2021 Rubicon Gas Mileage

[Shmigy]

so far I've had the truck for about 3 months and it has seen roughly 3300 miles. With that said, I'm getting 14.5 mpgs. I feel that with others reported numbers being 18 on city streets and 22 on highways, but mine combined is 14.5 with an even split of both highway and city miles on it, something feels wrong. It has stock everything on it, 6-speed, with a catback that if anything should help a little bit with mpgs. I don't driving like an idiot that much either. I've waited since the CEL to get past 3000 miles because I've read that a lot of people feel that the engine is fully broken after then and still nothing. Should I get it checked out? Any ideas if something is wrong or this is normal?

Also, not to mention, I had a check engine light within the first 200 miles of ownership and when I took it to the dealer they said it was a "fuel trim" and the engine wasn't getting enough gas. They toyed with it and said they had fixed it, but honestly it feels extremely sluggish still. I find myself going 55 mph up a small hill in 3rd gear cause if I go to 4th and I floor the car I actually start to slow down. Am I crazy or is a brand new truck supposed to need 3rd gear at 55mph or else it loses speed?

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[JCHGlad]

I wouldn’t sweat the mpg, but that other issue you described seems very wrong

 

[MrZappo]

what he said ^

These things are not speed demons but 4th on a small hill should not slow down ...

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Yeah, the 4th on a small hill seems wrong but I know from talking to others locally with the manual 6spd that they aren't getting but about 15 mpgs at best in their Rubis so your MPGs seems pretty on par from what I have read and heard. If you think it feels sluggish take it in to the dealership and get it checked out. The 8spd auto does a lot better for mpg purposes. I'm not knocking the Manual but it seems that they are trying to more or less phase them out.

Also catbacks don't always equal better mpgs, these things are setup from the factory to be pretty darn fuel efficient, if cats made them get better mpgs then the engineering group at FCA would of probably had them put one on. Once again I'm not knocking catbacks or anything but over the yrs there have been some false info that make people believe that there are performance gains to adding them to pretty much any vehicle.

 

[NateKY]

As far as MPG, I have 3,800 miles and my MPG is still increasing. I'm averaging 17-20 at the moment. My 2020 continued to increase up until 6,000-7,000 miles. It averaged 19-21 so I am hoping for the same results with the 2021.

 

[BAT]

I always wonder how folks get the MPG they get. My JT is stock for the most part except for the Ruby take off's. At 13K miles I average about 15 MPG if I just do local driving. If I add in some highway a good bit then it jumps to 18-19. I'm not heavy on the gas pedal either. Course I never expected the thing to be a gas sipper.

 

[Dryfly24]

so far I've had the truck for about 3 months and it has seen roughly 3300 miles. With that said, I'm getting 14.5 mpgs. I feel that with others reported numbers being 18 on city streets and 22 on highways, but mine combined is 14.5 with an even split of both highway and city miles on it, something feels wrong. It has stock everything on it, 6-speed, with a catback that if anything should help a little bit with mpgs. I don't driving like an idiot that much either. I've waited since the CEL to get past 3000 miles because I've read that a lot of people feel that the engine is fully broken after then and still nothing. Should I get it checked out? Any ideas if something is wrong or this is normal?

Also, not to mention, I had a check engine light within the first 200 miles of ownership and when I took it to the dealer they said it was a "fuel trim" and the engine wasn't getting enough gas. They toyed with it and said they had fixed it, but honestly it feels extremely sluggish still. I find myself going 55 mph up a small hill in 3rd gear cause if I go to 4th and I floor the car I actually start to slow down. Am I crazy or is a brand new truck supposed to need 3rd gear at 55mph or else it loses speed?

Im doing way better than that with a lift and 35’s…

 

[Dryfly24]

I used to complain about the same thing when comparing with friends who drove similar rigs to whatever I was driving. I could never understand why I got such crappy mileage either. Then I figured it out. Basically, the way I drove was a huge factor.

I know a lot of guys say they don’t drive aggressively and are light on the pedal, but are they Really? I say that not in an accusatory manner, but because I myself used to be an aggressive driver. I was always in a hurry to get where I was going, but then mellowed quite a bit after retiring.

I still don’t drive like an octogenarian on her way to a hair appointment but I don’t drive like I’m trying qualify for the Indy 500 either. I don’t race from light to light, I don’t try to get ahead of the next guy for pole position at the next intersection. I keep the speeding down to maybe five over, if I even go over.

As a result, my gas mileage has gone up significantly since I tuned it down.

