[jlc403]

Hi all. Have SE FWD purchased in November. My wife is primary driver, uses eco mode, doesn't idle and drives conservatively and mostly highway. We are consistently getting 23mpg. What is wrong with this car?

Calculating mpg by tracking miles driven divided by # of gallons at fill up.

Had serviced 5 times for dead infotainment screen and they swapped control module and super frustrated at this point.

 

[derekdal]

that does seem like its not possible and thus your question. highway or around town is the first major question. using eco mode really doesn't matter that much depending on driving terrain, not habbits. for example, eco allows the transmisstion to coast down hills instead of braking with transmission. if you press the gas pedal in eco its the same as pressing it in another mode.

23mpg seems ok for city rating.

 

[S_B]

Bad driving habits/errors?
Quality of fuel?
Excess weight in vehicle?
Tires inflated properly?
etc.

 

[jlc403]

Bad driving habits/errors?
Quality of fuel?
Excess weight in vehicle?
Tires inflated properly?
etc.

Have done all obvious troubleshooting. Brand new vehicle. Empty wayback. Tires are fine. Have checked a bunch. Gas from costco. I fill my other car there without issues.

100% something mechanical or computer causing this. Hoping someone can point in right direction specific to first gen se fwd.

 

[SomeDude]

Is the wife running 100 mph on the highway??
Check your math.
Datalog the car if you have the ability to do so.
Check for fuel leaks.

 

[jlc403]

How

Is the wife running 100 mph on the highway??
Check your math.
Datalog the car if you have the ability to do so.
Check for fuel leaks.

How does one datalog? Driving normally. No hard accels or decels. Have checked math on 5 fills in a row. Consistently 23.4-23.8mpg.

 

[S_B]

I'm not sure if Costco gas is top tier. If its 10% ethanol, that's just filler.

 

[derekdal]

how much are you putting in the tank when you fill it? I wonder if the pump is shutting off at less than full. you should try another station to see if that is the case. ethanol mixes will produce lower MPG but not by that much. still unclear on if highway or city driving situation.

 

[SomeDude]

How

How does one datalog?

Get VCDS (or some equivalent with datalogging capability).

 

[SomeDude]

how much are you putting in the tank when you fill it? I wonder if the pump is shutting off at less than full. you should try another station to see if that is the case.

Shouldn't matter as long as he is using the number of gallons dispensed as displayed on the pump.

 

[S_B]

If computer is sensing knock (under load) and pulling timing back, it will compensate by dumping in more fuel. Fuel quality means a lot.

 

[jlc403]

how much are you putting in the tank when you fill it? I wonder if the pump is shutting off at less than full. you should try another station to see if that is the case. ethanol mixes will produce lower MPG but not by that much. still unclear on if highway or city driving situation.

We don't always fill at costco. There's also a Sheetz - Using 87 unleaded. Also used BP here and there.

We live in a residential area with highway access about 1 mile from the house. Typical drive is 1 mile at 30mph with 1 light between house and highway for about 14 miles direct to work. Some light residential driving maybe 12 miles total for the week.

Filled at mileage 1184. Drove until mileage 1449 - 265 miles. Took 11.148 gallons to fill = 23.77mpg
Filled at mileage 1449. Drove until mileage 1712 263 miles. Took 11.255 to fill = 23.38mpg

I hear you regarding idea of pump shutting off at less than full. An idea to consider, but it seems like it fills fully. When it's been close to E, it's taken over 13gallons, so I suspect it's topping off at full just fine.

I completely understand that city and stop/go driving will have lower mileage than highway, but we drive this Taos in a very gentle way. I also understand variances with ethanol additives.

I'm not looking for suggestions to modify driving behavior. I'm sorry if that was unclear. Since purchase, we have been getting 24mpg - There is a problem with the FWD SE Taos we purchased and I am trying to find out if anyone has similar issues and, if so, was it a hardware issue or a software issue?

Low fuel efficiency can be hard to sort out and the dealership is useless most of the time. Counting on fellow Taosers for the answer.

Thanks!
Josh

 

[S_B]

Plus its new, so "break in time", if that's still a thing.

Just go out and enjoy it. Warmer weather coming will make a huge difference (like no winter gas, less warm up time).

