Questions

My 01 is supposed to get 19 city / 27 highway, but I seem to get 15mpg in real life driving. What are you guys seeing? Maybe they should publish a "drive it as it should be driven" figure!

First, S or base? There's a significant difference.

On long trips, i get as much as 32 mpg ( e.g.: one trip to VIR, no trailer, before i had a track car).

Around town, summer, with some country highways and real ones thrown in, i probably average 22 ish.

On the track my S gets about 9

I expect my true city drivign is 20 or below, but among other things i ensure that i get the oil > boiling for a "significant" period regularly. I wont simply drive to the gym, Trader Joes and home 8 times in a row due to the acids and water that would accumulate - so i never see that data.

G

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I agree with Grant. It really depends on your style and mix of driving. Short trips with cold starts REALLY slurp the gas.

I'm sure I've never driven a full tank in just city driving. I guesstimate the most city would be a mix of 50/50 city/highway driving on a tank of gas. When I do highway driving, I avoid Interstates unless absolutely necessary, favouring secondary roads of the unstraight kind that allow me to conduct and enjoy the Symphony in Flat Six while dancing through the corners.



The official number for the 981 S with manual transmission are:
22 mpg city, 31 mpg highway and 25 mpg combined.

My numbers are:
20.5 mpg city, 27.7 mpg highway, 25.3 mpg combined (Combined is based on a total of 9,600 mi. of driving in the past year.)

As noted before, most of my driving in the Boxster is highway driving. (I'd guesstimate about 75 - 80% is highway).

01 base. Guess my driving style isn't so conservative.

and it was an '01S TIP which should be worse. mix of 40 MPH 20 mile commute in all sorts of weather, 250 mile 70 MPH trips and whatever.

But I should note I generally do EPA figures on any car I drive.

My 2002 base 5-speed manual gets around 20mpg to 22mpg given my usage. Usage is hard to describe. While my work commute is approx. 30 miles and around 28 of that freeway often traffic requires I detour -- which involves surface street driving -- to avoid several miles of stop/go driving. And I mostly use the Boxster for errands which means it sees some strictly around town driving.

On the open road though it can get and has gotten around 28mpg. The open road doesn't really get "open" until I get down to 58 highway near Bakersfield and then get on I-40 just outside of Barstow. Once I'm over the CA/AZ state line the freeway generally has pretty light traffic and the legal speed limit is 75mph all the way across AZ and NM with a few exceptions where the freeway goes through a town. But the limit even then is 65mph and the lower limit is in effect for just a few miles. I think Albuquerque has the longest stretch of sub-75mph limit through town which is I'd guess at around 15 to 16 miles.

'course from the CA/AZ border the elevation is around 600ft while just west of Flagstaff it is closer to 7700 feet. While the elevation drops some as one goes east it is still around 6000 feet in Albuquerque and even Amarillo TX is 3600 feet above sea level.

Hwy I get around 28ish, but tend to drive fast and it's pretty hilly in the mid-Atlantic area. So, that cuts down, as well as trying to get around the left-lane grannies and the bottle necks they cause by sitting in the passing line while driving the speed limit (it's an epidemic where I live). I drive mine daily to work usually get low teens. I'm a bit aggressive to get around people who don't seem to be in any particular hurry during rush hour. I take secondary roads on my 4 mile trip to the office. In addition, I tend to use the go pedal to get round potential issues instead of my brake. It probably saves maybe two minutes or so, if I'm lucky, but I enjoy the personal challenge..

My 2005 S gets between 23 and 25 in mixed driving. Really pleased with that, had expected much worse.

Anker

2004 Boxter S, Arctic Silver

Have you kept up with routine maintenance?
Do you take mainly short trips?
How often do you drive the car?
Are your tires at the correct pressure?
Do you spend a lot of time in traffic?

I think generally people get better than 15 mpg in their 986s.

It would have to be stop and go city commuting to get that low a mileage!

Best part of retirement was not to have to commute to Boston from the burbs any more!

Anker

Quote
Boxsterra
Have you kept up with routine maintenance?
Do you take mainly short trips?
How often do you drive the car?
Are your tires at the correct pressure?
Do you spend a lot of time in traffic?

I think generally people get better than 15 mpg in their 986s.

Hey there- yes, I have kept up with maintenance with the exception of religiously changing the brake fluid. I've been lazy with that one, but I doubt that would affect mileage. I do a good amount of short trips and/or stuck in traffic. In that tank of gas I also did a couple of 0-60ish full acceleration runs. Tire pressures are correct on 18" wheels. I've never honestly checked my mpg before, but thought 15 was a bit low.