18 MPG?!?!

[Harojake]

Recently decided to see how many mpg I got. 2003 vibe AWD I filled my tank with regular gas and reset my trip. I dive normal and cautious with about a 30/70 mix of highway/city driving. I used almost a full tank and drove about 200 miles. Now I'm not sure what mpg exactly I'm supposed to get but I thought it was around 22 or 23. Does this seem right? How coul I get more mpg?

[KITT222]

Just so you know, winter blend gas has hit the pumps, so if you live where there's winter (I'm assuming that's why you have the AWD), your mileage just dropped. My 2wd auto dropped from 29 to 26 this last fillup. For an AWD, 23-ish seems about par. But a big thing you said was the city driving. Start/stop is what kills mileage. You have to try to be smooth and fluid, and not jerky. Imagine you have a cup of water filled to the brim in your car. You can't spill it, so you have to be nice and smooth. You could improve mileage with an engine block heater for when it's colder out, but in the city there isn't much beyond being a very conservative driver. Keep up maintenance, and possibly find a more highway-oriented route. Good luck!

[vibenvy]

Make sure your tires are properly inflated and keep your RPMs under 3000 when accelerating.

[Salsa Guy]

How many miles you have on the car? Have you noticed any loss of power? Is the check engine light on? Any noises in the rear end? It's rare I get less than 24 miles per gallon even with the SC on the 4WD Matrix. My MPGs have taken a beating the last 2 weeks because of winter gas I suspect.

[Canker]

I've never gotten more than 26mpg with mine and normally get 23mpg with my FWD car. I can't find anything wrong with my car even using a computer and looking at fuel trims. It does have 200k miles on it so I didn't expect to get 35+ that some people claim but I figured 30mpg or so. I think some of these cars just suck .

[Harojake]

Hey guys thanks for the tips. And yea I live in Michigan and the AWD was one of the main factors when I bought the car. I could take the highway to work but belive it or not it takes longer but I could leav earlier and where could I get a block heater?

[Harojake]

Tires are inflated recent tune up 240,xxx miles no noises no stutters or odd idles. It runs like it did when I first got it with 20,xxx miles. Checked intake and it's clean not built up with junk or carbon.

[flyboyron]

The way my wife drives her Vibe, she gets about 26 all the time.

She is a ricky racer in that thing.

[tpollauf]

The way my wife drives her Vibe, she gets about 26 all the time.

She is a ricky racer in that thing.

Yeah when my wife drives my 2009 Vibe GT, the mileage drops WAAAAY down She's responsible for my LOWEST rating of 22.45 mpg, and of course, I'm responsible for my best of 37.2 mpg Quite a variance on the 2.4l engine with 5-speed manual!

[KITT222]

The way my wife drives her Vibe, she gets about 26 all the time.

She is a ricky racer in that thing.

Yeah when my wife drives my 2009 Vibe GT, the mileage drops WAAAAY down She's responsible for my LOWEST rating of 22.45 mpg, and of course, I'm responsible for my best of 37.2 mpg Quite a variance on the 2.4l engine with 5-speed manual!

Best I got was 38mpg, in the same stretch that you got your 37.2mpg. Worse was 23. Now, though, it's down to 25. It has to be because I'm doing LOTS more "city" driving than I was before. And currently I'm not going long distances for my other job, since we're between sports. But one thing that has always been consistent: my MPG gauge(s) have always been off by 2-5mpg.

[star_deceiver]

But one thing that has always been consistent: my MPG gauge(s) have always been off by 2-5mpg.

You should be able to fine-tune those. I know you can with the Eco-meter (it's a pain, but is possible).

[jake75]

I've checked using the mile markers on the interstate - my 2009 Vibe goes about 102.5 miles for every 100 miles racked up on the odometer. So my actual mpg is 2.5% more than one would calculate using the odometer readings. Logically one would then assume that the mph on the speedometer was over-reading by 2.5% - but checked with a gps the actual mph is a little less than the speedo reads, e.g. at 65 mph actually going about 63.5 mph..

[dragon64]

I would recommend looking at your O2 sensors. I have found that once they get past 80K km (50k miles) they start to read slow and after 160K km (100K miles) are reely slow but not enough to trip a code. I've had several cars jump up by at least 5-7mpg just by replacing the O2's

[Canker]

My o2 was reading low but not low enough to trip a code. Replacing it didn't do jack for my mileage though. I've tried cleaning the MAF, changing the plugs, cleaning the VVT filter, injector cleaner, an Italian tune up, and no difference. I'm planning to try seafoaming it before I do my next oil change.

[clownshoes]

So what you're saying is....I shouldn't hammer the gas and redline on acceleration in my AWD automatic?