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Our Honda Fit 2012 (bought last October) is getting on average well under 25 MPG, sometimes as low as 22-23 MPG average according to the dashboard display. Neither my wife nor I are aggressive drivers although we do almost exclusively city driving and don't use the car often.

I'm wondering if there are any obvious things to look for. The only thing I can think of is the few times we've left it idling, although there hasn't been much of that lately since the last time I reset it and the mileage is still at around the 25 MPG mark when everyone else appears to be getting at least 28 MPG even with aggressive driving, etc.

UPDATE The other day I stepped into the vehicle and saw that its current MPG was 19!! Also after less than 100 miles of travel my gas tank was half full. Pretty sure a full tank should get me more than 200 miles, even in city driving. Something must be going on.

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  • How long has this been going on? Has it been bad through refills? – Nick May 30 '13 at 16:47
  • It's been bad for at least 1-2 gas fill ups. I really hadn't been paying attention to MPG, was curious and saw it was low and saw the low number survived at least 1-2 fillups plus one reset of the trip meter. – Jordan Reiter May 30 '13 at 17:00
  • Have you noticed any difference with the brakes, such as pulling to one side or odors after a long stop? – mikes May 31 '13 at 16:58
  • Remember that the EPA MPG rating is somewhat artificial, and so you shouldn't expect similar numbers from actual driving. – Jay Bazuzi Jun 4 '13 at 23:05
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    How reliable are those dashboard MPG readouts? I measure my MPG by setting my trip meter when I fill the tank; at the next fillup, I use the power of division. – Jay Bazuzi Jun 4 '13 at 23:06
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In my experience, urban driving tends to be worse for economy than agressive driving - my own car will consistently get 4-5 mpg (Imperial Gallons) less over a tankful if I do purely urban driving, and 4-5 mpg more if I do purely motorway driving (most of my driving is a fairly even mix of urban, rural and motorway).

Try taking it for a fast highway run and see if that improves matters.

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  • It gets pretty good mileage on the highway and I have inched up to 23 MPG when doing less stop-and-go driving. – Jordan Reiter Jun 5 '13 at 13:08
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Here's why: your car's gearbox is set up to get the most out of the engine's limited power during city driving. If you rev into the 3000rpm+ range frequently while in town, you're not going to get great fuel economy. The best thing you can do is to try to get to top gear as soon as possible. My wife has an Opel Corsa with a 100BHp engine that gives me the same mileage as my 200BHp Astra turbo (which weighs about 600lbs more to boot). The reason is simply that the Corsa revs much higher than the Astra, so although it burns less fuel per stroke, it makes up for it by making more strokes.

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  • I think the problem is that we're talking about beyond stop and go driving. I'd say right now around 50% of our travel when not going long distances is in residential neighborhoods with stop signs at every intersection. There's never an opportunity to get to a high gear or speed. Fastest we're likely to go most of the time is 25 MPH. – Jordan Reiter Sep 3 '13 at 17:05
  • Ouch man. But it's surprising how easy it is to get to top gear in a small car. Heck, I could pull away in 3rd gear in my wife's car on a level road (not advised). – Captain Kenpachi Sep 4 '13 at 8:17
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Issue could be with your air filter or intake system, Get it checked.

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