Took my dad's '97 Outback Wagon for a road trip. It is AWD with Auto. We got almost 22mpg highway and he says he gets around 17mpg city. Car has 147k. New air filter, recent spark plug change.

 

Is this normal?

they can do better.

a quality brake job can do wonders, my 97 impreza jumped 3mpg after a brake job. folks don't always properly grease the caliper slides and the rubber boots can be compromised with age. they work fine, they can just drag a bit i guess.

 

i'd suggest using the cruise control and making sure the a/c is off for freeway driving?

also - mileage drops considerably the faster you go - mileage at 60mph can be a far cry from what you'll get at 75mph.

 

automatic and 4WD. also, being an OBW it has raised roof, raise suspension, full size wagon, and roof racks too, it's not an eco-car that's for sure.

Edited December 22, 200916 yr by grossgary

Tire pressures are important. Make sure no brakes are dragging. ALso your O2 sensor may be tired and may need a replacement. They can get lazy and not throw a code.

 

 

nipper

My 99 OBW averages from 22 to 28 mpg highway. It depends on how I'm driving it and believe it or not, the gas I use.

 

Many things effect gas mileage. I just put a set of very aggressive winter style tires on the Soob and I expect not to get the better mileage until I put the a/s tires back on in the spring. Dragging brakes will also. They can drag a bit and you not be aware of it.

At 45Kmi the O2 had to be changed in my car..a little early I know, but it was throwing a code..shortly after that replacement, an emission test was done which definitely showed a huge improvement..consider it as part of a tune-up

And of course with colder ambient temps and "winter blend" gas your mileage suffers from those alone

nitrogen in the tires??? that is the biggest load of crap ive ever heard. How does that benefit? is it lighter than air and makes your car go faster with better gas mileage? ambient air is already 79 nitrogen. how does the other 11 in your tires help?

 

Nitrogen will not loose as much pressure as normal air when it gets cold, so you will save gas.

 

A lot of places charge rip off prices for it though, which makes it not worth it.

I get anywhere from 28-31mpg on my 95 Legacy 5spd awd. In the last month it dropped to under 20. We'll see if the o2 sensor I bought fixes it. I noticed a drop in performance as well. I do 20% city, 80% 40-55mph country driving.

 

Besides the recent drop, the only thing I noticed that drops my mpg is warming the car up for 5-10 minutes (0 miles / 0.25 gal = 0mpg)

nitrogen in the tires??? that is the biggest load of crap ive ever heard. How does that benefit? is it lighter than air and makes your car go faster with better gas mileage? ambient air is already 79 nitrogen. how does the other 11 in your tires help?

 

You can say what you want but for people who don't check their tire pressures often it does help. Pure nitrogen doesn't react to changes in temperature as much as plain compressed air. It stays in the tires longer so they stay at the recommended pressure longer. Properly inflated tires leads to better gas mileage.