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Canadian Mileage / Fuel Efficiency

18K views 42 replies 18 participants last post by  SUPRARU 
#1 ·
How fuel efficient has your '17/'18 Impreza been so far?

Year, model, transmission, city/hwy, driving style:

'17 Impreza Sport-Tech hatch, CVT, mixed city/hwy, mixed driving style depending on traffic.

The car has been averaging anywhere between 10L/100km to 14L/100km since new. I've tried granny driving, easing into stops, and tires are always inflated to spec, etc. I never see 6-8L/100km. At some points, it even reaches into the 20L/100km range for sustainable amounts of time. Took it to the dealer while it was in for a regular maintenance, and they took a look. They said it was driver & weather related, nothing wrong with the car.

I wonder if this recall affects it at all:

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2017/RCRIT-17V216-3434.pdf

https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2017/SUBARU/IMPREZA/4%2520DR/AWD#recalls

http://www.impreza5.com/forum/146-5...ll-coming-wtp-75-eco-update-radiator-fan.html

We bought this car partly because of the advertised excellent fuel efficiency, especially with the added incentive of an even more thrifty CVT vs the manual, but we are consistently getting less than 450km/tank. Were we wrong in expecting 500-600km / fill up? It's left us puzzled & unImprezed on such a small car that is also a Partial Zero Emission Vehicle. Where's all the fuel going?

According to driving.ca, the CVT hatch should be around 8.5L/city & 6.4L/hwy:

First Drive: 2017 Subaru Impreza | Driving

As far as CVTs go, this is one of the better ones, and does a fairly good job of emulating a traditional stepped automatic when the paddle shifters are employed. The benefit, of course, is improved fuel economy. The hatchback with CVT is rated 8.5 L/100 km in the city, 6.4 L on the highway; with the manual, it’s rated at 9.5 L and 7.0 L. We averaged around 8.4 L/100 km.
 

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#32 ·
Zeroptzero, I wish my car would get down to 6.8L/100km on the highway, but even after continuous highway driving right after filling up at the station, it still sits @9-10L, and in the end, still yields -500km/tank. Numbers haven't changed regardless of spring/summer vs fall/winter weather, or even when we completely shut off a/c or heat.

Adam M., same here, no use idling for so long just to harm the environment, we just drive off slowly and ease into traffic. It is also garage parked, so there isn't any need to use the heater/defroster/wiper de-icer, and no ice or snow to scrap away to prolong the waste of fuel, if it was running that whole time.

I hate that much of the time driving has been spent on trying to reduce fuel consumption, instead of just driving and enjoying the car, because it is a great vehicle otherwise.

About how much mileage can you guys squeeze from a single tank?
 
#33 ·
Well I can understand how some mileage can vary between drivers and vehicles. That sounds a bit excessive , those numbers are what I get in combined driving and city driving for the most part.

I was actually hoping my numbers would improve lol, so I will checking. I have done a number of highway drives since owning the vehicle and it got down to 6.7 on one recent trip as the temps are slowly inching upwards, I think the temps on that day were around 8 degrees C. Lately I get close to 4 hours of highway driving on a 1/2 tank, I haven't really gone through an entire tank while highway driving so I can't tell if there is some variation between the upper half of the tank and the lower half, but I know it gets some pretty good mileage for my driving conditions.
 
#34 ·
My mileage is ridiculous lately, specially when it consist of short trips to neighborhood's stores in a city - like 370 km from a tank of super gas ( 91 octane ). This with temperatures below 0 C. It's much better when we go Toronto - Hamilton, lets say 440 km from a tank.
I thought about thermostat opening too fast, or perhaps injectors in need of cleaning and will try both possibilities.
Other than that the car works great and we like it v.much.
 
#35 · (Edited)
I had a chance to take a short trip to friend's place in a town about 20 minutes from my home, I was travelling along a smaller rural road with speed limit 90 km/hr (55 mph ). At those speeds fuel economy was 5.7 L/100 kms there and back , 40 minute drive in total. Temps were a bit higher today , about 5 degrees above 0 Celsius, still on winter blend fuel. That is approx. 41 mpg US. I realize the high numbers are due to low driving speed and light load - rpms well under 2000 rpms the entire way.


When driving 112 km/hr (70 mph) I am getting around 6.7Ll / 100 kms, around 34-35 mpg.

