Hi, We just bought an 06 Azera Limited, mint condition with 49,000 miles ($15,500.) This is our first ever "car" purchase having only owned Ford p/u, GMC Suburbans and a Yukon. I think we're going to love having a car but a stressful decision nonetheless. I drove the car 59 miles today and checked the Average Fuel Consumption gauge which read 15mpg. Well, we've never had a gauge like this before and the book wasn't much help in clarifying how to accurately get a reading so was hoping someone could help us out? We just bought the car today but my prior research indicated I should be getting closer to 20mpg with an average of 5 vehicles getting 23.5mpg. Thanks for any information.

Welcome to the forum.

First of all, the onboard computer is not always accurate.

Secondly, what were the driving conditions of your 59 miles? City, highway, combo, etc..

Thirdly, do you tend to be a bit heavy footed?

And last but not least, are your tires properly inflated? I keep mine at 32 psi.

I know the latter is a rather sophomoric question, but I had to ask anyway. :)

Bottom line, the only way you can truly gauge your gas mileage is by going from a fill up to a refill after burning almost the entire tank and calculate the miles driven during that period. You know the drill.

David <><

Welcome to the forum.

First of all, the onboard computer is not always accurate.

Secondly, what were the driving conditions of your 59 miles? City, highway, combo, etc..

Thirdly, do you tend to be a bit heavy footed?

And last but not least, are your tires properly inflated? I keep mine at 32 psi.

I know the latter is a rather sophomoric question, but I had to ask anyway.

Bottom line, the only way you can truly gauge your gas mileage is by going from a fill up to a refill after burning almost the entire tank and calculate the miles driven during that period. You know the drill.

David <><


David, Thank you for your response. Good to know, I feel a lot better knowing about the lack of accuracy. Less than 1/2 in the city and a little more on the interstate (70-75mph) and yeah probably more heavy footed than usual, testing acceleration speed ect. Don't worry about the sophomoric question, I will check the tires. The dealership filled the tank yesterday but not sure how it was topped off so we'll go through this tank and start from there.

In the meantime, what has everyone else been averaging?

Thank you!

The Azera isn't anything to write home about in terms of fuel economy. Pretty bad, in fact, for its size & power. It has been getting as low as 15.5-16mpg for me, with only occasional spurts of "lead-foot syndrome", in all city driving. When I'm conscientious to feather the throttle for an entire tank it only gets up to about 17.

Mostly-highway economy (with some in-town driving on either end), in the one instance I've used it suchly, was just about 21. This is fuel economy more appropriate to a 4.0L-4.5L V8. Keep in mind that the "sweet spot" for fuel economy is around 55mph for pretty much every car. Driving 75+ is back into a declining economy range.

The MPG readout on the trip computer is an average of the economy since the last time it was reset. So if you reset the MPG readout and start driving you will see it go from 5-6 while accelerating all the way up to possibly 36 when coasting. However, the longer you drive, the smaller the range will be as it continues to average the economy.

I don't have an Azera but this is what I do with my Tiburon and Tucson. I fill the tank to the top, reset the trip odometer to zero and reset the MPG computer to zero. Then I drive for a week (usually 250 +/- miles; not just 59 miles). After a week I re-fill the tank and write down the amount of gallons used. I write down the mileage on the trip odometer and reset it to zero again. I write down the MPG and reset the MPG calculator to zero again. Then I divide the miles from the trip odometer by the gallons used and it's usually within 1/2 an MPG of what the MPG computer calculated.

Unfortunately, the Azera is a larger car and the 3.8L V6 a longer and more thirsty engine. It's not known for its fuel economy.

NovaResource -

Your method of figuring out the gas milage is exactly what I do to determine the MPG of my Azera.

I recently drove down to Key West, FL and back from Richmond, VA. I had 4 adults in the car and the trunk jammed packed with luggage; averaged 25 MPG during the two week trip and that's with la ot of miles driven at 79 MPH. The top speed I hit was 96 MPH.

My daily routine around town to work is Interstate driving at 65-70 MPH for about 10-12 miles and city street driving at 20-30 MPH for about 6-8 miles. With this type driving I average 17.5 to 18.5 MPG. My trip computer has never differed more than 1/2 to 1 MPG from my manual method of determining gas milage.

