Actually, I'm not that surprised at losing some MPG ground and I don't consider it the fault of the mods. I put it entirely down to the car being capable of responding more strongly than before, and it just takes so little throttle to partake of it (though I largely try not to). A year ago at about this time I logged 29.9mpg (a thus far max for the car), whereas as I mentioned above, I just calculated 28.2 -- all college town and local road driving. I guess I should mention I've been hand calculating my MPG ever since my first fill and all my fill-ups have been from the same station (though I expect the tire pressures weren't always the same).

 

My mileage fluctuates a lot. I average around 23 and I do mostly city driving (dr appts for the baby and driving to work). I try to drive good most of the time, but occasionally I like to get on it.

If I behave myself or drive on the freeway I average about 250-300 miles per tank.

If your driving a automatic the 4 speed gearing is terrible once you pass 65. I drove a 6spd camry with the same engine we have to arizona and in 6th gear going 80 and the rpms were LOW. In the xB I wouldve been burning up gas like no tomorrow.

 

I have never got past 26 mpg even babying on the highway. I am looking at getting a 2012 focus or civic now. I like the room of the xb but the mileage and fuel cost r too much.

 

$40 a TANK max is too much?

 

You should calculate how long it will take you to recover the cost of trading in your XB on a Focus or Civic through fuel cost savings. You may be surprised. My mom wanted a Prius until I explained to her that it would take her 10 years to recover the hybrid premium alone. She doesn't drive enough miles per year to justfiy a hybrid, although some people do.

 

I think you misunderstand how gearing works.....

The lower the final gear (to a point) the better mpg's you get. My 09 xb auto will get better mpg's at 70 or 80 than a 5 speed due to its lower rpm at those speeds.

 

not to mention new hybrid battery cost. because after about ten year when they go out...not warrantied.

 

I got 31 MPG today going from SD to LA at 68 MPH, just thought I'd share.

 

That too. I think hybrids are great but you really have to drive a lot of city miles to recover the additional cost of a hybrid. If I drove a lot of hwy miles I'd want a diesel more than a hybrid and a lot of gas cars are getting 40mpg hwy these days. I only drive about 12k per year so 25mpg avg and 30mpg hwy is good enough for me. Especially with V6 power.

 

I wish dude! My fill-up generally costs about $45. Ah, for the not-so-long-ago days of less than $20 to fill my old C-10 -- sigh !

 

seriously? my gas fill up is around $35.00

 

I got 362.00 miles to this last tank...11.70 gallons at fill up......

42.58 Total @ 3.64 per gallon (91)

30.94 MPG....seems to get better as time goes on. 3500 miles now.

 

I don't get how you guys are getting over 30 mpg. If you are going by the dash display, forget that. It is consistently 2+ mpg's higher than the accurate hand calculated method. At least on mine it is. When I test drove the 5sp, the actual RPMs @70mph were higher than automatic in 4th. So I would expect the auto to do better than the manual on the highway.

 

I actually made a trip up to reno this past weekend and I got about 33 mpg (but that was going downhill half the way). But yea, I agree with you in that the dispaly is always 2mpg's higher than reality.

 

Last three fill-ups were roughly $45. It typically takes about 12 gallons or so.

 

I usually fill up to about 10 to 11 gallons and takes about 40 bucks, depending on what price gas is on that day haha

 

does anyone know. how many mpg covering the upper grill gain? if any?

 

I blame my low mileage issues on ethanol. Here most stations use that as fuel oxygenates in stead of good ole MTBE. I used to get an average of 360 to 400 on a tank...and now its 320 on a good week. By the way when MTBE gets into the ground, supposedly it binds to water very well and does not separate...hence it poisons our water supply.

Oh Kidd, I don't think you will notice anything by covering up the grill...maybe your engine temp rising?

 

It seems to me Ethanol is crap, just one more example of special interests influencing Congress in their preferred direction (greater tax relief for interested parties, greater cost for the consumer )! And now they're looking at 15% Ethanol and every car manufacturer is objecting since the engines simply aren't designed for it ! Do you really think that'll stop Congress? The lobbies have already made up their minds!

Oh yeah, forget about closing off the upper grill area to improve gas mileage or anything else -- just wishful thinking !

 

Yes, plus the price of your steaks will go even higher!!