Hello everyone.

So, I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my car or this is just normal.

I've had my 2009 997.2 for just over 2 years now...zero problems...smile every time I drive it...absolutely love this car!

But, I am constantly filling the car up with gas...I seem to only get between 240 to 260 miles out of a full tank of gas. Sometimes I get even less than that.

I do NOT drive this car hard...I rarely get the RPM's over 4000-4500...I definitely baby this car when I drive it so I know I'm not burning the gas hard from my driving style.

Is this normal? What could a potential issue be that I could look into?

How many miles is everyone getting out of a tank of gas?

Thank you for your time and your help.

 

I usually get <300, in my 2011 S (3.8L)

 

What is your mpg according to the onboard computer?

 

You didn't say whether your mileage was highway or combined city/hwy. Depending on your driving style your reported mpg looks about right. Please be aware that according to some car rags, mpg reported by gvt/mfrers is reached by driving like an old lady: constant 60mph and rarely below 30 mph. Few people actually drive this way.
On my best day, hwy only, I reached 30 mpg in my old '05 C4S, but I admit that I was trying to reached max mpg. In the 09 C2S cab, the same exercise only yielded 28 mpg and that was really trying. Here in the Garden State where prem fuel can be had at $ 2.07 per gallon, this is not an issue.

 

thank you for the replies so far.

I will need to check what my MPG says on my dash, will check after lunch.

My driving is mostly city driving, with a little highway.

As long as everything thinks this is normal then I am totally fine with it, just seemed a little low to me so I was worried that there might be some internal issue with the car I may need to get checked out.

I have no problem constantly filling it up :-)

 

With no CEL, no untoward engine behavior, I'd say the tank range is normal.

If the tank range is less than you would like, about all I can recommend is you focus on things to improve gas mileage.

Keep tires properly inflated.

Avoid short trips.

Avoid stop and go driving.

Avoid excessive engine idling.

Avoid using the A/C unless the car's interior is warm enough that the windows need to be rolled down.

And around town at slow speeds if you can stand it, drive with the windows down rather than with the A/C on. But on the highway put the windows up and use the A/C.

Keep the sun/moon roof closed.

Run the proper octane grade of gasoline and buy from a busy station.

Contrary to what you might think, it is better to accelerate a bit more aggressively up to speed then back off on the throttle and hold the speed rather than slowly accelerate up to speed.

For extended driving using the cruise control will hurt gas mileage, but based on the alternative of not using it to increase gas mileage I prefer to use cruise control.

That is you can improve gas mileage when driving by holding the throttle steady and letting the car slow down going up a grade rather than give the engine more throttle to hold the car's speed steady. I have verified this with another car of mine that had instantaneous fuel consumption read out. The problem is if the grade is steep enough -- and they almost all are -- the car's speed will drop and one can become a road boulder if there is not passing room. Even if there is -- like on a multi-lane freeway -- what I have experienced when I tried driving like this is going down the grade the car's speed increases and I end up having to pass vehicles to avoid slowing the car down and losing momentum. Then when going back up the next grade the car's speed drops from say 75mph to 55mph or even less, depending upon the steepness of the grade.

All the vehicles you passed going down the hill then pass you going up. In areas where the terrain is hilly or mountainous one can spend hours passing or being passed by the same handful of vehicles.

I do not like the extra risk that comes from having vehicles pass mine and then to pass them back again in order to get better gas mileage so I use the cruise control to maintain a steady speed on the freeway (and at other times) and hang the slight increase in fuel consumption.

 

Also, if you fill up as soon as the low fuel light comes on, you still have a gallon at least left I think. So you may not be measuring a full tank's worth of miles. 1800-2400 rpm is a sweet spot for cruising for a 997.2.

I've done the high mpg exercises a few times - and got bored of driving that way. So I did another exercise and got range = 0 mls Luckily I was a block away from a petrol station.

 

it s only a 16.9 gallon tank...
so maybe only using 14 gallons as the light appears.

 

If you fill up when not really quite empty, lets say with 14.5 gallons, then at 250 miles you will have gotten 17.25 MPG for around town driving. This would be on par with my in-town driving as well (but I wouldn't say I was babying it!) I bet you'll find your computer reports something real close to that.

 

Thank you all for the continued great responses!

Just checked and the computer says I'm currently getting 20.5 MPG, and that's amazing!

And I didn't think about the above posts mentioning that I'm probably filling back up after using only about 14.5 gallons or so, and not using my full tank.

So the conclusion is, all is right with my P-Car!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

:-)

 

City driving for me yields around 13 MPG. Right about 200 miles per full tank.
I get 25 on the highway if I drive it around the speed limit +10mph.
Not sure how anyone gets more than 14-15 in city driving. I do flog her close to redline at least once every drive once oil hits close to 200 degrees. It's not hard to do as its 35MPH or so in first gear

 

If the gas tank is 16.9 gallons, when the light appears, how many gallons is left? My car always stop when fueling at like 5/6 of the way to full and I don't want to keep pushing it in case it leaks. I didn't know how big the fuel tank was.

 

On my 09 C2S Cab... I get a little less than 300 miles to the tank. That is on mixed driving city/freeway.

If I take a road trip, like I just did to napa and reno, I can sneak in way more that 300.

 

We have two MPG issues here in California:

1) The dreaded "winter gas" that reduces gas mileage 5-10%; and
2) The dreaded fuel filler vapor control system (or whatever) that until repaired with a small ring cap only allows about 75-80% of the tank to be filled.

My wife's 2011 S cab with the 3.8L gets about 20-22 mpg in mixed driving. She does great for 20 miles on I-280 until about 1.5-2 miles from her exit, where stop 'n' go traffic kills her mileage.

 

fill it up, nothing will leak.