1st 20 mile city drive gets me 34.5MPG??

[insightbuyer]

This is on my just bought 2000, 150K, Manual Insight.

I am really bad at shifting as it is really my first stick car.

The first few miles had me at like 25MPG, then after a while reached as high as 37 then dropped to 35MPG.

Is this terrible? Far away from the rated 60MPG city.

Well on the bright side, at least it is better than my old car which gets like 14 CITY.

I got these numbers from the display where it says MPG <====> miles??

[uhtrinity]

There are quite a few contributing factors, but yes, that is very low.

What kind of tires are on the car? Were you running AC? Average speed?

[insightbuyer]

The tires are some no-name brand that I never heard of.

Would tires really make that much of a difference in the city?

Driving was lots of street lights, constant stops and go. I would say average speed was probably 25MPH.

[gilbertguy]

You're doing fine if this is your first stick shift car, don't worry about your MPG for now just concentrate on learning how to up shift and down shift. If it is all stop and go and crawling at 25 MPH your MPG may be about right? Once you get better at shifting take it for a weekend road trip and see what kind of milage you get out on the open road.

[uhtrinity]

Tires make a huge difference on this car. The Bridgestone Potenzas are hands down the best. In town stop and go should net 50ish and highway should be 70+. I would also check the air filter, spark plugs, and all fluids. There are a lot of factors that add up to great mpgs.

[Eli]

It's probably your tires. They're probably also inflated to 32PSI.

Get the correct Bridgestone tires and inflate them to at least 40PSI, 50+ if you feel comfortable.

Does the car have the correct wheels?

And of course, a full tuneup if you haven't. Be aware that the Insight takes spark plugs that need to be matched to the cylinder head; there is a letter stamped under the coil pack on the head. You need to get plugs that match the letter on each cylinder.

Good sources of parts are

http://www.g1parts.com/

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/

[timny1984]

Are you sitting at stop lights with the car running? or are you in auto stop? After the car if warmed up, if you are breaking under 20mph in neutral the engine should shut off.
I just got my first manual car 9 months ago sp give it a day or two and you should be much smoother and the mpg #'s will increase. Also what is the charge on your battery? Since you are learning i expect it to be pretty low which might cause the car to force charge and your numbers will be pretty low. as gilbertguy said, just learn to drive the car first and shoot for the better numbers later.
Good luck!

Tim

[interestedguy]

I had a car very similar to yours, I took it from 44 MPG to 70 MPG, the two biggest bumps in my milage were replacing my tires with the correct OEM Bridgestone RE92s and inflating them to 5 PSI over stock (good for about 10MPG) and I replaced my spark plugs with the correct OEM plugs I got from majestic honda (also good for about 10 MPG). I did a number of other things but those were the two with the biggest bang for the buck. As in all things your milage will vary.

[insightbuyer]

Originally Posted by uhtrinity

Tires make a huge difference on this car. The Bridgestone Potenzas are hands down the best. In town stop and go should net 50ish and highway should be 70+. I would also check the air filter, spark plugs, and all fluids. There are a lot of factors that add up to great mpgs.

Are the potenzas the best? What about all those other green tires that are out on the market that are supposed to offer MPG savings. Does the potenzas beat all of those?

Also, I think one of my brake pads may be scraping slightly. I notice I get a scratchy sound that seems to go away when I press on the breaks slightly. I wonder if a brake pad slightly rubbing could case my MPG to be much lower. I doubt it can do that much.

[uhtrinity]

I would search this site as others have done head to head tests. No other tire has been able to match the Potenza in the mpg category.