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Old 12-08-2012, 06:29 PM   #1
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Average mileage for a stock 3.2 S?

Greetings folks,

I've seen a few of 986 S owners on this board claim avg mileage in the mid to high 20s. I've run about tanks through my car and have never done better than 19.5mpg. O2s have been replaced as has the air filter. What do you typically average?

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Old 12-08-2012, 06:37 PM   #2
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It would depend on many factors. Are you doing a lot of stop and go i.e. city, or a fair amount of highway. Do yo drive it like you stole it or conservatively. I have a 2000 'S' with the 3.2 and I have never actually figured out what type of mileage it gets though it is pretty obvious when I'm on long highway trips it is pretty good mileage. On my 2007 Base with the 2.7 it shows mpg and it is pretty good back and forth to work (24 to 28mpg), highway in the 30s.
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Old 12-08-2012, 07:10 PM   #3
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Combined city and short Hiway = 20.4 mpg
Best - 30.36 Long Hiway trip
Worst -14.24
I have logged the number of gallons and the odometer reading for every tank that I have purchased since I got the car.
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Old 12-08-2012, 07:11 PM   #4
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Whip, I'm into the right peddle every morning as I have really great back road commute. That being said, even when I do a lot of highway driving it makes little difference. 19.5 is the best I've done, 14.9 is the worst.
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Old 12-08-2012, 08:42 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shadrach74 View Post
Whip, I'm into the right peddle every morning as I have really great back road commute. That being said, even when I do a lot of highway driving it makes little difference. 19.5 is the best I've done, 14.9 is the worst.
Flat level constant speed hwy should be 28-30mpg
Typical around town 18-22mpg
Race track 10mpg

The fun pedal is everything on these cars.
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Old 12-08-2012, 10:45 PM   #6
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My 2001 S stock gets around 28-30 cruising on the highway at 70mph

about 19-22 city driving according to the MPG indicator under the tach.

If you are using that to get a reading you need to reset it now and then so it can recalculate the AVG for where your driving, highway or City.

Tires are 32 psi fronts and 36 psi Rears
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Old 12-09-2012, 05:00 AM   #7
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My 2001 S stock gets around 28-30 cruising on the highway at 70mph

about 19-22 city driving according to the MPG indicator under the tach.

If you are using that to get a reading you need to reset it now and then so it can recalculate the AVG for where your driving, highway or City.

Tires are 32 psi fronts and 36 psi Rears
I calculate mpg for every tank and keep a running avg with an iPhone app. I have never gotten more than 310 miles out of a tank and I was running on fumes when I did that...16.83gal tank took 16.708 .
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Old 12-09-2012, 05:33 AM   #8
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Best highway for a full tank was 30 on 2003 S. High 20's consistently on the highway (70-75 on cruise control).

Best mileage when I can find pure gas (no ethanol)

Never check it otherwise.
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Old 12-09-2012, 06:48 AM   #9
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Mine is just a summertime toy, so I could care less about mileage. I drive it to get a huge permagrin on. It's really cheap therapy after a crappy day.
Regardless, it does much better than my old Mustang GT ever did! My worst one-tank mpg calculation on that beast was 9 mpg.
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Old 12-09-2012, 07:30 AM   #10
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Mileage on my 2002 Boxster S

Recently returned from a 14,123 km road trip across western Canada & the southern U.S.
The on board computer was averaging low 20's going through the Canadian Rockies and down Hwy. 101 through Wash. & Oregon and later Hwy.1 into Santa Maria. It improved to the mid 20's going through Death Valley/Grand Canyon and got as high as 29.6 mpg coming out of Denver on I 70 but by then the fun was mostly over! I found that Hwy. 1 snaking down the Pacific coastline was like a drug with all the twisty hairpin turns and jaw dropping scenery just a few inches away out the passenger window! You 986 owners down there are so lucky & blessed to have that in your own back yard...I had to drive three weeks just to get to it...now Heidi is only getting 0 mpg as she is in winter storage until next April and I am going through withdrawal big time...

