I once didn't have to fill up my X Type for 3 weeks! But I didn't drive it for two of them.........


Seriously though, 18mpg in the city is pretty normal like everybody has said. Blame it on your AWD. If this car was RWD you can bet that number would shoot to over 20mpg in the city..

 

EPA "City" standards: The car or truck is driven for 11 miles and makes 23 stops over the course of 31 minutes, with an average speed of 20 mph and a top speed of 56 mph.

Not sure if that's the old or new standard but that averages a stop about every 1/2 mile and the average idling times during each stop to be about 20 seconds by my calculations. Meaning the EPA standard doesn't get anywhere NEAR actual rush hour conditions for an actual city of substantial size.

What's it all mean? If you're getting more than 15-16 mpg with your X-Type, you're not actually driving under "city" conditions. Stop trying to delude yourselves that your car is getting great city mileage because it can't, it's AWD! If you're getting near 20mpg you're driving under "combined" conditions and should be happy for that.

 

You mean my 17.8 mpg @ avg. 13mph in DC is most likely mixed or City? I am also averaging around 4000 miles per year and I drive my car to work every single day.....just saying. I'll be glad to post pictures off my car's current reading on the message center.

 

Driven properly? What's that mean? I typically shift at around 4500 rpm, but I'll grant you, my city driving is mainly our small town with a whopping 4 stoplights plus the freeway interchange. Most of my driving is secondary roads in the country. Don't forget, we're flatlanders here, if I lived in PA, I'd be ripping up the twisty mountain roads and moaning about 10mpg!

 

I do about 100 miles a day for my commute, with about 5 stoplights along the way and see about 24 miles per gallon. The Jag is an 2002 3.0 with 100k. From everything I have read that is right on the money for the car.

By the way, the trip computer always says between 25.5 and 26 but the actually math at fill up is right at 24 miles per gallon.

Make sure you have everything tuned up, air those tires up and no racing from the stoplights.

 

Your driving sounds closer to city. Check your mileage by hand (miles/gallons). The trip computers tend to read about 1 MPG higher than actual. That will put you right about 16.8mpg, probably right where you belong IF you have a stretch of road where you're in top gear for a few minutes during your commute.

Make it a fair test by topping off the tank exactly the same when you fill up before and after the test. If you squeeze in the max before the test but then just let the pumps auto trigger stop your fill up at the end of the test, you're going to be high.

It means, a 2.5 will get higher mpg than the 3.0 IF driven properly. You can make a 4 banger get lower mileage than a V8 if you drive it improperly, right? I think the problem here is we're not dealing with apples to apples. Everyone with a stop sign in town thinks they live in a city. That's why I posted the EPA test procedure above. THAT is how they define "city" driving. 23 stops in 11 miles. Heck, anyone stuck in REAL city traffic knows what it's like to stop 23 times in 1 mile, every day of the week.

It sounds like your actual driving pattern is closer to highway than combined. Think of it this way, if you spend a large percentage of your commute in top gear with few stops, you're driving is between combined-highway. Shifting at 4500 is costing you mpg but adding smiles for sure. There are some nice roads scattered throughout PA. Unfortunately, I don't live near any of them.

Yes, the mpg info on the dash is about 1mpg too high when compared to actual. The funny part is the computers are usually pretty consistant, so why can't they be correct? I'll give you a hint... it's the same reason why women wear makeup.

 

When I posted that, I was looking for the "burnout" smilie, but it's gone!

This one will have to do now...

 

Quick different question C5:
I observed your vehicle and wondered if you knew a Forum like this one, "I like how this Jag Forum works", for a Mustang GT?

I would just like to check it out for my GT.

 

Sorry, I don't know very much about Mustangs except their exhaust note sounds great right out of the box. Cost lots of money to get a Corvette to sound as nice, ask me how I know.

 

We're on a short vacation trip to see new grandson in VA. So far NE to VA avg mileage 25.0mpg to 30.3mpg speed range 55mph to 70mph. Even through WV and VA hills on I-64 never dropped below 25.0mpg. Only killing part of trip so far is some places paying $4.00plus/gal. Had 2 fuel stops in a row that cost $87+.

