Topic: Fuel consumption figures in reviews

[2Saabs]

I've noticed recently that virtually every car review I read mentions how the fuel economy is so much worse in winter, often never coming close to the Energuide ratings. One of the worst was today's Honda Accord review, they only managed 15l /100km - that's worse than many SUV's!

I've owned my car for 4 years and always track the fuel consumption each time I refill the tank. I'm in Ottawa and I get roughly 8.5 l/100km all year round with mostly highway driving. If I use a full tank on the highway, I get 7.8 - 8.0 l/100km which is exactly (7.8 ) what it's rated for by Energuide, and that's at ~115km/h. However, there's no correlation with the time of year and the actual consumption. By the way, I use winter tires (in winter).

My car's a 2001 - have emission controls changed so much recently, e.g. to heat up the cat faster, that I can expect my next car to have worse economy in the winter?

This isn't an "economy car" by the way, although it's 185HP is pretty low by today's standards

Cheers,
Paul

[unctuous]

What kind of car is it?

My GM 3800 200HP engine only gets marginally worse economy in the winter - 5%.  I think the majority of this loss is due to the car running rich while warming up.

[99 Silver]

My M35 has fuel economy readouts and I am surprised at how much higher the fuel consumption is on the 401 when the car is cold.  It seems to take about 15 minutes for everything to loosen up and the fuel useage then drops by about 25%. 

The tires will eventually warm up also and the pressure will increase by 2-3 psi after about 30 minutes at highway speeds.

These comments refer to the recent cold snap with temps in the -10 to -12 range.

[stodge]

The best I can do in winter with my 08 Sentra S is 10.3L/100km.