GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

just picked up my 2004 Vibe on Friday. Took a 270 mile round trip ride Sat & Sun using 3/4 tank of gas? My 96 Cavalier only used 1/4 tank. Am I missing something here?

If your figures are correct then I'm certainly impressed by your Cavalier. I think the tank holds 14 gallons, so if you can drive 270 miles on 1/4 of that you're getting over 77 miles/gallon.I've never found fuel tank gauges on cars to be particularly linear which is not surprising given the odd shapes of the tanks. So estimating mileage by looking at the gauge isn't going to be accurate or consistent.Fill up letting the auto shutoff of the pump determine a full level and then drive until you're starting to run a little low. Then go back and fill up preferably at the same pump (so the car is sitting at the same slope if any and the same pump shutoff is used). Divide the miles driven by the gallons used to get your mileage. Even better is to keep track over several fillups so variations due to slightly different fill levels are averaged out.

Wow, over 1000 miles on a tank, awesome.

Maybe there was a typo, or you mis-remembered the Cav's MPGs. Either that or I'm going to go buy me a 96 cavalier Welcome to genvibe. Did you get a base or a GT, if a base, was it manual tranny, auto tranny, AWD? What color is it, what options does it have? Aside from less MPGs than you expected, how do you like it so far?

I have obviously been listening to someone who doesn't know what he is talking about. Boy is my face red. "He" always fills my tank all the way up the neck and it really does read just below 3/4 on the gauge when we get home from the 270 mile trip, one we make about 2 times a month. If I had thought to figure it out myself I could have told him he was nuts.It's a 2004 base, black with sun/moon roof, automatic, 40,000 miles, 2 spoilers. How am I supposed to use the overdrive? Mainly for highway driving? I love the way it handles.Now my check engine light is on and I have water accumulating on the front passenger floor. I'm taking it back in tomorrow evening to get some trim fixed. They can figure that one out then. Unless you have some ideas.Thanks,

Quote, originally posted by cjmaurer »How am I supposed to use the overdrive? Mainly for highway driving? I love the way it handles.Now my check engine light is on and I have water accumulating on the front passenger floor. I'm taking it back in tomorrow evening to get some trim fixed. They can figure that one out then. Unless you have some ideas.The overdrive switch is normally left in the 'ON' position (i.e. the button is flush with the surface) so the transmission controller automatically determines when it should be engaged. Sometimes on hills the transmission may tend to shift back and forth often (especially if heavily loaded or towing a trailer) and you might turn the overdrive off to avoid the annoying shifts. Some people also turn it off when about to pass someone so you don't have the momentary pause when stepping on the gas - but you can just let the transmission take care of switching it off when accelerating.The water on the passenger side is probably condensation from the air conditioner. There's a hose on that side that's supposed to let the water drip down below the car but the hose could either be blocked or disconnected. But since you just got the car have them fix it for you. Same with the Check Engine light. If it comes on again later you can take it to Autozone where they'll read the code for free. Then people here can give more advice based on the specific fault code.