GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Latest test with the 2009 2.4L 5-speed automatic gave me a trip average of 30.12 mpg on the highway. Car has a little bit over 2000 miles on it. I was kind of surprised at the pump, so I filled to the third click. Before the trip I changed the oil to Pennzoil platinum 5w-20 and put in some Lucas fuel treatment that I buy buy the gallon at truck stops. Gas was Costco 87 octane and Goasis 89. That's it. Post your mileage!Ned.

I also should point out that I was helped by a stiff 20-25 mph tailwind on the way up and the fact that there were almost no trucks on the road - so, no lane changing, which eats gas. Weather was cold, dry, high pressure, sunny, mid-20s °F. Just about ideal conditions.

Does your 5-speed automatic reset to 1st gear at a dead stop?Thanks,

Quote, originally posted by drscribner »Does your 5-speed automatic reset to 1st gear at a dead stop?Thanks, I have no idea. To tell you the truth it often feels like it's starting out in second unless I give it lots of fuel. I'll have to watch the rpms and report back. I'm going out of the office this afternoon.

Please also post highway vs city and how often you use cruise control if at all.

24.2 for 75% City driving on last fill-up. 25% Hwy, mostly without cruise control.

5 speed or auto?

Quote, originally posted by zoobernaut »5 speed or auto?Yes. (it's the 5-speed automatic)

I'm VERY disappointed in my mileage. The BEST I've gotten is 28mpg and that was 100% highway, cruise, 70-80mph.My usual mileage is 25-26mpg, with 75% being highway. It's a stock 09 GT with almost 9k miles.

Latest reading is 22.54 mpg. This is mostly moderate city driving (incl. short trips on and off expressways, not much stop and go), with about 25% heavy city including some wintry weather.

Quote, originally posted by Firescooby »I'm VERY disappointed in my mileage. The BEST I've gotten is 28mpg and that was 100% highway, cruise, 70-80mph.My usual mileage is 25-26mpg, with 75% being highway. It's a stock 09 GT with almost 9k miles.I wouldn't actually say I'm "disappointed" but I was "hopeful" for a little better mixed / highway milage with a 4 cylinder. That said, for a car this size with over 150 hp, the mileage is pretty good by historical standards. It's obviously a lot easier to get 30mpg when you're only running 125 hp. You can get 40 mpg with a Yaris but it's only got 105 hp and is running at 85% load at 3800 rpms on the highway.

Here, with the winter lower quality gas, and the increased use of the heater cause it' s really cold, my mileage dropped from the usual 27-28 MPG to around 23-25 MPG (usual drive is about 75% highway 25% city).

It seems like cold weather by itself shouldn't necessarily cause a major drop in highway mileage (in a fully-warmed engine) by itself. Cold air is usually denser and drier, which is better for combustion and your basic laws of thermal dynamics define efficiency by the difference between the operating temperature of the engine and the outside air. The bigger the difference, the more efficiency. IMO, It's more often the other factors like the fuel blends, different driving styles because of road conditions and increased time it takes the engine to warm up for shorter trips, people pre-heating their cars, etc., that cause the big drops in mileage. Of course if it gets really cold, then yes the temperature is a factor. Makes your oil thick, keeps your engine from getting warm enough, makes your tires stiffer, your gears stiffer, etc.

I've got a new low: 20.48 mpg. This was 148 miles of 100% city driving with a good bit of wintry weather and heavy traffic. Also pre-heated the car twice.ned.

From Columbus, Ohio to Detroit to Auto Show, West to Dearborn Hts. for Dinner and back to just south of Toledo for fill-up. 2 passengers, winter weather, highway mixed:311 miles / 11.09 gallons = 28.04 mpg. Pretty much "As Advertised". How are other people doing?

Quote, originally posted by Firescooby »I'm VERY disappointed in my mileage. The BEST I've gotten is 28mpg and that was 100% highway, cruise, 70-80mph.My usual mileage is 25-26mpg, with 75% being highway. It's a stock 09 GT with almost 9k miles.Your mileage is actually pretty good for driving that fast. If you want much better than that you'll have to either lighten your load or slow down.

My wife's AWD Matrix gets 26mpg highway (mostly highway with some city driving) at 70mph and 16mpg city. Her city driving consists of a 5 mile drive to work. It's also cold out and the car has 1500 miles on the odo.

