Subaru Baja MPG thread

[Flowmastered87GL]

year/engine type/ miles on car: 2005 / 2.5 NA / 31,500 mi
gas: 87 regular from Costco (10% ethanol)
driving style: Depends.... moderate overall (very conservative driving to work at 11PM but sometimes aggressive going home at noon
mileage type (city/highway) 20% city / 80% highway. Rarely in bumper to bumper
mods of note: Removed roof rack, tire PSI at 39-40

24/25 MPG average noted around my daily life. Havnt taken a long enough road trip yet to see anything better.

My best documented MPG is 25.15

My average mileage with my freightliner pulling a set of doubles is 6.4MPG I think

[jaxed]

2005 / 2.5 NA / 29k miles

Just got 393.1 miles from 12.7 gallons of 85 octane. That's 30.7 MPG.

Oh yeah, it's a 5 speed.

[Emsanon]

Car: 2003 N/A Baja

Driving style during this MPG test: Gentle

MPG: Around 19.6 MPG

Seems to be on the low side.

[jaxed]

I just signed up for Fuelly, where I can track my MPGs in all my cars with ease.

http://www.fuelly.com

[madkaw]

2005 BAJA TURBO,

sporty driving most of the time with short trips to work. I always use bp or Shell premium. I get 20mpg around town pretty consistently with as much as 27mpg on the highway. I drove from Indiana to Flordia and tried my own mythbusting with the tailgate, it didin't seem to make a difference the position of the tailgate. I have hauled 1200lbs(that's not a misprint) in the back and still have seen great mileage. What a great truckcar!!!! My wife has the Forester Turbo and does 20 around town, but less then my car. I think she needs new plugs.

[kmvbaja]

2003 baja 5 speed manual with 100K miles.
Miles driven so far 3000 miles of which 75% interstate.

I'm so glad I got this little car/truck. My 98 Frontier was terrible on gas. This car with the miles it has, still drives tight and smooth with ANY rattle. Very quiet on the interstate with no other abnormal noise or wind noise. I do have the tapping when cold thing though but I'm not gonna worry about it.

Okay.... Gas on interstate best is 29.5 mpg (65 - 80 mph on flat/w rolling hills at times)
consistantly getting 28 mpg on interstate and 24 mpg in town with 10% hiway.
car seemed to do better on the 87 stuff. My driving style is moderate.

All in all... I'm super happy with this car so far. SOLID...

[BooBoo]

Hi folks, new ScoobyTruck owner here (owned another Subaru back before Subarus were cool). No, not a Brat.

year/engine type/transmission/miles on car: 06/Sport/Auto/18k
gas: 87 regular
driving style: fairly aggressive
mileage type: mostly around town - maybe 20% highway
No mods
MPG: 20.8 (around town)
MPG: 25.4 (1,600 round trip) 70-75 on interstates w/cruise when possible

[bakerman1]

I have an 03 5speed manual sport with a snug lid on the back. Just got back from a 2800 mile trip. Highest I got on the freeway was 29mpg doing around 75-80. Around town I get about 24mpg. Have only had it for about a month and absolutely love it!

Ken

[uj2]

06/Turbo/Auto/32,000
gas: 91+
Style: Anywhere from mild to aggressive
Car is stock
20% city, 80% highway
Combined MPG is about 22

Odd thing is that the 22MPG is if I drive like an angel or if I drive the wheels off it...

[jakub911]

2005 Baja Turbo 67,000 Miles

Mods: WR Intake, Hard Bed Cover. 215/70/16 oversize tires just put them on three weeks ago did not effect to much.

Every since i purchased the car 28,000 miles i've been averaging 16-17 Mpg's!

Car runs great no CEL

I think thats the lowest MPG of anybody with a turbo on the forum.
Even though i tanked up for less than 3 bucks a gallon for the first time in almost a year, i'm constantly worried about my MPG's

My friends with his F-150 almost get better MPG's than me!!!!

i'm not sure of the possible reason for such lows MPGs here are some idea's
1. midwest gas (high ethonel mix)
2. Bad turbo (to much lag)
3. I'm leaking fuel (not likely)
4. Needs to be re-tuned (i've reset ECU many times)

