03 Accent LOUSY fuel economy

go buy a honda and figure out how much you save after adding in the price differential.

;-)

I run 65 mph on highway except when I go through the nightmare town of "Ithaca" as far as the Honda comment hmmmm Id' rater my Festiva! As of now I would not buy another Hyundai! As far as the fuel economy goes my

88 Thunderbird Sport 302 got just about what I get now at 26-28 on the highway so this car has been a big let down!

do you run the A/C constantly, obese, or a combination of the two?

ah lets see this is Upstete NY so no the AC is not an issue, Obese well I guess weighing almost 600 lbs I would not have thunk that to be the problem lol but really I guess if I want I will just put the Festiva back on the road and sell this thing off!

I have an 03 Accent with a manual transmission. During the winter I get about 30-32. In summer, it's closer to 35. My best was 38 during a day of highway driving. Other than trying to hold my max speed down to 70, I don't do anything special.

I had a 2003 Accent w automatic. Bought it new. Bargain. Usually got

29mpg, day in and day out driving around northern Indiana. After I moved to Cambridge, Mass, the mileage dropped to 19mpg. Also day in and day out.

Irrelevant comment: I loved that car. Good basic transport; good cd player; comfortable; acceptable handling; braking and acceleration.

Alas, no cache.

My daughter has it now. I replaced it with a bimmer.

Has it always been this way, or is this something new?

When was the last time you replaced the plugs, wires and air filter?

What are the tire pressures? Although the factory specs equal pressure front and rear, you'll get better fuel economy and more even tire wear if you run more pressure in the front, where most of the weight is. For an Accent, I'd try 34/30, front/rear.

What are you using for oil? Synthetics help increase fuel mileage, particularly in winter. In your area, 5W-30 should be fine year round, either natural or synthetic. Heavier oils cost you fuel mileage without protecting any better.

Driving habits are the single biggest factor in fuel economy. If none of the above maintenance items help, the problem is most likely you, not the car. Simple things like starting smoothly and anticipating stops so you can coast up to them make a big difference. Shut off the engine when you're waiting at lights or the ATM or any other time you'll be sitting still for a significant period of time. Use the cruise control whenever possible.

You say you're keeping your speed down to 65 on the highway, which is good, but how do you handle the traffic jams you elude to? If you try to force the pace with constant accelleration and braking, your mileage will suffer badly. Adopting a more Zen attitude can really help, but it can be challenging to do so.

FWIW, my experience has been that automatics often have a hard time reaching their EPA numbers in the real world, but manual transmission cars often exceed them. My Elantra GT 5 speed exceeds the mileage you're getting by a pretty large margin (35-37 highway @65 mph, 32-34 mpg combined)and it's a significantly larger car.

Have you taken the car on any long highway drives? If so, what did you get for mileage?

Hmmmmmmm lets see, fuel economy has always sucked! Thought it would get better when it broke in but alas it is the same as day one! Run 35 lbs front and 32 rear on 4 recent Green Diamond tires (yep it is upstate NY). Oil changed every 3,000 miles regular 5W-30 product not synthetic! Cleaned and re-gapped plugs at 10,000, 20,000 miles when I put platinum plugs in at 30,0000 miles, cleaned and re-gaped at 40,000 and cleaned (130 lbs air blown through) air filter or replaced regular air filters as needed till I put a K&N Filter in at 35,000 all with NO change. Ah the crummy town of Ithaca is a 30 mph 5 mile stretch of road during the

60 mile trip I dirve one way to work daily. Town has no less than 16 redlights to slow ones forward progression. Usually there is no way to jack rabbit start as there are cars in front and next to you so that does not seem to be the issue. I have even taken to coasting down any and all hills in a hope that will help the fuel economy situation no change. As far as long highway drives Yes and it is in the 30-31 range tops at 75!

Not knowing anything about these cars (Ford Service Manager for 3 years) I figured someone on this list might just be able to help out here and that there would be some trick to making this thing less of a pig than it is but alas I see that is not the case as most automatic cars are getting the same mileage. To bad was not thrilled with it from day one still am not thrilled with it 18 months and 40,000 miles later! Anyone interested in a very well taken care of 03 Accent 3 dr with 42,000 miles of maintained car and 17,500 miles of warranty left feel free to contact me!

Thanks for all the help!

Don: Do follow the suggestion above re air filter and sparkplugs. I have a 2000 Accent with the 1.5 litre engine and 5 speed trans. and get 41-42 mpg (US gallon) doing about 60 mph. I have followed manufacturers recommendations re filter and plug changes. I know there was a decrease in mpg when Hyundai switched to the 1.6 litre but you should be getting better mpg than you are. Bob

Well, it seems that you're doing everything right, so I don't have much else to offer. Since I know that the 5 speed cars get good mileage, I would wonder if there may be a transmission issue. Perhaps you're getting excessive slippage? If it was like that from the beginning, perhaps it would be easy to overlook it. Since you've done everything else in terms of maintenance, I hesitate to ask, but have you changed the tranny fluid? I don't know if there are any adjustments that can be made other than re-programming, but perhaps there's something that can be done in that regard.

Brian

Thanks, actually the Tranny started acting up at around 30,000 miles slamming into gear bout snap your neck when it was cold. With the approval system for Hyundai being what it is,it took the dealer till

40,000 when the tranny got to the point until it finally died and a reman tranny was finally approved by Hyundai. I have had the car to the dealership numerous times on the fuel economy issue but there is nothing that shows up as out of the ordinary. Guess this is a hopeless issue trying to improve on something that designed not to be fixed!

They only claim 26 / 35 for the 2005 on their website, so you are not that far off.

John Cowart

US Gallons