 

[jlc403]

Plus its new, so "break in time", if that's still a thing.

Just go out and enjoy it. Warmer weather coming will make a huge difference (like no winter gas, less warm up time).

I appreciate your feedback. I live in warm weather. There is a defect in the car. Doesn't seem like you have experience with this particular problem in the SE FWD models?

 

[Pzookey]

We don't always fill at costco. There's also a Sheetz - Using 87 unleaded. Also used BP here and there.

We live in a residential area with highway access about 1 mile from the house. Typical drive is 1 mile at 30mph with 1 light between house and highway for about 14 miles direct to work. Some light residential driving maybe 12 miles total for the week.

Filled at mileage 1184. Drove until mileage 1449 - 265 miles. Took 11.148 gallons to fill = 23.77mpg
Filled at mileage 1449. Drove until mileage 1712 263 miles. Took 11.255 to fill = 23.38mpg

I hear you regarding idea of pump shutting off at less than full. An idea to consider, but it seems like it fills fully. When it's been close to E, it's taken over 13gallons, so I suspect it's topping off at full just fine.

I completely understand that city and stop/go driving will have lower mileage than highway, but we drive this Taos in a very gentle way. I also understand variances with ethanol additives.

I'm not looking for suggestions to modify driving behavior. I'm sorry if that was unclear. Since purchase, we have been getting 24mpg - There is a problem with the FWD SE Taos we purchased and I am trying to find out if anyone has similar issues and, if so, was it a hardware issue or a software issue?

Low fuel efficiency can be hard to sort out and the dealership is useless most of the time. Counting on fellow Taosers for the answer.

Thanks!
Josh

Lowest we have experienced is 29mpg. Taos S FWD. Mostly rural back roads w/ 55mph speed limit with stop signs here and there. Out on the highway at 75mph (80, 85) we get a solid 35 to 36 mpg.

 

[SomeDude]

Since purchase, we have been getting 24mpg - There is a problem with the FWD SE Taos we purchased and I am trying to find out if anyone has similar issues and, if so, was it a hardware issue or a software issue?

Something is wrong, check for fuel leaks, look at exhaust tailpipe for signs of rich mixture, datalog, etc.

By the way, I could drive my GTI hard as hell and do better than your Taos. Averaging 90+ MPH recently for a 220 mile drive in my GTI I still got about 30 MPG.

On my SE FWD, I averaged 33 for the tank with a decent amount of stop and go (teaching the daughter to drive) and some high speed (85 mph) highway driving.

 

[jlc403]

Lowest we have experienced is 29mpg. Taos S FWD. Mostly rural back roads w/ 55mph speed limit with stop signs here and there. Out on the highway at 75mph (80, 85) we get a solid 35 to 36 mpg.

Thank you - I haven't found anyone else who is in the low range we are - Think this thing needs to go back once and for all.

 

[karen.forgash]

Costco gas is Tier 1 gas! I always fill up there. Doesn’t most of the country have ethanol gas?

I can’t imagine what could be happening with your car. I’ve been averaging 27 combined with my all wheel drive. I hope toucan figure out what is going on with your Taos.

 

[k.aoi]

I'm also averaging around 23-24mpg with my current driving. About half city half highway but the highway is a lot of merging and steep hills and my commute is only about 8 miles one way. It's also winter and I have winter tires. Cars tend to burn more fuel when it's cold, at least at warmup. If you live somewhere hilly like I do (I live in a steep river valley) that could definitely contribute If I was somewhere flat and did more real highway driving I'd probably be averaging 30-32 I'd guess. Winter gas also has a lower energy content than summer gas which further reduces fuel economy. I'm averaging basically the same as I did with my previous 2 cars this time of the year, a 2018 Ford Focus 2.0L and a 21 Kia Forte GT 1.6T. Those were more or less in the same range of low-mid 20s. My averages in the summer was closer to 30mpg. Short trips in winter are killer on fuel economy.

 

[k.aoi]

Here's a shot of March from carnet- the conditions where I live are not conducive to good mpg. Hilly, very cold, lots of merging and a decent amount of stop and go and short trips. That's a recipe for really terrible MPG. The longer trips are where the average starts getting better.