I just bought a leftover NEW 2008 Tib Se. I had to buy a car quickly and got this leftover deal and I love the car. Had a v6 stang ragtop before and loved it but a VW creamed me at 55mph from behind and cest la vie.....

I took it on my first HWY trip and checked MPG and I am getting 22mpg on the highway. 22mpg around town too.....seems odd to me because my stang v6 used to get decent upper 20s in 5th gear on the highway. Used to be 2500ish rpm on the hwy. The new Tib revs 3K++ rpm in 6th at 65 or 70mph.

I have only 900 miles on the car thus far. Still breaking it in.....my obvious comparison point is a prior gen v6 mustang 1999-2004 ones.....

So my questions are this:

1) Is this normal MPG?
2) Will it improve on break in?
3) Is the 6th gear supposed to rev that high on highway? Seems high....
4) If so is there an aftermarket or dealer 6th gear swap out that can be done to get a more favorable MPG ratio in that last gear?

Guess they don't have highways in Korea? :-)

You'll probably get better mpg after 20k. Modern engines don't really break in before then. Hyundai seems to gear their manual trans high. It's actually better for the engine, less chance of you lugging it to death.

Is there an aftermarket gear you can buy to swap out 6th to a ratio which will yield a little lower rpm at USA highway speeds? I know for american trannys you have some options.....

May be worth paying a couple hundred bucks to do if its available.

The problem is the 4.43:1 final drive ratio in the 6 speed transaxle . With only 172 hp that low axle gear ratio gives the Tibby decent performance but even overdrive trans ratios in 5th and 6th have the engine reving high at highway speeds . Some of the supercharged guys are swapping in a final gear from the Maxima but they are usually running above 300 whp . I was getting high 20's with mine in 6th at 2500 rpm @ 60 mph .

Howdy,

I concur... that higher final ratio makes the SE rev a bit higher than my GT did. I did note the the SE is snappier in traffic and gets around 26-28 mpg so I won't complain. You might want to try adding a K & N filter for a bit more air. I also added Slick 50 at 10K and went to 0-20 Mobil 1 at 6K. I added Mobil 1 to the gearbox at 12k and that seems to smooth shifting out and helps mpg a bit. You do need to drive it like you plan to drive it.. don't baby the car as the adaptive learning system in the computer learns how you drive and optimizes around that. I had to have my computer reflashed on my Sonata because I had been "old ladying" it and it started shifting really slow.

Enjoy... I love my 08 SE V6 and know that it sure beats my Accent! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocent.gif)

Just added new tires as I hit deck screws somewhere than went into the sidewalls of the passenger side tires... ouch!....I put on Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires and the noise and ride are far superior. They grip better and are much better all the way round...

Ray (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.gif)

I'd say there's nothing to worry about right now. Mine got better once I got some miles on it, though I also added an intake and exhaust to free things up. Over the 36k miles I've had mine I've averaged 26 mpg, and I've gotten as high as 31 or 32 on highway trips.

And yeah, in 6th gear at 80 mph I'm revving at about 3500, so that sounds about right too.