Again, I’m not saying this your particular issue but rather speaking in general terms because it was such a stark improvement in my experience.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Do you guys have 6spd or 8spd transmission? In my max tow with about 3-1/4 inches of lift and 37 12.5 17 Goodyear MTRs I'm getting 17-17.2 average. I got 18.3 on the way to the beach and on our trip to the mountains. But I got the 8spd transmission, I've heard the 6spd really affects the MPGs for some reason in a negative way.

I haven't reset since I had the 37's put on in February, and that was almost 17,000 miles ago. I also let the auto start/stop do its thing which believe it or not helps with MPGs, especially if you idle in traffic a lot.

 

[Shmigy]

Thanks everyone for the comments! If there is any hill at all, my car will lose extreme amounts of power and full throttle up any incline will only be holding my speed, and most times I still shift down a gear so that I'm not full throttle. I'm not worried about the gas mileage at all, I was just worried that it was a result of the lack of performance or CEL. For example, there is a 4 mile section of freeway where I live that is slightly an incline but so little that you don't even notice it. And I can be going 75 mph on it and full throttle in 6th and I'll be losing about 1 mph every second. Even in 5th at the same speed I'm still half way down on the pedal and it's only holding the speed. I'll definetly set up an appointment with my dealer and have them check it out again after the news that it is not common. I knew it wasn't going to be a fast car but I feel like a brand new car should at least be able to keep itself going on a hill.

 

[Dryfly24]

Thanks everyone for the comments! If there is any hill at all, my car will lose extreme amounts of power and full throttle up any incline will only be holding my speed, and most times I still shift down a gear so that I'm not full throttle. I'm not worried about the gas mileage at all, I was just worried that it was a result of the lack of performance or CEL. For example, there is a 4 mile section of freeway where I live that is slightly an incline but so little that you don't even notice it. And I can be going 75 mph on it and full throttle in 6th and I'll be losing about 1 mph every second. Even in 5th at the same speed I'm still half way down on the pedal and it's only holding the speed. I'll definetly set up an appointment with my dealer and have them check it out again after the news that it is not common. I knew it wasn't going to be a fast car but I feel like a brand new car should at least be able to keep itself going on a hill.

That is it normal either. Definitely have it looked at.

 

[Chestnut]

I have 32 miles on my ODO so I'm no help.

On previous vehicles, My canyon didn't' hit peak MPG until 10,000 miles. My WRX was a bit earlier and I was getting well over sticker at 5,000 miles.

I think where you drive matters a lot as well. City mileage probably doesn't account for hitting a red light or stop sign ever 1,000 feet. So if you drive in a small rural town and there is a stop sign every intersection expect the worst. Over 60-65 expect your highway miles to drop significantly. My Canyon went from getting 32-36 mpg at 55 to getting 22mpg at 83.

Some cities around here have 1-2 mile stretches between lights and at 45 mph you are getting about the best mileage possible. 35mpg in my canyon was not uncommon, i am NOT going to expect that from the Jeep.

 

[MrZappo]

Thanks everyone for the comments! If there is any hill at all, my car will lose extreme amounts of power and full throttle up any incline will only be holding my speed, and most times I still shift down a gear so that I'm not full throttle. I'm not worried about the gas mileage at all, I was just worried that it was a result of the lack of performance or CEL. For example, there is a 4 mile section of freeway where I live that is slightly an incline but so little that you don't even notice it. And I can be going 75 mph on it and full throttle in 6th and I'll be losing about 1 mph every second. Even in 5th at the same speed I'm still half way down on the pedal and it's only holding the speed. I'll definetly set up an appointment with my dealer and have them check it out again after the news that it is not common. I knew it wasn't going to be a fast car but I feel like a brand new car should at least be able to keep itself going on a hill.

What is your RPM when this happens ?

 

[Shmigy]

What is your RPM when this happens ?

In 6th at 75 mph I'm probably right around 2,200 and then in 5th it gets up to about 2,600-2,750. Sometimes I'll shift to 4th and it'll pass 3k but it just feels silly to be over 3k on the highway cause my car can't pass other cars.

 

[MrZappo]

Meh, there is not much torque in top gear at that RPM ... In the manual both 5th and 6th are overdrives ... I would not expect either to do much for you in terms of passing power ...

4th gear (from the chart I found) is 1:1 ... Obviously this depends on your rear end and tires too ... Are you 3.73 ?

Also, 3000 RPM is nothing .. These are not long throw big block engines and they make power with RPMs ...

Running it up to 4k or 5k to pass in 4th or 3rd is par for the course ...

All of this is made worse by a 3.73 rear end ... I can see where 5th and 6th on a 3.73 would be lethargic ...

But as I said, 3000 RPM is where you need to be and above in order to get passing and climbing power ...

You may have no problem ...

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