 

Hi, attached is an article I wrote on how to get great fuel economy out of your Jaguar. I have a 2000 S Type 3.0L but the tips would work for X-types as well. Your mileage may vary......
VMV

 

I stopped reading after you suggested people inflate their tires to the sidewall maximum pressure. That's a very dangerous suggestion. All credibility was lost at that point.

 

I have never calculated it but I know I spend $80 every three days on fuel

 

It may be uncomfortable, and result in non-uniform wear on the tread face ... but it is not inherently dangerous. As a matter of fact, it is the recommended inflation pressure for greatest load carrying capacity and maximum speed rating for a particular tire as determined by the tire manufacturer.

 

The tire manufacturer has no idea what the weight load or distribution is going to be for each tire. The max pressure is simply telling what the tire is rated for, not what's ideal for YOUR car.

Raising the pressure to the max gives you maximum load capacity but at lower weight loads the same pressure reduces the contact area for the tire. It's a fine line to determine what the pressure needs to be to balance the stability of the sidewall and the contact area to give the best performance and safety.

 

I have a 02 2.5 x-type and live in the mountains of Northeast Pa., Running up and down the mountains and back and forth to Delaware County outside of Philly. I get on the highway my best has been 34 MPG, normally highway is 25 to 29. Around the mountains and near by towns I get 19 to 25 MPG. I run the factory spec's on tire inflation on the higher side. Going up and down the mountains I'm into it going up and off the gas going down. When I first got my cat, I put in injection cleaner and it made a world of difference in the way it ran and the milage. It now has 103000 miles and just runs great. When I get out on the highway, I run it up to 120 MPH and clean it out. Otherwise, no problems here.

 

Got some work done on the Mustang yesterday, changed gears to 410 gears, Steeda Intake, performance chip, it rides like a Jet plane. Love it.

 

C5pilot, The issues that you have with higher tire pressures is overated as a safety concern. Underinflation is infinitely more dangerous. Actually, overinflation of tires is frequently used by autocrossers to achieve maximum cornering speeds in competition.
For bias ply tires excessive inflation would cause the center of the tread to push up, seriously decreasing the tire contact area. For modern radial tire with shorter ,stiffer sidewalls high tire pressures have much less effect in reducing the tire contact area. This has been documented in SAE papers regarding inflation pressure effects on tires.

As far as my personal credentials I have been a fuel economy enthusiast since I began driving 44 years ago and have been an active "hypermiler" for the past 4 years, spending a lot of time studying on hypermiling websites and making steady improvements to my current status achieving over 40% over the EPA rating for my S Type ( 19 MPG). I am currently the number 1 rated hypermiler in the motorcycles/over EPA % category at GasSavers.org - Fuel Efficiency, Save Gas and Gas Mileage Forum website. No brag, just facts. What are yours?
VMV

 

Well, it's been a while since I had to prove anything to anyone but let's see... I've got years of racing with more wins under my belt than your #1 spot for hypermiling (where your goal is to stretch mileage while compromising performance and safety). My racing goals have always been safety first and performance a close second.

Do a little more research and see what happens to your suspension when you over-inflate tires. Auto-crossers increase pressures because they want a stiffer sidewall for hard cornering but they inspect the course before every race so there are no surprises. Whereas, a public road has bumps and potholes everywhere.

Over-inflation causes your suspension to work much harder as the wheel rebounds higher from every bump (imagine an over-inflated basketball). Normal passenger cars aren't designed to have their suspension overworked like that. As the fast hard rebounds continue the wheel makes poor contact with the road (wheel hop) and you find yourself with no braking, no steering, and completely out of control. Add rain, snow, ice, cheap tires, and an inexperienced driver behind the wheel and you're begging for trouble.

You already know about the harsh ride with over-inflated tires. Didn't it ever occur to you that your suspension is telling you it can't do everything? It has its breaking point and it's not going to be when you're going to church driving 25mph. It's going to happen when you're pushing the car to pass a semi or taking a turn maybe faster than you should or more commonly while making an emergency lane change to avoid something. And you know what... it's going to happen real quick especially if you don't have a lot of seat time using those high pressures leading up to that breaking point.

You are free to pump your tires up to whatever you want. I'll keep mine right where the engineers designed it, tested it, and went out of their way to post the ONLY acceptable pressures to use on the door jamb and in the owners manual.

Oh, I almost forgot. Here are some of my credentials.

 

Ouch!!