What is wrong with my 2021 Escalade? Horrible MPG

[Escalade2124]

Good morning,

I have 250 miles on my 21 Escalade Sport Plat. I am getting under 10MPG no matter how I drive. Also when I filled up my tank only shows 252 Range. I look on autotrader at pics of other cars and see Full tank range in the 400Miles.

What am I missing? Could it be that my truck was put on the road with missing chip? I took it to the dealer and couldn't leave it because they didn't have loaners but the S/A said it looks fine which is BS. Just trying to get ahead of this. Is there any break in period or computer reset req? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Stbentoak]

You really need to do a 100 mile hwy loop then report back. Short tripping around town, stop and go, heavy traffic, any of the above kills mileage. Could be something wrong, but may not be inconceivable either....

 

[Miami-Dade]

Could be the fuel that the dealer put in it. If they put Shell fuel in your Escalade you will get 10MPG. That is what I got when using Shell in my Tahoe. Went back to Exxon-Mobil and all went back to normal. They also might have put in 87 instead of 91-93. I would wait until you do the next full tank and try to do more highway driving.

All that just IMHO.

 

[avalonandl]

Vehicle has to break in. Also check your parking brakes.

 

[Escalade2124]

Thanks to those who responded so far.
1. I will do Hwy test, Car has super cruise so will run it 100Mi and see what happens.
2. I have already cycled through first tank very fast, Almost too fast which made me look at MPG's closer. Filled up with 93 we have in FL. (BP)
3. I also thought the car may need to break in but searching on the internet new car for sale I see hars with 5Mi showing 400+mi range on tank.
4. See one pic below where same car is at 1/4 tank showing 212 mi to empty. Mine at full tank is clocking 252mi.

I suppose there is a break in where the computer may adjust but this is concerning at the moment. I'm in S.FL and at this juncture I cant even take my family on a Disney trip without having to stop for gas before arriving. This is my first time in a V8 in many years and certainly wasn't hoping for this. I hope my car hasn't got some gremlin.

 

[SSGUNNER]

Man that cluster looks sick.
I think the hwy trip should do the trick. Your avg mpg needs to reset. Test it out with trip 1 or 2.

the best I’ve gotten was 26mpg at hwy speeds but that is a 20 mile run. I certainly don’t aim for that with this V8 and one of the reasons I got it. Currently I’m getting 15.4 mixed city/hwy.

 

[Quark]

A fella complained about poor fuel milage very similar to this, well , after everyone pitched in with advice he revealed that his wife let the vehicle idle for 20 minutes everyday while picking up his son at school. Fill it up and reset the trip data see what happens.

 

[Micahsd]

Generally in my ‘21 Tahoe with the smaller 5.3L V8 I’ll get about 13 MPG around town which is mostly slow stop/go driving with the start/stop disabled.

Your Caddy I’m assuming has the 6.2L and is AWD??? If it’s AWD with the larger motor that will knock a few MPG off so 10-11 around town would be around right.

Longer road trips I’ll get about 22-23 depending on speed and how windy it is. Gusssing on yours that would be closer to 19???

I do really like the gauge cluster photos…my Chevy is not that cool but should be for the price it cost.

 

[jeffbco]

Don't use the car's computer to calculate - use your odometer to record the miles and your fill-up to record the gallons used - then calculate.

 

[SSGUNNER]

Fuelly is a good app to use to calculate outside of the cars computer.

 

[swathdiver]

Thanks to those who responded so far.
1. I will do Hwy test, Car has super cruise so will run it 100Mi and see what happens.
2. I have already cycled through first tank very fast, Almost too fast which made me look at MPG's closer. Filled up with 93 we have in FL. (BP)
3. I also thought the car may need to break in but searching on the internet new car for sale I see hars with 5Mi showing 400+mi range on tank.
4. See one pic below where same car is at 1/4 tank showing 212 mi to empty. Mine at full tank is clocking 252mi.

I suppose there is a break in where the computer may adjust but this is concerning at the moment. I'm in S.FL and at this juncture I cant even take my family on a Disney trip without having to stop for gas before arriving. This is my first time in a V8 in many years and certainly wasn't hoping for this. I hope my car hasn't got some gremlin.



View attachment 348444

There are several reasons for this and nothing is wrong with your truck. First, you live in Miami and it is slow going in Miami. A few years ago a fella on here bought a brand new Tahoe with a 6.2 and was only getting 8 mpgs around downtown Miami. We finally convinced him to go have lunch in Belle Glade and he quickly discovered that all was well. 6.2s are less efficient at idle and lower speeds.

Second, you have a brand new motor that needs some time for the engine to wear in and loosen up. We had a 2006 Pontiac that got poor mileage until it hit the magic number of 9000 miles and then the motor woke up and all was well for the next 150K+ miles.

The range reflects the last average fuel economy. Nothing to worry about, it recalculates all the time. Spend some time reading your owner's manual to better understand how all these systems work.

 

[Escalade2124]

There are several reasons for this and nothing is wrong with your truck. First, you live in Miami and it is slow going in Miami. A few years ago a fella on here bought a brand new Tahoe with a 6.2 and was only getting 8 mpgs around downtown Miami. We finally convinced him to go have lunch in Belle Glade and he quickly discovered that all was well. 6.2s are less efficient at idle and lower speeds.

