Will my mpg's get better?

My Forester with the 2.5L yields about 20-22 in urban driving and

Maybe. I'll pay more attention to that, and keep an eye on the mpg's. I currently have about 2000 miles on the OBW, if that means anything.

Subie mileage will improve after about 10000 miles. You should expect

22-24 city and in the high 20's in pure highway driving.

That's good to know. Thanks!

You must have a special one. My wife's H6 gets about 16 MPG overall. My '91 Jeep gets 14 MPG overall. These are real numbers from actual experience.

Al

If you live in a place like I live (Minnesota) you will see your mpg improve in April or so.

I have the 2.5 use synthetic oil and a K&n filter . I dont think this is unusual. I'll be driving a long trip in march and I hope it is higher. The 6 will definitely get worse mpg and the jeep is typical. My 94 Trooper avg'd 14-16 city. Try the k&n filter and clean it out will a bottle of RXP gas kicker.

In the NE the oxygenated fuel will cost you a couple mpg's

Hi,

Watch for changes as the more volatile "winter" fuels are replaced in spring: people from many areas report lower mileage when using "winter" fuels, especially with shorter trips. If your local fuel is an alcohol blend, expect lower mileage, too. Alcohol may be cleaner, but has fewer BTUs per unit of volume, so it returns lower mileage. And with more miles, your car may start doing better regardless of fuel.

Rick

My Y2K OB has 110,000 miles and I still get 28 mpg (winter) to 30 mpg (summer) with it. That is driving between Portland, OR and Sun Valley, ID running between 75-80 mph. I will say this, my OB seems to be pretty sensitive to being kept tunned, compared to any other car I have owned. Pay very close attention to spark plugs, plug wires and air filters (I have a K&N and yes it made about 1 mpg difference, but keep it clean). The OB seems to also be sensitve to gas brands. While I have never seen any improvement running anything other than regular, I seem to do better with good brands like Chevron or Exxon. It also does well with Pilot (go figure). Some of the other brands it doesn't like as well, don't know what the difference it.

Others have made this comment, it took about 15,000-20,000 miles before I started getting this kind of mileage. The boxer seems to take a long time to break in.

The interesting thing is my OB has never done as well as my Acura TL. I can get 35 mpg with the Acura, loaded with 4 people and all our luggage. The Acura is a bigger heavier car with a bigger, more powerful engine. I think mileage is a valid complaint about the Subarus. They are heavy cars, but there are other cars out there just as heavy that do better.

Jack

Jay Alpers> California gas gives mine lower results. When I go to a neighboring state,

Hi,

I think you're right: I don't recall any Subies I've known of personally that were really impressive in the fuel economy department. Not sure why. And I don't think it's a weight/AWD issue, at least not totally: my '90 Loyale, 1.8l, 5 spd, 4wd (which means 2wd unless I switch it) gets

27-28 mpg on most long trips (usually running right at 70--much above that and it starts breathing pretty hard, especially loaded) while my '92 Camry, 3.0l V-6 auto, weighing close to 1000 lbs more, gets almost identical mileage on longer trips, but it's a chore to keep it DOWN to 75-80 mph on open road while still turning in that kind of mileage.

Where the weight and other penalties really come into play for me is around town--the Subie runs 22-24 mpg around town, which isn't much of a drop, but it doens't take much town driving before the Toyota will only get 17-18! Wonder if this is similar to peoples' experience with the newer, heavier Subies?

Rick

My 98 GT Wagon (2.5l AT) is currently getting 19mpg 70% highway 30% urban - with tons of traffic. During the summer, this goes up to 22 - 23mpg.

[I think the curb weight of that car is close to the 05 Legacy and a bit under the 2000 - 04 model]

My previous Legacy - a 95 2.2 MT AWD wagon - got 25mpg in the same conditions and up to 28mpg highway.

The difference makes sense considering the higher weight, greater displacement engine and AT of the later model.

I believe Subaru offered pretty much the same car in AWD and a FWD version until

1. I'd be interested to know how the FWD Brighton (?) compares to the AWD version and if it is in fact the addition of the AWD that's causing the fuel economy to take a dive.

florian

I can vouch for that, North Dakota gas seems to get better in April here too....that or there's less dense air going through the MAF so the ECU doesn't add a ton of fuel to compensate.