I have just completed a return trip to sydney, a total distance of 3,084km in 7 days. Overall the fuel consumption was very impreesive and my findings tell me the VTEC system works exactly as it is described (to my understanding of it). The bottom line is fuel consumption is very much controlled by the speed drive at. My understanding of the IVTEC system on the R18A engine is that it is most efficient in the 90 to 110 KPH range & i found this to be completely accurate. My findings were this.....eg; with the majority of cruising @ 108KPH on cruise control i returned a figure of 6.28L/100km, however if you increase that to 118 KPH, again on cruise control for extended periods the average fuel consumption increases to 6.55L/100KM. But the real eye opener for me was having the wife drive for a period of time (on P plates), therefore the Cruise control set @ 101KPH, followed by 400kms of night driving on Kangaroo infested roads where i had the cruise control set @ 90kph (I did not want to put a roo through the radiator so if u want to call it grandpa driving i will accept that) I got my best consumption figures for the trip......577km / 33.45L
and that equates to 5.8L/100km. One other thing i would like to mention is that from Maitland to Campbelltown, 2 days of city driving and back to Maitland i averaged 7.19L/100km, exactly as advertised for the VTI. Overall figures for the trip....3,084km / 199.79L = 6.48L/100km...............................
Please note that these figures could never be expected in the Civic sport with the 2.0 liter engine.