m.p.g
 

Is this an old question? - what average mpg do you get?

I do in-town London, lots of A roads and M-ways, and a fair amount of country back road scuttling, and regardless of the combination or the top or cruising speed I seem to get 23.75 to 25.5 mpg, which gives around 270 - 290 miles up to the reserve light.

My older black car always showed reserve at about 50 litres/11.25 gallons out of 70litres/16 gallons, and the burgundy goes to 55litres/12.3 gallons before the light goes on.

Never quite had the bottle to run and run and see if there are 70 litres in there.

Hi.

I got so far 24.7 mpg (or should I say 11.5l/km?:D ).

Only driving it for the first km's and with about 20% city driving.

It will get better with driver habit and given it was stopped for two years before I grabbed it.:p

Cheers.

Tone

Sounds about right. We used to get around 24-25 on mainly motorway driving, and that dropped a couple of points after the transmission repairs.

It guzzles fuel if you drive enthusiastically - but I think it's worth it.

Hi,

The best I've ever managed was just under 27 mpg (306 miles until the reserve light was permanently on) - all motorway in France at a steady 85, with the Econ button and cruise control on.

Normal tank is about 280 - 290 on c. 50 litres of fuel.

I guess I'm used to the slightly odd behaviour of Subaru fuel guages, as the ones on both my Impreza turbo and my Legacy used to be very pessimistic - I'm guessing that the system must be vaccum operated, as it takes a good 5 minutes after filling up to read as full.

Out of interest, does anyone have an idea how much difference the 'Econ' button actually makes?

Jason
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I did an experiment, one tankfull with the 'Power' button on and one with it off. Didn't see any real difference in economy.
Phil.

Hi,

Does your JDM model have a "Power" button? My UK spec car has an "Econ" button. To activate the "Power" gearing map, I've got to stamp really hard on the throttle to get it to kick down.

My Legacy auto had a Power button in the place of my Econ one.

Jason
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JDM SVX's have a power button instead of an economy button.

I assumed that all SVX's had two modes: "Economy" and "Power". That JDM cars normally used "economy" and had a switch to engage "power", and UK cars normally used "power" and had a switch to engage "economy".

Are you saying that the UK SVX's actually have three modes: Normal, Economy and Power?

Phil.

Yes, I believe that the gearbox has three change 'maps':

NORMAL, which is, er, normal, upchanging relative to throttle position around 3,000 rpm.

ECONOMY mode - button on the gear selector engaged (which I tend to use on the motorway), which changes up sooner (around 2,500 rpm relative to throttle position) and doesn't kick-down as easily.

POWER mode, which holds on to the lower gears under very hard acceleration up to the redline (or just before). I've not managed to engage POWER mode with the ECONOMY button on (which makes sense).

One of the things I've noticed with driving the SVX is the stiffness of the throttle pedal, I find it quite hard to open the throttle all the way, past about three-quarters, it requires quite a lot of effort. Do you find that on your JDM car?

It's all in the manual pages 6-6, 6-7 - Power is like a subtle automatic kick-down that the gearbox activates up hills and things. If the gearbox is so damned intelligent, why does it have such a capacity for self abuse?

Same old same old.
 

I think the gearbox shift maps are the same for all markets, just called different things.

POWER map is the same on all markets. In the UK and the US, probably Europe as well, the only way you can access POWER mode is to accelerate hard, and at speed. In JDM, Oz and NZ, there is a switch on the console to switch it on permanently. In the other markets this switch position is blanked out.

NORMAL is normal, as noted. It is programmed to change up quickly for economy and smoothness reasons. I hate its reluctance to kickdown at motorway velocities.

ECONOMY is called MANUAL for the US, JDM, Oz and NZ markets, maybe elsewhere for all I know. The button on the shift lever puts a yellow light on the dashboard on my JDM model reading MANU. According to the US Owner's Handbook, this mode is for driving in snow or muck or slippery conditions. It rules out first gear to avoid wheelspin, and as noted, changes up really early to use the good torque available at low revs to keep the vehicle rolling without wheelspin. MANUAL and POWER modes are mutually exclusive in the TCU, if one is on, the other can't work. This makes sense considering what they are programmed to achieve.

I sometimes drive mine in POWER mode all the time. It costs 2 to 4 mpg extra, but this is probably because with the power more available, you use it more, and the average engine revs per journey has to be higher in POWER mode.[Av speed also:) ]

My throttle is very easy to push. You probably have a frayed cable inner, and if so, replace it soon before it snaps and leaves you stranded.

Joe:)

I drive a mixture of dual carriageway, urban and country lanes. The best I've ever had out of it in D with Econ button set is 25.94 mpg but an ongoing and annoying gearbox problem made me change to 3rd gear driving with Econ switched off. My mpg dropped to 19.9 mpg. Quite a difference really, but a lot more fun. :D

That's pretty close to what I get, but on a long run to Belfast or Cork, I will be in the region of 24 to 26 if I don't overtake everything that moves. Have never seen 30 though.

Joe:)

Re: Same old same old.
 

IIRC, UK models have a "Manual" Button AND an "Economy" Button. As you said, their shifter button activates economy mode, but I think they have a manual button where our power button is.

That would make 3 shift maps + manual.

Phil.

Phil,

Was just about to post the same.

We have a 'Manual' button on the transmission tunnel behind the shifter, this I believe is so we can start off in 2nd gear on snow and Ice...

How do you check for a frayed throttle cable inner? Is the throttle cable something that's easy to replace, or should I go to the dreaded dealership again?

Jason
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Re: Re: Same old same old.
 

That would make 4 maps Phil, and I don't think so.

Probably what they have done is excluded out POWER mode by the Econ switch in the same way as our JDM model have it wired in.

In other words, when you have Econ switched on, no amount of kickdown will access POWER. It runs the NORMAL map permanently. It will go it's own sluggish way about changing. You would have the advantage of kickdown to first for low speed hard acceleration though.

This raises the possibility that UK car owners could change the wires to that switch, and have their POWER mode on full time.

Interested guys;) :D :D :p

For a small consideration, I could let you know what colours to switch.......

Joe;)