Does your car have a trip computer? Do you use it?

[trautotuning]

Use it whenever I drive my mothers new Odyssey and I LOVE IT. It has both instantaneous and average.

I need to get a scangauge for my Mazda6 though as it doesn't have this gauge

[groar]

I just used it yesterday on a hilly 188m trip and averaged 50.9mpg. One year ago I was averaging 33mpg on this trip ie 33% save (4.6l/100 instead of 7.1l/100). I lost only 20 minutes out of 2h55 ie 11%. This car is rated 40mpg.

I tried to keep the instant mpg over 58mpg as much as possible, but without going under 68mph (speed limit = 81mph) so I had to be at 39mpg regularly and even 26mpg on more hardest hills. Whenever slow lanes were available, I slowed down to 62mph.

Down hills I was DFCO (engine brake) except a few times I coasted in neutral to gain speed.

Denis.

[dieselbenz]

I installed a factory trip computer on a 96 volvo 855 5 speed. The base model only had a clock from the factory but the trip computer from a high end model is a simple plug and play project into the existing instrument cluster. The trip computer displays, clock, average MPH, instant MPG, average MPG, outside air temperature, miles driven and miles to empty tank. For a simple 12 year old computer it is extremely accurate and useful. Every car should have one of these from the factory.

Average MPG after 90 mile drive.


Average speed for 90 mile drive. This wasn't a constant speed rather the average between 65mph highway driving and 25-40mph stop and go city driving.


Miles coved.


Estimated miles to empty at average MPG.

[Lug_Nut]

59 mph is quite good, implying the maximum speed wasn't that much higher than the average.
I'd been using a 50 mph average to guesstimate E.T.A for my business trips. The client is 350 miles away? That's 7 hours.
Now that my field service days are over I'm seeing the tank (not trip) average in the 32 to 35 mph range. Unfortunately that lower average is due to more time and miles at slower, lower gear, speeds, and not to a reduction in the top speeds.
What created the difference between the analog trip odometer of 90.6 and the digital display of 90.4? One of them is wrong, but which?
And if either is wrong, what prevents both from being wrong?

"A man with 2 watches doesn't know what time it is."

[dieselbenz]

Originally Posted by Lug_Nut

What created the difference between the analog trip odometer of 90.6 and the digital display of 90.4? One of them is wrong, but which?

I reset the odometer on the trip computer .2 miles after refilling the car when I got on the freeway. Each of the variables tracked by the trip computer must be reset separately except for miles to empty. It becomes a bit of a handful when you're driving a stick. Its nice having 2 trip odometers.

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

LOL, same here. In the 80's when I would drive my mother's Chrysler LeBaron I would do EOC, not to save money... I wasn't paying for gas in that car anyway. It was just cool to see the display flash 99 MPG.

-Jay

You mentioning the Chrysler LeBaron brings back some memories! My best friend had an '84 Chrysler Laser Turbo (Dodge Daytona's twin, but even more lame!) in high school and it the dash was all digital. I think it had some rudimentary sort of fuel economy reading. All I remember for sure is that it talked....and all it seemed to say was "Engine overheating...Engine damage may occur!" It suffered a meltdown one day, quite literally. To make it even worse, it was a brownish/bronze color....I don't miss the 80's.

I have an '06 Mazda3 5-door and technically it didn't come with a fuel computer. For some reason, it's standard on all trim levels in every other market except the U.S. Only the top-of-the-line Grand Touring model (along with Bose, leather, Xenon headlamps and about $5k pricier than mine) has what Mazda calls the Driver Information System (DIS).

After I'd had the car for a year or so, I learned online that they actually do include the feature on lesser trim levels (such as mine) but just don't activate it. I was able to 'activate' mine and for about two years now have been able to get Real-time MPG (useless, all over the map), Average MPG (I reset each fill-up), Distance-to-Empty (very handy for when I'm being lazy) and Average speed (useless, too).

[Mike T]

My Mercedes B 200 has one. In fact, all new Mercedes have had one for at least a decade.

My target in the drive to work is to hit 6.0 L/100 km or less on the drive. Unfortunately, the figures the OBC produces are 5% optimistic, and it's not adjustable. I'd rather have a pessimistic trip computer!

So when the car says I've done 5.8 L/100 km, it's really about 6.2 or 6.3.....which is still pretty decent.

[bkrell]

Both my SAABs have had one. Amazingly accurate in distance to empty but seems to be a TAD off in mpg. Anywhere from 1-3 mpg.