Gas mileage in my '03 OBW

Reply to
M. Baker
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You are correct. Such factors do affect gas mileage as it affects the rolling resistance of the vehicle (anyone who has pushed a wagon through mud vs dry bike path knows this) and how much work the engine has to do to compensate.

AWD is certainly part of the reason mileage on our subies is lackluster. There's a whole lot of transmission to keep moving with a whole lot of fluid in it that cars with less functional transmissions don't have to fight against. Like so many things, it's a tradeoff.

Not sure why the witch hunt seems to have been levied against you. Seems sorta silly.

Best Regards,

-- Todd H.

2001 Legacy Outback Wagon, 2.5L H-4 Chicago, Illinois USA
Reply to
Todd H.

Hi,

Just fresh data from Chicago-Aspen-Chicago trip in various ambient temperatures (from 20F o 45F) at speeds ranging from 45MPH to 85MPH. for the record car (MT, regural Outback 2002, 100 miles on it) was started over dozen times thru out the trip including four very cold mornings and cold evenings.

The average fuel economy on that 2700 miles trip was 22.1MPG. The speed seemed the major factor influencing it. There was very slow part of

500 miles (due to conditions - they even closed I80 west of Des Moines so we had to take an alternate route) to drive about 45-50MPH - the distance made on the single tank increased significantly.

Interestingly (I observer it before too), in spite of quite aggressive driving on I70 in the Rocky Mountains, the car yielded very decent above the average MPG (estimated to 24-25). I still can not understand why.

Regards, Andy

Reply to
alf

Trying to nail it down to a single variable is pointless, because you don't know so many other variables.

Did you log the temperature every time you drove? How about winds? Did you travel exactly the same route each tank? Do you have a clear filler neck, so that you know to stop at exactly the same level at each filling?

On a day where weather turned your 70 MPH commute into a 55 MPH commute, you may have gotten better mileage that day.

Reply to
B A R R Y

Yep. I've read figures that indicate 'typical' 2WD drivelines present about

13% frictional loss. Our AWD about 20% loss. And there's the additional weight. (maybe 200 lbs. ???) Throw that in with winter driving - longer engine 'choke' conditions for warmup, poorer road surface conditions, 'winter' formulated gas, and maybe a coupla other factors.....

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Like running the defroster which engages the A/C to dry the air.

Reply to
Ed

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