I finally joined the Cruze family this week! Bought a 2015 1LT with the RS package, technology package, and convenience package. I love it so far with the exception of the gas mileage. I traded, mainly, to get out of the Focus I was driving, but to get slightly better mpg. Well, that's not happening. I'm currently getting about 31-32. Folks I've asked have given me mixed reviews saying the 1.4 vvt engines need about 6k to break in while others say that's what it will get regardless of how many miles you put on it. I know a guy that used to make the same drive as I do and he got 36-37 out of his Cruze, same engine. Please tell me it gets better!
jclswv519
1 - 20 of 28 Posts
I finally joined the Cruze family this week! Bought a 2015 1LT with the RS package, technology package, and convenience package. I love it so far with the exception of the gas mileage. I traded, mainly, to get out of the Focus I was driving, but to get slightly better mpg. Well, that's not happening. I'm currently getting about 31-32. Folks I've asked have given me mixed reviews saying the 1.4 vvt engines need about 6k to break in while others say that's what it will get regardless of how many miles you put on it. I know a guy that used to make the same drive as I do and he got 36-37 out of his Cruze, same engine. Please tell me it gets better!
Joined
·
6,727 Posts
A 1LT cruze is only rated at 26city, 38hwy and 30mpg combined. The 30mpg combined rating is the average most will achieve with the car. If your getting 31-32mpg, your already doing better than most do with an automatic cruze.
AC use does reduce MPG as well as any extra city driving. When you say you know someone with the same route that does better, I suspect their last mile(to home) is different enough to bring up their MPG compared to yours. Residential streets with stops at every block, even a short distance of this daily will severely reduce your overall MPG.
Whats your speed on the highway? 45-70mph is the range the 1LT auto gets its best MPG. At 75mph I only average 32-33mpg, yet at 65-70mph typically average 36-42mpg. What type of fuel are you using? The 1.4T does get slightly better MPG on premium, which is especially true when above 80F outside.
AC use does reduce MPG as well as any extra city driving. When you say you know someone with the same route that does better, I suspect their last mile(to home) is different enough to bring up their MPG compared to yours. Residential streets with stops at every block, even a short distance of this daily will severely reduce your overall MPG.
Whats your speed on the highway? 45-70mph is the range the 1LT auto gets its best MPG. At 75mph I only average 32-33mpg, yet at 65-70mph typically average 36-42mpg. What type of fuel are you using? The 1.4T does get slightly better MPG on premium, which is especially true when above 80F outside.
Most of my commute is highway. I've got a little over a mile on a country road, then it's all highway from there. I do average around 70 mph on the highway The only fuel I've put thru it so far has been 87, so should I try upping it to at least midgrade on my next fill up? Glad to hear it's not just me that's had less than expected at first! Connorwm, what mileage point did you see the increase? In the Focus, I saw about 36.5 mpg, half a mile better than rated, which sounds like what I may be able to see in the Cruze. At least I hope I eventually see it.
As long as you don't use the turbo you will be fine. It not only the cruze that suffers from this but pretty much any turbo boosted cars. Fords eco boost engines are not getting the gas mileage promised either. Consumer reports had a big writeup on this saying how small is too small. The new pruis for example now has a bigger engine and gets better gas mileage Honda swapped out one of it 4 cylinder turbos and put back a v6 and is getting better mileage. My cruze ran 27 mpg combined and the brother in laws ran around 31 but his was mostly highway driving. Tramp the cruze to the floor and look at the instantaneous fuel consumption if u want to get good gas mileage on any turbo u have to be light on the pedal. on the consumers report test both the 1.8 and 1.4 got the same gas mileage combined in real word testing. My 2015 focus actually gets better mileage then my cruze did and my parents fusion got just as good or better mileage on there 2.5l then my cruze did
Joined
·
6,727 Posts
Some seem to not see any benefit to running premium, but most do. I get 2-3mpg better on premium even compared to midgrade. On premium my car will hold 6th gear longer and even not downshift at all on hills it always downshifts on when running 87 octane.
I also did see an increase in MPG after 4000-7500 miles on the car.
