I'm a little confused about the tank size. The manual says 14 gallons but everytime I run the thing till the alarm goes off and it only takes 12 gallons. Does that mean it keeping > 1 gallon of reserve?

 

Yes, mosty likely that's what it is...

 

I try to be conservative with my gas, but I just have a lead FOOT!

 

I am driving pretty spirited and the data center says 18.xx MPG average with me puttering around town. If I do a little highway driving it gets about 21. I'm sure a full tank of highway cruising at a reasonable speed would be 25 or so.

 

Same here.

 

The question is...weather or not the MPG will improve with a tune? What do you guys think?

 

It runs hella rich from the factory, so a tune will improve MPG.

 

FYI comparing the MPG of small mid-sized 4 cylinder to a V8'd Tahoe/etc that weighs 1000-2000lbs more is ridiculous.

That's like saying... wow I'm pretty strong because my little sister can only bench 60lbs but I can bench 185lbs...

185 still sucks if you care considering what other people can do.

So does the MPG of the evo.

I would imagine a new tune may help a little bit with mpg but don't expect miracles... probably only 1 mpg difference either way. Also if your tune includes adding HP increasing items you will probably actually burn MORE gas.

The lackluster MPG is the silver bullet that keeps me from fully pulling the trigger on the evo x. First the hype cleared and the car was slower than it was supposed to be, then the price was more than they had originally estimated... I could live with all that, but then the MPG came out and that was the end of it for me, at least for now.

When premium hits $3.50-$4.00 next summer we will see how much people care. If most American's attitudes are 'well it gets better gas mileage than my Hummer" no wonder we are in the ****ty situation we are now in.

There is no reason with all the new engineering we have that we don't have good sized cars getting 60mpg with ease. Heck they had diesel VW rabbits that could get about that in the late 1970s....

My 97 cavalier got 30-32mpg guess how much the new cobalt gets? about 30mpg highway... in 2008... 11 years of engineering and the industry hasn't done **** other than a few hybrid cars that really only get a few extra mpg.

Even the prius which is like a battery on wheels gets low 40mpg.

 

^ haha thats why im like iffy on the whole situation cause my 04 Si is getting about 25mpg pretty easily and the only reason it feels like 18 is cause the tank is like 9 gallons

i mean we could all wait and see better refinement from a mpg perspective but yea

look at the specs...
06 Evo MR - 18/24
06 Evo IX/SE - 19/25
05 Evo - 19/26

Compared with 08 model GSR we're lookin at 16/22...combined average of 19mpg
i mean thats good but not great haha like you said tuning could help it out a big prolly an intake too or sOmething =P

 

my 8 averaged 26mpg, my x is averaging 21 mpg.

ive been paying $3.50-4 for the last 3 years, so im fully content with it. i live in socal, drive about 100 miles a day, gas stations on pch and the west side prices dont change that much so theres nothing i can do about it anyway. aside from drive a hybrid, which i refuse to do at this point in my life.

 

I will never understand why they did that.

 

More safe to run rich than Lean....

 

detonation

 

its the new EPA rating so 16=18=IX=X

 

This car can easily be leaned out and still run perfectly fine. with a proper tune another 3mpg is probably possible, ( I hope).

Also, the shorter gearing, aka, almost 4k RPM at 75mph, is probably a bit of an issue, i'm hoping the 09 GSR has better gearing.