Miles Fill-up Price MPG
231.700,mi,15.553,gal,4.450,14.897,mpg,0
258.700,mi,15.760,gal,4.390,16.415,mpg,0
111.400,mi, 7.170,gal,4.390,15.537,mpg,0
164.900,mi, 7.300,gal,3.860,22.589,mpg,0
161.000,mi, 8.380,gal,3.890,19.212,mpg,0
286.500,mi,14.720,gal,4.190,19.463,mpg,0
193.700,mi,13.080,gal,4.050,14.809,mpg,0
282.000,mi,14.625,gal,4.080,19.282,mpg,0
255.000,mi,15.080,gal,4.190,16.910,mpg,0
183.000,mi,12.631,gal,4.040,14.488,mpg,0
260.500,mi,16.020,gal,4.280,16.261,mpg,0
192.600,mi,13.200,gal,3.950,14.591,mpg,0
222.700,mi,15.100,gal,4.090,14.748,mpg,0
223.000,mi,13.466,gal,3.730,16.560,mpg,0
190.900,mi,13.070,gal,3.050,14.606,mpg,0
197.500,mi,14.210,gal,2.890,13.899,mpg,0

Here are some of my last number

If anyone has any feedback or ideas i would really appreciated,
i've almost considered selling the car when gas was at its highest,
i would love to average about 20 mpgs mixes like some of the other guys.

[mikey6331]

Is your turbo an Auto, Jakub?

I get 17 to 18 with mine (auto), so maybe yours isn't too far off really, with your mods & such.
I tried driving like Grandpa for a couple of tanks and improved a mpg or 2 - but then I did the math, and yeah, I got an extra 20 or so miles per tank. Which is just over a gallon. Which was $4 at the time. So I decided it was worth $4 to drive it like I stole it again.

[aberg12012]

I've been getting about 15 mpg in the winter with a 2003, N/A and AT. I'm actually a little concerned about it. I used to let the car sit and idle quite a bit to warm up on cold days, and I've since stopped that thinking it would help. But I still get around 15 mpg.

I live in central WI, and on average it's been about 10-20 degrees here. 95% of my driving is a 10 mile drive to and from work, on a very nice country road going 50 mph with only about 2 stops along the way, very little traffic, and no hills. The car burns no oil, and other than the normal issue of piston slap when cold, runs great with no issues.

Last summer I averaged 25 mpg, up to 30 with all freeway miles. I'm curious to see when things warm up if my mpg goes back to normal. I have a feeling it's simply a matter of cold tires, cold barings, everything's cold and stiff, etc... It does seem at times that it takes alot more throttle to get the car up to speed when it's cold.

Perhaps I need to make sure I don't have a brake caliper dragging, or even my parking brake set too tight. (But if that were the case, I would think the pad would quickly wear, and stop dragging?) Which leads me to the question: How do I check with AWD to see if each wheel is free spinning? Seems even if I put the car on a lift, I won't be able to free spin the wheels like with a 2wd car.

[mikey6331]

Aberg,
I can't speak to your question about checking your wheels, but I can say that your mileage is not normal. I wouldn't expect a weather variation to be much more than a mpg or 2. I live in Florida and drove up to Michigan for 2 weeks over the holidays. Between our 90º summer temps and the low of 4º or 5º in Michigan, I did not notice any appreciable difference in my mileage at all. The only other difference that could affect anything at all is that in FL, premium is 93 octane wherever you go but in MI it is typically 91 or 92. But, again, all within the parameters of what the engine likes to burn.

[bulwnkl]

I've been able to track a 10-15% (I'm estimating right now; don't have a calculation in front of me) drop in mpg in my '05 turbo from winter cold to summer heat over the last couple winters. I don't use the A/C much in the summer, and winters here are frequently from the single digits above to double-digits below zero.

This winter, though, I haven't seen that drop. At least not so far (lots of winter left here!). I've had maybe 5% drop this winter? Maybe not even that. I know that my truck was not likely that well maintained before I got it (ATF dark and smelly when I bought it, etc), though it was a high-miles machine. I've been doing what I normally do, which will clean up any engine/tranny/axles. Maybe that's part of the difference this winter? Maybe not.

Anyway, your naturally aspirated truck is getting lower mpg than my turbo gets unless I'm towing something heavy and tall. My commute is very similar to yours (arterials and county/state highways at ~50mph; ~8 miles one-way for me). That doesn't necessarily mean yours is broken since there are those vehicles that just get poor mpg right from the beginning (and those that get really high mpg), but I'd be looking for things like you're looking for to see whether I could help improve things.

[yellowblaze]

06 Baja sport, a/t, 25k, driving it home from buying it, all thruway averaged.....31.5MPG!!!