Finally broke that 600 mile remaining on my 2012 2LT with a manual transmission after a long cold winter seeing numbers more like in the 440 range. So the kind of crap you are getting out the pump does makes a huge difference.
In living in a state where more than half the ethanol plants are in violation of federal EPA standards and not knowing what in the heck you are getting, stay far clear of ethanol. And only use top tier 91 octane ethanol free gas. With summer gas, and driving in wee hours of the morning when the roads are dead, can average 46 mpg with the cruise set at 60. But with lots of traffic and the fear of getting rear ended and plenty of fingers, keep up with traffic at the 72-76 mph range, then it drops to around 37 mpg.
Was rumors and maybe some truth to this, if you can tail gate a semi about 5 feet behind, will be in his vacuum to greatly increase your fuel economy, but putting your life in your hands. Best fuel economy on a really dead county road was 57 mpg at 30 mph in 5th gear. Ha, but will take you twice as long to get there and can only do this if retired.
Main problem I found with my Cruze besides the negative battery cable was loose even with a tight bolt, this was on day two, so I filed that gap so it would be tight. Was the plugs were improperly gaped and the springs in the boots were hung up inside of that boot shoulder.
Won't get into what I did to the spark plugs, way too much controversy on this subject and not worth arguing with it. Like these guy had 30 years experience in designing automotive ignition systems.
Cruze
In living in a state where more than half the ethanol plants are in violation of federal EPA standards and not knowing what in the heck you are getting, stay far clear of ethanol. And only use top tier 91 octane ethanol free gas. With summer gas, and driving in wee hours of the morning when the roads are dead, can average 46 mpg with the cruise set at 60. But with lots of traffic and the fear of getting rear ended and plenty of fingers, keep up with traffic at the 72-76 mph range, then it drops to around 37 mpg.
Was rumors and maybe some truth to this, if you can tail gate a semi about 5 feet behind, will be in his vacuum to greatly increase your fuel economy, but putting your life in your hands. Best fuel economy on a really dead county road was 57 mpg at 30 mph in 5th gear. Ha, but will take you twice as long to get there and can only do this if retired.
Main problem I found with my Cruze besides the negative battery cable was loose even with a tight bolt, this was on day two, so I filed that gap so it would be tight. Was the plugs were improperly gaped and the springs in the boots were hung up inside of that boot shoulder.
Won't get into what I did to the spark plugs, way too much controversy on this subject and not worth arguing with it. Like these guy had 30 years experience in designing automotive ignition systems.
Cruze
Joined
·
8,257 Posts
Ethenol free ? that stuff is only sold in ahh like the woods . check any state map for it and ya come up with listings for IT only out in the boondocks on some dead end road to nowhere in particular and way out of reach on a Farm ..
So how can ya recomend something all of the rest of the insane world cannot Buy ?
We all don't live in Kansas !
So how can ya recomend something all of the rest of the insane world cannot Buy ?
We all don't live in Kansas !
Joined
·
306 Posts
Short answer, it probably will get a little better, and switch to premium.
Longer answer: I bought my '14 LTZ at the end of December 2013. Here are my monthly MPG averages:
You can see it gets better as it warms up outside, and those first few months in my '14 were terrible as the engine broke in. 2015 has been better across the board. Jan-Apr 2015 represents about 13-18k on the car. My work commute is 18 miles each way about 40% HWY.
Longer answer: I bought my '14 LTZ at the end of December 2013. Here are my monthly MPG averages:
| 2014 | 2015 |
| Jan: 25.2 | 26.8 |
| Feb: 24.9 | 26.2 |
| Mar: 25.3 | 30.2 |
| Apr: 27.8 | 30.4 |
You can see it gets better as it warms up outside, and those first few months in my '14 were terrible as the engine broke in. 2015 has been better across the board. Jan-Apr 2015 represents about 13-18k on the car. My work commute is 18 miles each way about 40% HWY.
Joined
·
18,441 Posts
E0 is overrated. Tried it twice, car ran like a pile of crap when you lean on the gas. E10 resists knock MUCH better.
Oh, and this was on E10. 89 I think.