Second, you have a brand new motor that needs some time for the engine to wear in and loosen up. We had a 2006 Pontiac that got poor mileage until it hit the magic number of 9000 miles and then the motor woke up and all was well for the next 150K+ miles.

The range reflects the last average fuel economy. Nothing to worry about, it recalculates all the time. Spend some time reading your owner's manual to better understand how all these systems work.

Thanks for the reply, I will read the manual. Being that I am somewhat mechanically inclined it does not make sense why other cars similar or lower miles would calculate varying differences in range. If there is a break in period programmed in the computer wouldn't all units be the exactly the same. Example, I know all new vettes were on sort of a limp mode until 500mi then opened up. It doesnt make sense why my specific unit is doing something very different.

I will report back my findings after road test and another 2 full tanks.

 

[swathdiver]

Thanks for the reply, I will read the manual. Being that I am somewhat mechanically inclined it does not make sense why other cars similar or lower miles would calculate varying differences in range. If there is a break in period programmed in the computer wouldn't all units be the exactly the same. Example, I know all new vettes were on sort of a limp mode until 500mi then opened up. It doesnt make sense why my specific unit is doing something very different.

I will report back my findings after road test and another 2 full tanks.

If I drive my truck around town, stop and go, stop and go, the mileage plummets. If it says 9.5 MPGs at the gas station, the range just after filling up with 26 gallons is going to be 247 miles or so. But if after leaving that gas station, I head to Georgia and refuel in Macon, my average mpg says 18.5 as we pull in, after pumping aboard another 26 gallons it's going to say something like 480 miles of range. Hope this makes sense.

Here's another way to think about fuel, driving around town, maybe a trip or two down to Lake Worth and back, the truck basically goes about 12 hours of run time before getting thirsty for more gasoline. If running ethanol, she'll get thirsty for more after about 9 hours. She burns about 2.2 Gallons Per Hour and the Sierra burns about 2.7 Gallons Per Hour on average. Note, these are not straight highway burn rates, those are much higher of course. With an average speed of 61 mph, the Sierra burns 4.9 GPH on a highway run. With an average speed of 56 MPH, the Yukon XL burns 4.1 GPH on E85.

 

[gat0r]

id hazard a guess its either the fuel the dealer used or too much stop/go or idling
low octane (87) or e85 will get you fuel economy like that in the 6.2

my buddy's wife's escalade got horrible mileage & pinged a bunch when she filled it w/ 87. she only uses 93 now.


i broke my '15 in like i drive... hard. & havent had any issues

 

[swathdiver]

id hazard a guess its either the fuel the dealer used or too much stop/go or idling
low octane (87) or e85 will get you fuel economy like that in the 6.2

my buddy's wife's escalade got horrible mileage & pinged a bunch when she filled it w/ 87. she only uses 93 now.


i broke my '15 in like i drive... hard. & havent had any issues

That's right, don't burn 87 with a 6.2 motor, just asking for trouble and new pistons and rings!

 

[Escalade2124]

Thanks guys, When truck was delivered who knows what the dealer filled up with if I had to bet its was 87. On my second tank now and of course I filled 93. Haven't had time due to work but this will I will take it on a 100 mile trip late at night on hwy.. 50 mi each way and see what happens.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

As the knowledgeable folks above have recommended, be patient, and wait until you have at least 1 or 2 thousand miles on the truck. And, don't rely on the truck's mpg estimator algorithm to be your benchmark mpg indicator. Log your miles and gallons at every fill-up, and then do the math.

 

[Escalade2124]

As the knowledgeable folks above have recommended, be patient, and wait until you have at least 1 or 2 thousand miles on the truck. And, don't rely on the truck's mpg estimator algorithm to be your benchmark mpg indicator. Log your miles and gallons at every fill-up, and then do the math.

Thank you! Will do...

 

[Terry Hurlburt]

I don’t know how the 2021 models are different, but our 2018 Yukon Denali will get 13-16 in town and highway driving is in the 21-25 mpg. On cruise control it gets the 24-25 mpg at 70-75 miles an hour. It has the 6.2 liter engine. We do better in 2wd, but only lose a couple mpg in and.

 

[rjdjbd]

Good morning,

I have 250 miles on my 21 Escalade Sport Plat. I am getting under 10MPG no matter how I drive. Also when I filled up my tank only shows 252 Range. I look on autotrader at pics of other cars and see Full tank range in the 400Miles.

What am I missing? Could it be that my truck was put on the road with missing chip? I took it to the dealer and couldn't leave it because they didn't have loaners but the S/A said it looks fine which is BS. Just trying to get ahead of this. Is there any break in period or computer reset req? Any help is appreciated. View attachment 348432View attachment 348433

I like a lot of the suggestions posted here but I would try one other thing: I’d do a highway mileage run but would set the fuel mileage computer to ‘instant’ for five miles or so and see what kind of numbers it shows. Pick a fairly flat and straight highway and use a light foot. Doesn’t take much on my 2003 to drop instant readings of 20-25 mpg to 9-12 mpg.