poor gas mileage?

[NovaResource]

Yes and no. It has no real effect on actual fuel mileage however, because the odometer will register less miles per tank you calculations will be off. To get the correct mileage add 2% to the miles on the odometer.

[bellwilliam]

in theory, taller tire should give a slightly better mileage. because I am turning lower rpm at same speed.btw, I have the factory 17".

[canadavibegt]

quote:I've owned my Vibe for a month, and I've put 1800 miles on it so far.It gets driven excluseively on the highway. I'm disappointed with the mileage I'vebeen getting (about 30 MPG). I live in a cold climate (Wisconsin), so that may or may not explain it.Anybody else have mileage numbers I can compare against? Thanks.I have had my Vibe GT for about 1 month as well...... I do not record my millage but I do check it each fill and make a mental note.... I drive mostly in the city with occational jonts on the hwy...... I am averaging about 30 - 32 mpg...... This is about the same as i was getting from my 2000 Pontiac Sunfire GT with an auto.....

[johnsoax]

I've filled up 6 times.3/8/03 10.47g 363 odometer Amoco ultimate 93 - First fill up (after dealer fill up, estimated around 30mpg) Normal driving (70% HW, 30% City)3/18/03 10.82g 649 odometer Shell Premium 93 - 286 diff 26.43MPG Normal Driving3/24/03 9.34g 913 odometer Shell Premium 93 - 264 diff 28.27MPG Normal Driving4/2/03 10.76g 1243 o Shell Premium 93 - 330 diff 30.67MPG Normal Driving 4/4/03 10.40g 1579 o Shell Premium 93 - 336 diff 32.30MPG 90%HW, 10% city4/6/03 10.79g 1857 o Amoco ultimate 93 - 278 diff 25.77MPG 90% HW (25 MPH head wind and freaking cold) 10%cityI'm pretty impressed with the milage so far. I'm happy if I'm at 30mpg. The last entry was from yesterday coming back to Romeoville from St. Louis. What a lousy trip. The wind was attrocious. But gas down there was 1.50 for 93 octane!!!! I did notice that my MPG was increasing as the temperature increased.

[bellwilliam]

quote:You have the Matrix 17" though right and the Moon and Tunes right?Riddle me this then, I had some big tires on my other Truck and it totally killed the gas mileage. Why did that happen?Yes, I have the Matrix 17" though right and the Moon and Tunes. you must have those big monster truck wheels. also wider tires gets more aerodynamic drag, but 17" (215) is only fraction wider than stock (205). I also live in Los Angeles, so it is quite warm here.reading the old posts, many of you are getting same mpg as I do (23-28mpg), but there seemed to be another group of you getting 27-33mpg. I wonder why??

[bellwilliam]

quote:I have a AWD. So that is equaling out to 21.67 miles per gallon. On highway, I am getting like 94 miles to every 1/4 of a tank, so there is a big difference there. Oh well, I will live with it, like i stated before, until we get some miles on these vibes, gas mileage will be limited.silverawd26, are you still getting the low mpg? or is it better now, isn't your car's EPA something like 26/30?

[DopeVibeGT]

Best gas mileage yet!!! 27-28 MPG! I got 303 miles out of 11 gallons of gas.

[Project Shadow]

The larger tires may decrease your RPM but they completely change the torque required to accelerate at the same rate. the farther the road is from the center of the drive shaft, the higher the torque you need to speed up and maintain speed. (torque = force * distance). The higher demand of torque may be causing you to run outside of a normal efficiency curve. As a small note, if tires are heavier that will also hurt mileage. Some cars use huge tires because they have all kinds of torque but need the rubber to stick it to the asphalt, others have huge tires but are actually hurting performance.

[Lorin]

quote:Riddle me this then, I had some big tires on my other Truck and it totally killed the gas mileage. Why did that happen?Rolling resistance can be another factor. Not all tires are the same due to rubber compound, tread design, etc. Notice how they put skinny tires on the hybrid-electrics. Plus there is "unsprung weight". Those huge 4WD tires absorb a lot of energy.