This is all highway driving, very little stop and go city driving. So far so good, I think it has potential to go up as temps increase and we get away from this crappy winter blend fuel.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Did my typical 4 hour highway drive today for work that I do once per week. On the trip home I got 5.7 L/100 kms , which is the best by far since I started using my Impreza on these trips, running 70 mph the entire way. Temps were much warmer today at 15 degress Celsius, last time it was -5 degrees and I was getting 6.8 L / 100 kms. Nice improvement. 5.7 L/100 kms is 41 mpg US, at 6.8 L/100 kms it was running 34 mpg US.

One other positive point was that it only cost me 20 bucks to fill up 3/4 of the tank, cheapest ever, especially for Canadian fuel costs. Super cheap fuel.
 
#38 ·
I went to another dealership instead of our home location that was nothing but problems & headaches. They took care of two recalls: PCV re/re & ignition coil and reprogrammed the ECU.

So, finally after 3 years of driving @ +11L/100km, the car now runs at a much more efficient 7L/100km range. Same conditions, same routes & roads, mix of road & hwy, all stock & no mods, and it was winter with the heater on & winter treads on 17's. Today was 7C, and we had snow yesterday. Drove about 84km mix of city & rural roads, and it remained in the 7L-7.9L range. Expecting even better results once we can do long road trips again after the pandemic slows down further.

Brand new it was barely reaching the 400km/tank range, and now after the pair of recalls were done at a different dealership - a dealership that actually listened to our concerns about the car - it is running much more efficiently, and behaving more like it was advertised as. It can now reach the +650km/tank range. Not sure if the recalls are the direct reasons for the drastic improvement, perhaps the ECU reprogramming, but we're happy just the same. Newfound love for a car we already appreciated.
 

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#40 ·
I went to another dealership instead of our home location that was nothing but problems & headaches. They took care of two recalls: PCV re/re & ignition coil and reprogrammed the ECU.

So, finally after 3 years of driving @ +11L/100km, the car now runs at a much more efficient 7L/100km range. Same conditions, same routes & roads, mix of road & hwy, all stock & no mods, and it was winter with the heater on & winter treads on 17's. Today was 7C, and we had snow yesterday. Drove about 84km mix of city & rural roads, and it remained in the 7L-7.9L range. Expecting even better results once we can do long road trips again after the pandemic slows down further.

Brand new it was barely reaching the 400km/tank range, and now after the pair of recalls were done at a different dealership - a dealership that actually listened to our concerns about the car - it is running much more efficiently, and behaving more like it was advertised as. It can now reach the +650km/tank range. Not sure if the recalls are the direct reasons for the drastic improvement, perhaps the ECU reprogramming, but we're happy just the same. Newfound love for a car we already appreciated.
Why didn't you get the reflash done 3 years ago when it came out? Not that I noticed any better fuel economy when I got it done but maybe you had a trouble car?
 
#39 ·
It means I should get those recall done as well, my Impreza is 2017, same as yours.
However we didn't get any messages from Subaru about recalls, I wonder why.
My last mileage from 260 km trip was 6.8 l/100 km which wasn't bad but nowhere around 7l in mix city driving.
We are closer to your 400 km from a tank of gas figure.
Have to ask Subaru about it.
 
#42 ·
I ask at our home dealership to check everything and to make sure all recalls were done every time I went in for either infotainment firmware updates, repairs due to parts breaking or failing right after purchase, at oil change appointments and even after they damaged the interior dash, when they didn’t know how to remove the infotainment unit after it also failed and needed replacing. Like I’ve said in numerous threads, the car has needed numerous repairs. But every time they said nothing needed updating and kept placing onus on the driver/driving conditions.

You have the convenience of working at a dealership. Ours claimed nothing was wrong or needed updating in terms of software, aside from the infotainment unit. In any case, the written form letter relating to the pair of recalls - PCV re/re & ignition coil - didn’t arrive in the mail until late 2019. And even then, parts were not available for re/re. Not sure why you knew about it 3 years ago, and we only received notification in late 2019.

Dealer told me that they’d call when the parts become available, but they never have called before when parts arrived for repair, so I wasn’t expecting any kind of follow-up. I decided to take it to a dealership that I had dealt with before, and had a good experience with. It’s +65km away, but worth the drive for the easier interaction, communication, and general respect you receive. And they took the time to actually listen to all the troubles we’ve had with the car, and looked for ways to better the situation. I told the manager how impressed we were, and that I’d write a positive letter to Subaru about our experience with them.
 
#43 ·
You know what, it's a newer flash. I was thinking of the first flash that came out in 17 for fuel vaporization/stalling. The ignition coil recall doesn't have anything to do with efficiency. The coil would stay powered after the ignition was switched off. It was a flash to correct that. There have if the coil was damaged you'd get a new one but if it was damaged you'd have a misfire so you'd know. Either way glad to see your mileage has gone up.
 
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