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Old 12-09-2012, 08:09 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by shadrach74 View Post
Greetings folks,

I've seen a few of 986 S owners on this board claim avg mileage in the mid to high 20s. I've run about tanks through my car and have never done better than 19.5mpg. O2s have been replaced as has the air filter. What do you typically average?
That's about what I get on my 2001S but that's fine. I didn't buy it for gas mileage
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Old 12-09-2012, 12:05 PM   #12
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Mine is just a summertime toy, so I could care less about mileage. I drive it to get a huge permagrin on. It's really cheap therapy after a crappy day.
Regardless, it does much better than my old Mustang GT ever did! My worst one-tank mpg calculation on that beast was 9 mpg.
My question has nothing to do with concerns about the cost of gas and everything to do with wanting to know if my car is sorted. It has seemed short on performance and long on consumption since I've owned it. I'm glad you don't care, but I do...an overly rich engine is not a happy engine.

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Old 12-09-2012, 12:41 PM   #13
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Greetings folks,

I've seen a few of 986 S owners on this board claim avg mileage in the mid to high 20s. I've run about tanks through my car and have never done better than 19.5mpg. O2s have been replaced as has the air filter. What do you typically average?
Wow thats low! Is this purely town driving and no longer runs? I easily see 27-29mpg on average. On a recent trip at a fairly constant 90-95mph it still returned 28.8 over the whole 140 mile journey. Mine is a bone stock 260 lump run on 98 Octane Super Unleaded.
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Old 12-09-2012, 05:46 PM   #14
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My 2K S with the 3.2 L gets about 20 mpg around town and about 26-28 mpg on a road trip. My 98 base with the 2.5 L got 24-26 around town and 31-33 on road trips.
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Old 12-09-2012, 05:53 PM   #15
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So, from what I can see so far, everyone does better than me, some by a little, most by a significant amount. I have a durametric, but have not bought a PC to load the software on yet. I will be checking the LTFT and STFT as soon as possible. I suppose it could be a leaky injector as well...

The car runs fine, just not as strong as it should for HP/lbs. I've sorted through a number of little issues hoping that I'd get a significant change. that has yet to happen...
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Old 12-09-2012, 06:26 PM   #16
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Let us know how it goes with the durametric. I'm in the same boat as you, only about 21-22 avg. Just did a full 90k tuneup and no improvement in mileage.
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Old 12-10-2012, 07:42 AM   #17
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Let us know how it goes with the durametric. I'm in the same boat as you, only about 21-22 avg. Just did a full 90k tuneup and no improvement in mileage.
I'd love to see 21-22mpg...
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Old 12-10-2012, 08:15 AM   #18
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I use an app called acar for my Samsung Galaxy S3 and fill the details of my fill up's every time. On the 1st graph below the flat line is due to the fact that in Malta they have a system where when the gas station is unmanned you can pre-pay for your gas by cash in a machine which is what I do. Therefore it is not so easy to fill up completely. Thus during this time the mpg was only calculated at the first complete fill when I left to return to the UK. The two peaks are when I drove long distance from the UK to Malta & on the journey back, the rest is all city driving.

Note this is in Imperial Gallons which I believe equates to 1.201 US gallons.

Average during this time was 20.722 / Best 29.439 / worst 17.878



Here is the last 3 months only :-





PS. This is the chart showing the mileage using info sourced from Service Manual receipts etc, I only got her at end of March this year.

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Last edited by hossuk; 12-10-2012 at 08:28 AM.
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Old 12-10-2012, 01:26 PM   #19
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My question has nothing to do with concerns about the cost of gas and everything to do with wanting to know if my car is sorted. It has seemed short on performance and long on consumption since I've owned it. I'm glad you don't care, but I do...an overly rich engine is not a happy engine.
Hey, fair enough. If my car was running rich, I'd like to make sure everything was sorted out too.
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Old 12-10-2012, 01:38 PM   #20
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Thanks hossuk, that's an interesting data point.


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Hey, fair enough. If my car was running rich, I'd like to make sure everything was sorted out too.
No worries Steve, I just didn't want you to think that I bought my P-car for the gas mileage.

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