mpg 1988 subaru gl

[doug]

Hello, I am currently driving a 1988 subaru gl station wagon with 4wheel drive
and auto trans. I have never taken the time to figure what type of gas mileage I
am getting but it seems to be on the low side. I do mostly hiway driving and I
would guess I am getting in the high teens for mpg. I drive mostly around 75 mph
and the tach usually reads around 4.5 rpm at this speed and it is not in 4 wheel
drive. Is this normal? I would have thought being a small 4 cylinder engine that
I would get maybe in the mid to upper 20's mpg.
Thanks
Doug

 

[outteekay]

Hello, I am currently driving a 1988 subaru gl station wagon with 4wheel drive
and auto trans. I have never taken the time to figure what type of gas mileage I
am getting but it seems to be on the low side. I do mostly hiway driving and I
would guess I am getting in the high teens for mpg. I drive mostly around 75 mph
and the tach usually reads around 4.5 rpm at this speed and it is not in 4 wheel
drive. Is this normal? I would have thought being a small 4 cylinder engine that
I would get maybe in the mid to upper 20's mpg.

I have an 89 GL SW still running fine after 211,000Km. Best car I've
ever had apart from a hot Allard (way back). When I got it at 72K I
tested carefully for mileage and was getting 35 mpg on a long run,
usually running at 3000rpm. I don't think it has changed much although
the city mileage in my hilly home town, particularly in winter, is way
worse.

I have a manual. I suggest most of your poor mileage is due to a
combination of automatic and high speed.

Incidentally, I really like having the extra low range gears available
giving in effect 10 forward gears - my 1989 was the last year this was
available on Subarus, I think.

(If you want to reply by e-mail, remove occurences of "out" in my address)

 

[Dave Helland]

My ea81 fwd Wagon has a five speed and very consistently gets 28-29 mpg, I'd
guess it's that Automatic doin' it to ya.

 

[marc]

I must be doing something wrong, my 88 gl with the SEFI 1.8, 5 speed manual
with hi/lo 4WD only gets 21-23 mpg, it does not matter highway or city.