[pmh013]

The best milage I have recorded for my car is from July 2002 (4th fill) at 35 US MPG. In the last few weeks (before my Vibe went back to the car hospital), I had been getting about 23.5 US MPG, but my car is broken. I am hoping that when the weather warms up & my car is repaired to go back to 29 US MPG average. I drive 99.9% highway.I find all the controversy about the rated mileage & non-achievement of rather amusing. Only because, in Canada, they claim that highway driving is 15 minutes at 70 km/h (see http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/vehicles/guide/g ... w=N&Text=N for details). Of course, if I drove like that, then I'd get the 41 Imp MPG (34 US MPG) they are claiming. But, I know (for me) that's just not realistic. 8 L/100 km (29 US MPG) ... that's realistic for me. I don't know what the EPA's standards are, or if they've changed recently (which may be one reason why some are not achieving what used to be possible), but it might be something to look into.

[kaybeejay]

quote:You're getting 30-mpg and you're disappointed!Get real!Estimated economy is:Manual: 30 mpg city / 36 mpg highwayAutomatic: 27 mpg city / 32 mpg highwayThe GT and AWD will be slightly lower.What do you mean "get real"?!?When the estimated highway mileage is 36 and I'm getting 30,that's reason to be disappointed.I believe "get real" would be an accurate phrase to to use. Like Nova said, it is an "estimated" mileage. There are so many factors involved that it would be impossible to get a dead on calculation.I heard somewhere that the EPA drives the car behind a truck to do the "tests" for mileage. Basically that buts down the wind drag to zero and therefore makes for a tainted test. However, it also makes for inflated MPG calculations.Maybe if you never drive the engine more than 3000 rpm, drive downhill and never ever get stuck in traffic you will see the 36 mpg.

[bellwilliam]

quote:I find all the controversy about the rated mileage & non-achievement of rather amusing. Only because, in Canada, they claim that highway driving is 15 minutes at 70 km/h.the ones that's complaining (me) think so, because with other cars we have, we have been getting close to EPA ratings. I have alway gotten at least city mpg with every cars I got (and that's at least 20), except for the Vibe.

[bellwilliam]

Stang2vibe, where are you? since stang2vibe's sister has a Corolla, may be he can tell us what king of mileage she's been getting, comparing to his Vibe.

[pmh013]

quote:other cars we have, we have been getting close to EPA ratings. OK, but I also said this in my post:quote:I don't know what the EPA's standards are, or if they've changed recently (which may be one reason why some are not achieving what used to be possible), but it might be something to look into. Testing methods change, especially considering that there is a lot of concern in the auto industry with emissions. I will look further into their testing methods; I bet they will come out similar to Canada's -- an attempt at replicating real-life operating conditions, but not a real good one.

[pmh013]

In the few minutes since I posted the above, I found this document http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2003.pdf Although they don't give their exact testing procedure, note this:US (EPA) "EPA miles-per-gallon (MPG) estimates are based on labtesting and are adjusted to reflect real-world driving conditionsfor an average U.S. motorist."Canada (OEE) "These ratings are for typically equipped vehicles, adjusted to reflect average real-world driving conditions in Canada."Sound similar?

[JustinVGT]

My gas mileage varies between the warmer and colder weather. In the winter, I was averaging about 25-26 mpg. In the warmer weather, I average usually 27-30 mpg. This is my GT in northern VA traffic, not exactly highway or city, combo of both. I hit a lot of stop lights and have to commute in some congested traffic. I still take my Vibe into the "lift" atleast once just about every day . The greatest mileage I've had so far was last summer on my 2k mile road trip, 33 mpg. At that time, I had about 2500-4500 miles on my Vibe. I am now around 10,300. Later,

[Monkeywrench]

Weather has a big effect. Last week (cold weather) our new shop Vibe got just under 30mpg on a tank. This week (hot) it got about 34mpg, and was driven harder. This is with 60% highway driving at 80mph and 40% semi-agressive city driving.