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I have owned a 2004 Honda CRV Sport since last January and am very happy with it but am concerned about fuel consumption.

On a trip I can squeeze out 400km on a full tank of petrol and just 350km on day-to-day running.

I checked with my local Honda dealer and they seemed to think that was OK, but I'd appreciate your opinion.

Jim

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 18 September 2009

You need to carry out a fuel consumption test rather than rely on distance covered on a certain size fuel tank. The CRV will have fuel tank capacity of approx 55 litres but you will never use all the fuel (unless you run the tank dry) between fills.

At the time of refuelling you may still have 10 litres plus left in the tank.

The best way is to fill the tank and zero the odometer. Drive the car for say 1 week or 300kms and refill. If possible, use the same gas station (and pump) and refill to the same level.

When I carry out such tests I always wait for the pump to 'click off' automatically, wait 10 seconds and continue slowly until the auto fill clicks off again.

This way you know exactly how far you have travelled on a certain amount of fuel.

Calculation is as follows (example 300kms travelled & 28 litres of fuel added)

300/28 = 10.7km's per litre

100/10.7 = 9.3L/100km

10.7 x 2.8239 = 30.21mpg

The CRV should achieve around 10L/100km as an average. Around town on a cold engine however it could be 11.0 L/100km plus.

Apart from air filter element and spark plugs there is little you can do engine tune wise.

Smooth acceleration is the key to achieving the best consumption figures.