GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Ok, I am stumped. First tank of gas (supplyed by the dealer) I got 27mpg. Second tank of gas (purchaced by me) I got 24mpg. My driving was the same (babying it) I never got the tac above 3500rpms and never going over 60mph. I didn't check the tire pressure, (I will do that today) and i don't think thats the problem being it's only been a week difference. Could it be they put in a higher octane? or better grade of gas?Short of calling the dealer to inquire thought i would get some feed back here. Is is normal for a 3mpg drop in one week? I haven't switched or changed anything that would alter the engine (yet) My driving was 65%highway and 35% city.I am very shocked and quite ticked that I only got 24mpg this week with my 06awd.

24 mpg is terrible in my opinion. I have fwd and have been getting 32+ mpg since I bought it in August. I hope it gets better as it breaks in. Do you have alot of hills where you live? Maybe that has something to do with it.

So far I have fillled up my tank over 300 times, averaging abou 10 gallons per tank, and I always see variances from one tank to the next in mpg. I attribute that to differrences in how full I fill it up, if I squeeze in more after the pump shuts off, what the temperature is, how level the ground is at the gas station and if I am parked uphill or downhill, all kinds of factors affect how full "full" is.I usually just average it all together to take away the unkown variance from one fill up to another, but I can sometimes identify events during one particular tank that will bring it down. (My worst tank so far was with a canoe acting like a parachute on the roof)This thread is about some people who saw gas mileage improve after the car has a couple thousand miles on it. Still, 27 and 24 are disappointing numbers, compared to what the EPA estimates are. I hope you do see an improvement. There is some debate about octane in the base/AWD, some people say higher octane gives better mpgs, but most say it is a waste of money and 87 is what the car should be fed. I think the times when I tried higher octane in my base, I blew the mpgs trying to see if the higher octane would give me any more power (It didn't seem to)I also see an impact from running the AC, and like almost all modern cars, in the Vibe the AC actually runs whenever you have the air direction control set to be either half or full defrost, so that is another thing to keep in mind while looking for causes of poor mpgs.The dealer has a long list of things to check for poor gas mileage, and the top one on the list is to blame driver habits, which can be hard for the owner to argue. I suggest give it some more tanks, and keep records of the gallons and miles per tank, see if it improves.

also important is to make sure you are calculating the mpg correctly.Fast take offs and fast stops lower mileage. (as well as wearing out brakes faster)Running the defrost lowers mileage.Running the A/C lowers mileage.These three things alone are why my wife always gets less mpg than I do in my cars. And yes, certain brands of gas do burn worse than others. For some reason, Speedway gas runs the best in mine.

what is normal?the car is just figuring out where it lives now, what the altitude is, the temp outside (it is getting cooler)all of these this contribute to MPG. I would sit tight for now and if it isn't more consistant by your first or second oil change then start in with the "fuel consumption report"Until then the dealer, GM, Toyota, or anyone else will not care to talk about it.Even with the fuel consumption report it needs to be about 3 months of record keeping.AND even then they won't do anything unless it is VERY BAD

I find I get more per tank of fuel when I use Fred Meyers gas then when I use Chevron (?) yeah thats weird. Also colder weather decreases fuel mileage. I'm already seeing mine drop. I used to get about 140 km on the tank before the the needle moved from full. Now I'm lucky to get 125. Plus I'm sure my unichip has something to do with it. Add to that my lead foot, injen intake and magnaflow exhaust...

During summer I get about 30mpg with almost all highway...... beating on it occasionally.......ok, most of the time. If I really baby it I can get 34mph. During winter I have remote start to warm up my car (sits outside) and there's the winter gas..... I usually end up with about 24mpg.

I would say that 75% of my driving is really short trips. I routinely see 24-26 mpg. If I drive a lot on the highway, it will increase, but I've never seen 28 mpg or more.

Measuring mileage by tankfull tends to be inacurate. Better averaged over a period of time. Cars breaking in and when winter gas shows up in your area your mileage will drop a couple of points.