OP, mine got noticeably better mileage after 6 months.
Joined
·
22 Posts
It was probably shortly after the break-in period which would make sense. I believe that is the first 500 miles so shortly after then I started seeing averages in the city above 30 and highway above rated. Here's an example: Starting at 250 miles on the odometer I drove across state for 4 hours doing 75ish MPH. That trip finished up the break-in period. My average (with a fresh tank of 87 at the start) was below 30. I have done that same trip again (on 87 as well) and gotten 33 MPG which is to be expected since the best highway MPG is in the 60's. Hope that helps.
Joined
·
6,727 Posts
Most of the country that doesn't have ethanol mandates where E10 is required in all grades 91E0 is the more common premium fuel. Remember E10 is in use to eliminate Co2 emissions, so in large city's like Chicago or St. Louis for example you can see on the no ethnaol map E0 is non-existent. With a car that can easily go 500 miles to a tank, why fill up near home? If you wanted E0 is easily available within 50-100 mile range.
The pure gas map is very inaccurate, I find stations all the time when I look that are not listed. Think I have added 30+ in my travels in at least 3 states. pure-gas.org : ethanol-free gas stations
Testing between both premium grades 91E0 vs 93E10 I only saw a 0.8MPG increase running no ethanol, so not worth any extra cost.
It's good to hear MPG should go up after 6 mos/6000 miles! I don't expect a car to get the rated MPG at first, just a little better than what I get now. Eventually, I pray I get 37ish. Again, just bought it Tuesday with 14 miles on it, so it seems like I may experience lower MPG for a little while longer. I am gonna try running 89 in it tomorrow when I fill up before starting my commute and see what I get with that.
Joined
·
24,125 Posts
After you run a couple of tanks of 89 take a shot at 91/93. My ECO MT took nearly 8,000 miles for it to fully break in.
Joined
·
1,247 Posts
Don't forget, we're still on Winter Gas (might have just changed over though). Break in period for me was about 3k miles where I noticed a slight jump. Check the sticky thread around here for bettering fuel economy...Spark Plug gaps, tire pressure upping, premium gas, a few small things that can bump the mpg up a little bit make a good difference.
Driving down a long hill sure helps along with a 60 mph tailwind. I know I am doing better than 99 mpg, but this is the highest that gauge goes.
Winds sure make a difference when flying a plane, if it cruises at 140 mph, the difference between a 60 mph head or tailwind, can be a difference of 200 mph or 80 mph ground speed.
In a car, can still do 70 mph with the same winds, but with a head wind, that gas gauge sinks a lot quicker. Ha, only drive with a tail wind. With my motorhome even with a 30mph wind can make the difference between getting 6 or 18 mpg.
Air resistance increases by the square of the velocity, driving slower sure helps, but our society demands more speed, because they expect us to be in two different places at the same time.
Winds sure make a difference when flying a plane, if it cruises at 140 mph, the difference between a 60 mph head or tailwind, can be a difference of 200 mph or 80 mph ground speed.
In a car, can still do 70 mph with the same winds, but with a head wind, that gas gauge sinks a lot quicker. Ha, only drive with a tail wind. With my motorhome even with a 30mph wind can make the difference between getting 6 or 18 mpg.
Air resistance increases by the square of the velocity, driving slower sure helps, but our society demands more speed, because they expect us to be in two different places at the same time.
Joined
·
10,587 Posts
Rentals I could tell only in MPG but my actual 6MT eco would be a total princess if you took 93 away from her stock tune.
Joined
·
61 Posts
ive got just over 18K on mine and for about most of it's life i've been running plus fuel through it, no idea whether or not it's got any ethanol in it. but i can tell as the miles go up my MPG gets better slowly. i'm also alot more sensable with my driving, coasting as much as possible, avoiding routes with stop signs, not being billy badass taking it to the redline because I have the RS badge. every little thing takes it's toll on your AVG MPG. you gotta baby it but you can get some good MPG out of the 1.4, i'm still only averaging 33-34 a tank, but there's still improvements i could make on my driving habits.
1 - 20 of 28 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
