I've done some searches and it seems most people here get around 19-22 mpg.

I know these cars aren't fantastic with the MPG, and living in LA, I spend most of my time in traffic which again doesn't help my cause... even on the freeways, so I don't expect to get great MPG, but 15 (14.8 to be exact) just seems really low. I try to coast as much as possible and I really don't drive very hard except for the rare occasion, I try to monitor this so I can maximize my fuel economy.

Could something be wrong with either the car or my driving? I just got the thing and haven't done anything to do it yet, so it's all stock... '08 journey. Am I crazy? On a full tank of gas I'm getting about 250-260 miles. Anyone else in LA getting better or is this just a symptom of living in a place where having a fun car isn't as much fun as it should be? I would like to think that if I'm getting such poor mpg it is atleast because I'm driving it hard... I worry that if I do that regularly I'm going to drop close to 10!

 

15 is a little low, you should be getting like 17 in the city. I think your driving your car a little hard to be getting 15. I know in the city i get 17 and freeway if i drive nice i do see 22-25 but combining the 2 i don't see 20. I get 19 average city and freeway

 

Uh, I can always attempt to drive more carefully... I'm driving so gingerly 90% of the time as it is I'm not sure where I can ease up. At that point I may as well get a Sonata lol.

I feel like I'm loosing the most gas around 20-30mph as I get up to 40.

I guess my question is, since its a new car to me, what would be the first things to have looked at (even though everything was supposed to be cleaned and replaced if needed before I bought it)... air filter and what else? Tire tread is fine. I'm taking it in on Tuesday for a little alignment issue, so I can have them look at something else too... just need to know what to tell them.

As you'll all learn quickly, I'm extremely new to car tech, parts and talk. I enter the g35 forum as a student

 

Do you do maintenance regularly? clean your throttle bodies, new engine filters, oil change and make sure your using premium and you should be good?

 

Had the car less than a month, so I WILL do regular maintenance (or rather, have someone else do it until I learn how). I'll have the guy look at the throttle bodies and filters though, I bet its the bodies.... it was a CPO so they were supposed to replace all the filters and oil before selling it.

Definitely using premium.... is one brand of oil significantly better than another? I seem to end up at Chevron most of the time since it's on my way home.

 

You'll get many different opinions on oil around here. A good synthetic along w/ a quality filter changed every 5k miles should suffice. I use Mobil1 5-30 w/ a Mobil1 filter changed every 5k. I've done this w/ 35k miles on my first G and now almost 30k on my 2nd G and my oil is always at the High dot on the stick.
I've got 20" rims and drive failry aggressive and still get 18-20 city and 27-29 hwy, but I'm not in a stop-n-go place like LA. Good luck w/ your mpg issues, sounds like it's about 10-15% too low. I'd take it on a road trip for a few hundred miles and see how it does on the open road. Be sure to reset your mpg meter before you start so you'll get a true reading.

 

Thanks. I plan on taking it up north to wine country soon so that will be a good test. I have a feeling the stop and go nature of this stupid city has a lot to do with it.

Funny thing, while I wanted to know what oil brands to use as well, in that particular post I actually meant to say gasoline and not oil...

 

Check air filters

 

Jesus..i never drive aggressively and get 21 mpg on highway...7mpg more than me..wow

 

I use to get 22 and now I get 20, but I drive it a lot harder now as well

 

Why don't you just look at your instantaneous MPG gauge in the info display between the speedo and tach to see where you're getting the worst mpg. You might be able to use the feedback to modify your driving habits accordingly (assuming there isn't something overtly wrong with your car mechanically).

 

maybe you should try resetting the computer....that is really low....

 

+1 on resetting the mpg. I have tried to see how good I can get my MPG on my 07 x and the best I have accomplished(hwy) is 27ish. Once I get into town it always goes down. I usually average 22ish with about 60% city driving. With bumper to bumper traffic jams, you might not be off with 15mpg especially with your ac going.

Sidenote: You might want to put the mpg bar graph on your hud as it will help keep your attention on it.

 

i average 20-22 in my daily commute which is fairly mixed driving at 25 miles each way. i drove to washington DC last weekend which is about 300 miles for me and doing pure highway from the gas station to the hotel i pulled about 25.2mpg. last time i drove to DC (when i got the car at 30k miles) i was getting 26.4mpg.

 

Is this measured via the computer, or calculated at fill up?