Just got this car and noticed I'm getting only 22-23 mpg combined driving. Should it not be more? Haven't tested pure hiway mpg yet. Any thoughts?

 

driving normally I get about 25 in my 2003, or around 330 miles per tank. In the cold I may get as few as ~300 using defroster and occasional heat.

Just this last few weeks I decided to take it easy and not go over 65 on the highway and I managed almost 400 (actually, 397) miles before the fuel light came on. I am going to fill it in the morning to determine MPG but I'd expect at least 28 maybe 30.

 

Our 2003 4-cyl manual tranny gets mileage like this...

Short trips in city (daughter lives near campus) = about 23
Suburban & country driving (up until last year) = about 30
One-time best (500 miles straight interstate) = about 40

So the driving habits & the terrain (hilly?) makes a tremendous difference.

 

the first mpg report was after my 1st fill up of 2 gals after I got the car. Yestaerday, I filled up with 14 gal and it came to almost 26 mpg mixed. Its possible the dealer did not top it the first time around. I'm happy.

 

Yeah, that's VERY possible. I frequently get a single low or high MPG, probably when the gas station is not perfectly level, or the nozzle trips OFF too soon, or any number of reasons.

My info above is based on several consecutive tankfulls.