up, lots of accessories to run, winter blends of fuels in some areas....all equal bad MPG.

 

[mat_919]

Wasting a looooooooooot of gas letting it idle for that long. That's not what the blue light means. Blue light just means "below operating temps". Start it, and drive gently until it is off. Your short pure city commute isn't going to help much either.

Right now is a bad time for MPG. Cold engine to warm up, lots of accessories to run, winter blends of fuels in some areas....all equal bad MPG.

OK, so I ignored warm up, what initially seemed as a solution because avg. mpg jumped to 22.2, but then 2 days later is back again at 20.4. It really doesn't matter if I warm it up or not, because until blue light goes off, computer keeps rpms at 2000~2200 level regardless of speed. Once blue light is off rpms go down to 1600 at my normal cruising speeds. I'm really disgusted with my Outback.

 

[jairoavedra]

Poor Milage here as well

I have a 2013 Outback 2.5i Limited with 3000 miles. I do mixed driving but mostly Highway. At best, I have gotten 22mpg. I'm doing between 19-21mpg mixed. I'm not getting even city estimates. If I knew it was going to be this way, I would have gotten the 6cyl. Other than this, I love the car. I'm going to take it to the dealer to see if they find any issues.

J

 

[TooSlick]

It takes at least 10,000 miles for these engines to fully wear in and achieve the best performance. Your conservative driving style is actually prolonging this process. I'd drive more aggressively for the next 5000 miles and I think you'll find the engine starts to return higher fuel efficiency.

I'd also check your tire pressure. Most people are running higher pressures than 32F and 30R. You do want to maintain the 2-3 psi differential between the front and back due to the weight distribution (approx 56%-44%). This will give you the same rolling radius on the front & rear axles....

TS