Quote, originally posted by Eloi »Here, with the winter lower quality gas, and the increased use of the heater cause it' s really cold, my mileage dropped from the usual 27-28 MPG to around 23-25 MPG (usual drive is about 75% highway 25% city).I got new "lows"...Last 2 tanks were only around 22 MPG. But these were the coldest 2 weeks of winter so far (-30C regularly), so lots of "pre-heating"....

I've just put 13,500 miles on the clock of my 09 2.4L auto Vibe and just gleaned 29 mpg mixed city and highway driving. My mileage keeps improving as I put more miles on the car.

At 1st fill-up after 65/35 (City/Hwy) Avg 18.5 mpgAt 2nd fill-up after 15/85 (City/Hwy) Avg 25.2 mpgAt 3rd fill-up after 35/65 (City/Hwy) Avg 22.8 mpgSo far, have 954 miles on the Vehicle

Just clocked it last week at 31.9 mpg in Houston. Averaging say 63 mph on mostly highway.

I am averaging 28.5 to 29, mixed city and highway.

After my first oil change, now up to maybe 6k miles. Ive played with different brands of gas and mixtures and so far think I found the best ratio for my particular vehicle.I am now averaging 29-33 with 2.4L 5speed manual with a mix of BP and Exxon fuel. Mostly highway driving. I still have not put in synthetic oil. That will be done before 7k miles. I will repost miles then.

I'm going to try and stay off the throttle for a bit and see if my Exhaust/Intake combo makes any sort of improvement. Problem is intakes make you want to dig in. Check out my K&N post with pics and movie

Hmm... last fillup was 31.2ish.. before that was 31.4.. I have all the slips in the car. I know most if not all have been above 30mpg.I'm almost done with this tank and I have around 320 miles on it so far.. light has not come on yet (around 3 gallons left when the light comes on)Mostly highway traveling with some city 55-65 mph

What city do you drive 55-65 mph ? Certainly not NYC !

har har

Doesn't everyone drive 55-65 in the city? Esp on the BQR. Brooklyn Queens Raceway?

I only have about 450 miles, but I am averaging about 27.4 MPG city and highway.... I drive pretty fast, my average shift is 3500-4500 rpms... I drive about an 85-90 mile round trip everyday, averaging about 80-90 miles per hour whenever I can, so needless to say my driving is a little more aggressive than most.... I have been running premium though... what about you guys? I added a couple of pics of me at the pump last night...

What % tint do you have?

I have 35% on the driver, and passenger window's and 20% on the other windows.... Windshield is stock... 35% is the darkest legal on the front two windows in Texas.

...just got my '09 Vibe 1.8L/Auto and first tank fillup was 33.1 mpg, second was 33.6 mpg....am hoping for something closer to 36-38 mpg once she's fully "broken-in" engine-wise.

My 2.4L highway mileage is steadily improving as the car breaks in. At 5,000 miles I'm logging between 28-31 mpg on the highway on trips of 90 minutes or more with two people.

With my 2009 2.4L Vibe (automatic with a roof rack). I am only getting 19 - 20 mpg during the month of May. This is mostly short local driving. I try to keep the speed within the speed limits. I just had my first oil change and I have just over 2100 miles on the car.I just had no need or time for long highway driving except for one on Thanksgiving. I was getting only 17 mpg during the past winter.

I finally managed to get the mileage it's advertised to! On my last tank I averaged 6.8L/100km (that's 34.6 MPG U.S.). About 85% highway, between 100 and 110km/h (62-67MPH) over 4 days. My car is a 1SB 2.4L auto, with 8,400kms on it. Factory rating is 6.9L/100km hwy.My best previous average was 7.2L/100km (32.7MPG) which I had hit a couple of times. I've used Shell V-power (91) for the last two tanks - and it has made a notable difference in the feel, as well as improved my average mileage compared to regular. It hasn't been especially warm this week either - so it's not just the weather.I figure I'll try this for another couple of tanks to set a good "baseline", and then move back to regular to see how much difference it makes. It could partially just be the change over to summer gas that's helping too - I'll find out.Here in Canada, that V-power contains no ethanol, which may also help somewhat. 87 contains up to 10%. Unfortunately we have to pay 13 cents/liter over 87 to get this (that's about 49 cents/gallon extra). Tonight I paid $1.08/liter ($4.08/gal) - a lot better than last summer when it hit around $1.48/liter. I hope this summer isn't quite that nasty.I'm just happy to finally get this mileage. My previous car (2002 Sunfire 5-speed 2.2 OHV) managed to set a record of 5.8L/100km several times during the summer months (40.5MPG) - while only being rated to get 7.0 hwy. Maybe the Vibe's just getting broken in finally. I had about 15,000km on the Sunfire the first time I hit that mileage (5.8). It could still repeat it last summer with over 230,000km on it too! It was a lot easier to "lug" though - being a manual. The automatic in this thing (Vibe) seems far too willing to downshift with even the slightest pedal movement. I'm sure eventually I'll get used to it.I didn't use cruise at all either during this week - and being cool out meant that the A/C didn't get turned on at all. I just left the transmission in "D" as well - under most conditions the "S" mode isn't manual enough for me to want to bother - so I don't.

