I was surprised this weekend to find our long-term 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander already had nearly 21,000 miles on the odometer. Was less surprised when I flipped back through the logbook and realized the Mitsu had been in our care since March 16, 2007.
With just over four weeks left to go in the Outlander's year-long test, the SUV has achieved the following fuel economy:
Best tank: 26.8 MPG
Worst tank: 13.2 MPG
Average over life of the test: 19.26 MPG
Kelly Toepke, News Editor @ 21,045 miles
texases says:
03:34 PM, 02/11/08
Man, you guys drive cars hard! I've never gotten close to a 2:1 best:worst mpgs in any car I've owned.
SubyTrojan says:
03:58 PM, 02/11/08
texases, don't forget there are gals, too! j/k
I'm guessing the worst mpg for all the LT vehicles might have been observed on the tank used for instrumented testing. I could always be wrong, though. :o)
For example, my WRX gets around 8 mpg when it's lapping Buttonwillow Raceway. :o)
texases says:
04:06 PM, 02/11/08
Funny you mention 'guys' - I heard some woman talking to a group of women, using 'guys'...go figure...
sabastian says:
06:37 PM, 02/11/08
I'm pretty surprised to see that the average is only about 2mpg less than the V6 family sedans. I expected a bigger difference; this being a baby-seal-clubbing SUV and all.
bemanix88 says:
08:27 PM, 02/11/08
But it's not really an SUV, more like a crossover. For SUV fuel consumption see the latest Silverado update
villahidalgo says:
08:32 PM, 02/11/08
The 07 Camry got an average of 24.9 mpg, which is 5.6 more, close 30%. That is a lot.
sabastian says:
10:01 AM, 02/12/08
The Camry was taken on a cross-country trip between California to Michigan (and back?), which is why its average was so much higher than the current V6 family cars.
villahidalgo says:
07:45 PM, 02/12/08
I think the Camry consistently got better mileage than the other family sedans. The outlander has seen a lot of highway miles.
dodo2 says:
10:44 PM, 02/12/08
Driving on the highway is not totally relevant. It depends on how you drive it and what the conditions are. Comparing to a family sedan is irrelevant too as this is a 4WD, taller and slightly heavier vehicle.
13.2 mpg on a full tank seems very unusual to me. I think the worst I got was around 18 mpg and this was an exception due to the type of driving I did. These days (cold winter) I get 19-20mpg, always driving in 4WD Auto, but over the summer I usually get 21-22 mpg average on a full tank, combined. For long highway drives, in warm weather I saw 26-27 mpg on average. Not stellar, but certainly decent fuel economy for this type of vehicle and engine/power.
macuis says:
12:19 PM, 02/18/08
My worst tank so far only provided me 12.7 mpg, which was my most recent fill up. This was in - 35°C weather for a solid week, (- 51°C with the wind).
alexstore says:
01:32 PM, 02/24/08
i got 27 mpg on LS outlander in 2wd mode. this vehicle is also light compared to others at 3670 lb. so achieving good FE is easy.