With gas prices going crazy I like to keep up on exactly what average gas mileage I'm getting. I've played with the display for this but it doesn't seem to work correctly or at least doesn't work how all my other cars with this feature work.
It appears in the lancer that the average gas mileage gets reset everytime I turn the car off. In my other cars this feature would give me a running average over the life of the car or since the last manual reset. In the lancer it doesn't appear to give me a running average, but rather it gives me the current average for that one particular drive. After I shut the car off and turn it back on and drive it seems to start all over again.
Is there a setting or something I'm missing to get it to tell me the overall average, not just the current driving average? Or is mine not working correctly? Or is that just the way it works?

Thanks for any input.
(btw - I searched the forum and checked out the user manual, no luck)

I believe I found the answer here:

http://www.mitsubishi-forums.com/t32370-gas-economy.htm

2.) The MPG (KM/L) calculator on the dashboard will show the average based on the last 4 hours of driving. Should the car be off for more than that, then it will reset to null.

This is exactly what mine appears to be doing, so makes sense. A bit disappointing as I don't see the point of knowing what I'm getting in gas mileage for the last four hours as driving can vary greatly from day to day. Would be better to not reset itself, but if this is the only disappointment I have, I think I can live with it lol.

Thanks.

If you have the NAV there is both the Auto and Manual resets for MPG. You just need to go into Trip Computer and its on page 2. You have Manual (will only reset when YOU reset it) and Auto (resets after you shut the car off for a period of time). What shows on the dash is the Auto reset MPG. Not sure if you can force that to show manual or not.

Thanks for the info. I don't have the NAV, I have the sun and sound package and since the F.A.S.T. key option for the 2009 model was moved to the sun and sound package, I couldn't see spending the extra $1800 for the nav (the 30gb hard drive would be nice though). I have an iphone so I have the google maps feature and an ipod on my iphone and I don't ever watch dvd's in the car. But anyway sounds like that option might only be in the nav unit. Oh well, thanks for the info.

It will reset every four hours the car is parked so for long road trips it works fine. For your situation (I'm the same way) I found out how to reset it to manual...or the overall mileage for your tank. Make sure the car is in park "WITH" the emergency brake on (I didn't know the brake had to be set) and turn the power on but don't start the engine. Push the info button on the dash until you get to "settings", hold the button down until it takes you to the menu list. Scroll down to the "avg miles" and hold the button down until it switches to "m". Then scroll back through until you are out of the settings menu and when you get back to the average mileage display it should be showing you the average since you reset it last which is when I top off the gas tank. Hope it helps.

Thanks for the info. You know when looking thru the manual I saw something about a settings menu and I couldnt find it, didnt' know what the manual was talking about, so I gave up. But it must be there for me. I have a manual transmission so I assume I leave it in neutral, pull the brake, and try. I'll give it a try on my lunch break today. Thanks.

update:
That was it, thanks johnarnold101. The key to getting into that settings menu was to have the emergency brake on. Didn't matter if the car was running or not or if it was in gear or not (manual trans), just have to have the ignition on and the emergency brake on, then the settings menu appears and then I can change the settings. Thanks.

Yep, when I figured out the key was the e-brake I smacked myself in the forehead (coulda had a V8) style. Glad to help since it was my second post in the place. :P

Oddly enough, the settings function appears if you have the Navi package too. I found this out when I had to use my e-brake to bypass the DRLs.

It was cool... but useless :(

update 2:
Ok, so it looks it doesn't matter if you have the NAV, or the RF cd changer stereo, or manual or CVT. Either combo lets you get into the settings menu with the e-brake on.

So yesterday I switch to manual for the avg display, reset the value to 0 and drove home. All was well, was getting 28.4mpg on mostly highway and back road driving with a few sprints over 100mph. I was happy with that and the display was working fine.

Then this morning I get into the car to go to work and when I pull out of garage and down the street I check the display and it says 9mpg. Huh? I said. How can it drop from 28 to 9. So when I get to work I check the setting and its back to automatic. So I pull out the user manual and read in more depth on the display functions. Come to find out by default automatic is always displayed once the ignition is turn from lock to ACC, no matter if you set it to manual or not prior to turning it off. Once you turn to ACC it switches back to auto by default. So it looks like manual cant be displayed all the time, but you can switch back to manual and it will pick up where it left off and stay displayed until you turn the car off, then it goes back to auto on startup.

If you didn't have to have the e-brake on, if you could change the setting on the fly, then that would work ok, but as is if you want the manual setting up you have to change it every time you start the car. Bummer... I'll test some more at lunch to make sure I correctly understand how it works and am giving correct info here.


**confirmed, thats the way it works**

+1 nice find

Yep, I forgot to mention that. Sorry.

It's a pain in the butt when you are checking the mpg for a whole tank of gas. I don't know what the designers were thinking. At least it will go back to where you left off. My friends Cobalt does manual only, no automatic reset when you have the car off for awhile. You can hold down the reset button they furnish on the steering wheel in the Cobalt to reset it anytime you want. Kinda scary to say but Mitsubishi should take a note from GM on that one.

I can also change between Auto and Manual on the navi screen, if you have one. The option is under "trip" and just scroll down to get the different screens.