Our 16k mi. 2009 2.4ltr CA Emissions 5sp Auto is currently at the dealer again for poor City MPG, car consistently gets 15.2-16.1 MPG City driving and it's NOT driven hard, all flat ground surface streets, Highway mileage is 30-32 MPG, car is rated at 22/28 MPG, car gets Costco's 87 octane and gets filled to first click each time, Time before last fill-up City was 15.2, Weekend freeway trip got 32.2, next city fill-up got 16.1 I think I fall in the WORST Fuel Economy EVER for a Pontiac Vibe 2.4!, BTW...the worst I have ever gotten was 13.8 MPG when car had 1200 Miles on it. Does anyone know of someone else experiencing mileage this bad??

Are you driving light to light to light with lots of idling? Carry much weight?
Does your coolant temp rise to normal? (A thermostat that's stuck open could prevent the engine from reaching normal operating temps.)
Do you drive with your left foot covering the brake pedal? (Wouldn't be the first time I've seen someone dragging their brakes)

RedHot_in_Bako wrote: I think I fall in the WORST Fuel Economy EVER for a Pontiac Vibe 2.4!, BTW...the worst I have ever gotten was 13.8 MPG when car had 1200 Miles on it.

No doubt you are KING when it comes to the worst mileage. My 2009 Vibe GT, manual trans, gets an average of 27mpg (roughly 50/50 city/hwy driving) My best was 37.6 (all hwy) and my worst was 22.4 (winter time & wife drove it that week ) It is currently at just over 12k miles. There definitely has to be a problem. Maybe they can hook up some sort of monitor to the exhaust to detect your by-products and verify that your running rich or leaking it somewhere. Let us know what they find out

Still pretty happy with mine for mileage. Click on the Fuelly link in my signature to see all my stats since new. Every single tank recorded!

Overall economy is only slightly worse than my previous Sunfire, which was a bare bones manual transmission car with no A/C or power anything (like SD's 1SA Vibe). My Vibe appears to consume about 30ml/100km more on average - virtually unmeasurable difference - only derived from long term statistics.

I'm sure if I get a tent trailer as I plan to in the next couple of years that will certainly hurt my average! I'm sure we'll have fun with it though, and I love road trips when I can afford to take them and have the time...

John

RedHot_in_Bako wrote:Our 16k mi. 2009 2.4ltr CA Emissions 5sp Auto is currently at the dealer again for poor City MPG, car consistently gets 15.2-16.1 MPG City driving and it's NOT driven hard, all flat ground surface streets, Highway mileage is 30-32 MPG, car is rated at 22/28 MPG, car gets Costco's 87 octane and gets filled to first click each time, Time before last fill-up City was 15.2, Weekend freeway trip got 32.2, next city fill-up got 16.1 I think I fall in the WORST Fuel Economy EVER for a Pontiac Vibe 2.4!, BTW...the worst I have ever gotten was 13.8 MPG when car had 1200 Miles on it. Does anyone know of someone else experiencing mileage this bad??

Something is definitely not right. It's weird that you get decent highway mileage though. Do you put the transmission in drive or do you put it in shift mode? Having it in shift mode can hurt your gas mileage. When I first got my 2009 Vibe GT, I used to accidentally put it in shift mode all the time until I got used to how the shifter moves through the gears.

The combined gas mileage on my 2009 Vibe GT 5-speed auto over the last 18,725 miles is 27.8. The lowest mileage I've gotten is 23.0 and the highest (100% highway) is 33.9