Learning how to drive 50 years ago in Boston, MA did not teach me to be a feather-foot driver. But, I also stopped leaving rubber at a stop light a long time ago.

Hmm... dividing actual gallons used by miles traveled turns out to be the ONLY way (ockham's razor) to determine the actual mileage of the car so... good... that that's what we all use.

Sandkat... if I may submit my very humble opinion for consideration... the 3.8L Azera is a spectacular car. You may gain a few MPG but will lose interior volume, premium aesthetics (to compete with the likes of Acura and Lexus, among others) and a refinement in accelerating that really isn't found elsewhere in the Hyundai lineup.

You already made the right choice. Azera is a no-holds-barred respectable, high-quality and impressive luxury car. As will be Genesis whenever they condescend to deliver them to us.

Stick with it. It IS worth it.

</IMHO>

I don't track the mpg by calculating actual consumption, I just look at the computer read-out. After 1 year with 6500 miles it reads 17.7MPG. I do mostly city driving, meaning lots of stop and acceleration. It is a bit better than my previous car, a Toyota Sequoia in which I got 15.9MPG, but I had hoped for much better. Granted the Azera is a big and heavy car, so you should not expect wonders.

:)

I will bet that the dealership did not fill it all the way up to the brim!

Since you may not have attempted to fill up this car yourself yet (?)
you probably do not know how difficult and how long it takes
to get the tank completely full as in 'right up to the brim.'

With ours, I often times spend up to 10 minutes longer to get the tank all
the way filled right to the brim. May times I have seen this proceedure
add as many as up to five gallons more into the tank after
the automatic nozzle has shut off the first time.

Fill it up yourself all the way to the brim, reset your onboard computer, and
drive it until the low fuel light comes on and do that again and you will most
likely find that it'll take at least twenty gallons to fill it all the way up!

See how close your computer and your figured miles per gallon come when
you calculate the MPG the old fashioned way. You may be surprised at
how close the two figures actually are. I have come with two (2)
percent many many times in the 11K miles we have on ours.

Good luck.

HTHs

:)

This post has been edited by snaglepus: Mar 28 2008, 07:05 PM

3.8L V6 23mpg local, 29-30mpg highway (speeds not to exceed 76-77mph). Love the car will turn 12,000mi next week or so.

I get 19.3 on average city....25 highway on regular fuel. Not bad for a full size automobile with a good size engine, wide tires, and a heavy car. I still love my Azera even with dimming headlights.

You guys really think you're getting 19 or 23 in all-city? That's a massive deviation from my observed economy - on daily commutes, 7 miles each way, and fairly light throttle (other than the occasional circumstances, maybe once every other trip, where some heavier go-foot is required) and both of ours hover right around 16 - 16.5mpg. This really is 100% city, stop-and-go, so you might be figuring in some highway time or long stretches without lights.

I never even bother with the computer, I only do my own math - so my figure is real economy, not estimated.

The difference between light foot and lead foot shouldn't be 20% or 30% of all-city driving fuel economy.

heypal, is yours by any chance a 3.3?

:)

For strictly city driving and never going on the freeway at all, your mileage is indeed typical.
I have one 12 or 13 mile strictly city trip that I take quite often where, when
I get back into the garage, my computer will show less at 15.5mpg.
This is with 37 psi in the tires, Mobil 1 5W-20 and easy second gear starts with a very lite foot.
Anyone who says they do better is either not driving in the same sort of traffic
or is going on the freeway some or is simply not telling it like it really is! :whistling:

As far as the smaller engined 3.3Ls, the revised 2007 EPA fuel economy ratings for
the GLSs are only one mpg better in the city and exactly the same on the highway.

:amen:

Theres no way any of you are getting low to mid 20's in the city. Its just not possible. The recalculated EPA ratings for the 06 and 07 models based off the way they changed the testing for 08 and newer models is 17mpg. And even still, the figures are still usually lower than that.

I too usually get between 16-17 mpg. The best I've ever gotten (light city driving) was right at 18 and the way you have to drive to get that really is not fun driving. :hyper:

Yeah OK, so I'm not going crazy here... in complete light foot mode (not-fun) I have also gotten up to just about 17.5 but that takes way too much patience.