2012 Chevy Cruze Eco: Mileage gain, no pain USA Today (48.5 mpg Hwy in test)

[JohnWxy]

... Healey thinks at 55 mph you could get 50+ mpg, hwy.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/reviews/healey/2011-05-26-chevrolet-cruze-eco-test-drive_n.htm

Can the Eco (actually made in Ohio) really hit 50 mpg? Pretty close in our highway test: 48.5 mpg." ..."Cruise control was set at 60 mph."

...Healey said set at 55 mph it would probably get 50+ mpg.


"•How thirsty? Eco with manual is rated 28 miles per gallon in town, 42 highway, 33 combined. With automatic: 26/37/30.

Trip computer in manual transmission test car showed 48.5 mpg (2.06 gallons per 100 miles) in highway trial, 27.7 mpg (3.61 gal./100 mi.) in mixed city, suburban driving."


...and this is without Stop-Start Ignition, like hybrids have, which would add another 7% to 10% to the mpg.

[Atman]

1. EPA considers "highway" driving to be 50mph. My Santa Fe gets 28 mpg by that standard.

I drive a back road here in CT., speed limit is 45 the entire 25 mile route, no stop signs, intersections or red lights. If I cruise at 50 I'll easily attain 28 mpg with a V6. I'll still get 22 at real CT highway speeds...80. Overall average, though, is only about 20. Speed and consistency make all the difference.

[JohnWxy]

6. quoting from the OP: "...Healey said set at 55 mph it would probably get 50+ mpg."

... regardless of what EPA considers highway driving speed.


You stated at 50 (mph) you'll easily attain 28 mpg. .... I think the point here is to try to get higher mpg..... 48.5 or 50 mpg is higher than 28.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. "Trip computer"??? That's bullshit-- all that thing is is a vacuum meter and a chip...

analyzing intake vacuum and guessing at your mileage. It's as unreliable as using the gas gauge to figure your mileage.

The only way to get the true mileage is to fill it up, drive for a while, fill it up again and calculate how many miles you drove on that last amount of gas. Do that enough times and you'll get the real mileage.

FWIW, I could get well over 40 mpg highway on an '88 Corolla wagon with a five speed on a long trip without too many hills or headwinds. I also got an honest 35 on a 2000 Saturn LS1 with a 4-cylinder engine and a 4-speed auto-- I could drive from Newark NJ to Washington DC and back on one 16 gallon tank. (OK, I would get nervous and fill it again on the way back, but with the amount of gas it took, it was clear I didn't have to.)

[NickB79]

3. That's about what I get with my 2005 Scion xA

Best ever was 48 mpg, all highway, with the cruise control set at 55 mph. And that's calculated the tried-and-true way, by filling up, setting my trip gauge to zero, and then dividing my mileage by the amount of gas added at the end of my drive.

I've never duplicated this, not because I think it's a fluke, but because it was a 300 mile overnight drive when there was very little traffic on the highway. If I tried that during the daytime, when everyone wants to cruise at 75 mph, I'd be shot at, run off the road and left for dead.

Otherwise, I typically get 33-35 mpg combined for mixed driving, and 38-40 mpg when I set my cruise control to 65 mph.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. That's only slightly better than my 05 xB

Too bad they wrecked the xB line in 2007, with a 2.5l and no rear legroom.

[happyslug]

5. I once did 25mpg with a 350cc 3/4 ton pickup

I drove a 1982 GMC 3/4 ton pick-up, with a three speed transmission (with a "Creeper gear" so technically it had four gears)and a 350 V-8 engine. I did 25mph between Houston and New Orleans between midnight and 6:00 am, I wanted to see what I could get in mileage, Generally I did 10 to 12 mpg.

If you keep your Vehicle at its highest gear at the slowest speed, you get the best fuel economy. At 25mph I could keep the pick-up at its highest gear on that flat road. That is one way to get better fuel economy. Smaller engines, being lighter, would also increase mileage (the Ecos using a 1.4 liter engine, my old 350cc V-8 was later called a 5.5 liter engine by GM). Thus the Eco's engine is 1/4 the size of my old 350, and thus get better fuel economy. The engine is the heaviest part of a vehicle, followed by the transmission. Smaller engine, means the transmission can also b lightest do to less power the transmission has to convert from the engine to the drive train and then to the wheels.

Most of the fuel savings in the 1970s was do to reduction in the wight of the body, it was faster to change the body then the transmissions and engines. The first move was to go to thinner, and thus lighter steel for the body, then re-design the body for 100% air conditioning cooling (Cars as late as the early 1970s were still designed for cooling of the passenger compartment by force air, NOT from the windows, but via huge air vents the could be cut off it cold weather, but in hot weather left open and air would enter the passenger via those huge vents under the front console. If the car was moving these vents were enough to keep you comfortable if the car was moving, no movement you roasted, thus many peopled opt for A/C starting in the 1960s and in the 1970s the vents were eliminated to make the outside dimensions of the car smaller, while the interior stayed the same. The cars designed in the 1970s were designed around A/C,even if the car did not come with a/c).

By the 1980s, the car companies could do all they could do to make the car's body as light as possible,then and only then was work done on the engines and transmissions (In the 1970s electronic were improved on the engines and transmission, but very little work on the actual engines and transmissions). From the 1980s till about 2005, big v-8s for SUVs were the big money maker for the big three domestic car makers, research was done but not implemented till car sales dropped do to high gas prices. Then for the first time since the 1970s gas economy was all the rage and you started to see more high mileage cars.

Sorry, we knows what works and what does not work. High gasoline prices in the 1970s forced people into smaller more fuel efficient cars, lower prices in the 1980s and 1990s permitted people to buy bigger cars (and SUVs). Since about 2005 the American people have been forced back into smaller cars do to high fuel prices. High fuel prices improve Corporate fuel average then CAFE ever did.

[Kolesar]

8. The Scion xA is a subcompact that weights 840 pounds less than a Cruze

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CDMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FScion_xA&ei=_73rTejtBujf0QHZlcmWAQ&usg=AFQjCNGC8Mk9T_Pex82VwlPFBWcASeo07A

I wish I was in the market for a new car, I would buy a Cruze Eco.

[kestrel91316]

7. My manual transmission Chevy Citation got 45 mpg on my trip across the Mojave from

Vegas to LA 30 years ago.

It was a complete POS otherwise, but got great mileage those first few years.