[obermd]

Nicely done. As your car breaks in you'll discover that its fuel economy will improve. Mine took close to 7,000 miles to break in.

 

[obermd]

My ECO MT's gas light comes on at 60 miles (97 KM) to empty. It is very consistent. For me this is about 1.5 gallons (5.7 litres).

 

[obermd]

According to my car I just averaged 58+ MPG round trip to work today. My previous best was 52+ MPG. 30 miles each way. I'd say I'm hooked.

 

[obermd]

I'm running my Goodyear FuelMax Assurance tires at 45 PSI. The car actually handles better between 40 and 45 PSI than it does at 35 PSI.

 

[obermd]

Patman, have you put your ECO into metric and monitored for DFCO (0 L/100KM). If you don't see this value while coasting you have a problem.

 

[obermd]

I got pretty drunk last night and the wife was driving me home after the wedding. She was in fourth gear doing 35MPH revving at whatever it revs at (2000) or so ... I bit my tongue but I just wanted to scream "IT HAS TWO MORE GEARS YOU KNOW". She was doing it for like 5 minutes... !!! Oh well.. I'll never get 50MPG with that going on.

Hopefully she was sober. I'll take 10 MPG over dead any day.

 

[obermd]

I may sound like a total idiot here...but what does it mean to hypermiling? I never heard such a phrase or word. Can anyone explain how i can do this? Is hypermiling good for your car?

Hyper miling, when done correctly, is both safe for your car and not dangerous to you or those around you. Basically it's learning to drive to improve your fuel economy. In fact, mild hypermiling techniques are taught in drivers' education courses. They call it defensive driving. Here's some links:

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/27-fuel-economy/5387-how-get-better-fuel-economy.html
http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/27-fuel-economy/10510-winter-impact-fuel-economy-mitigation.html
100+ Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & tactics for better mpg - EcoModder.com

In addition to these, many hypermilers have scanguages to get a more accurate picture of what their car is doing. Personally I think anyone with an ECO (gas or diesel) can get the benefits of the instrumentation simply by learning to use the tools and displays the ECO ships with. The Cruze can be set to display in US, Metric, or Imperial. Ignore the Imperial option unless you're already comfortable with Imperial gallons and miles. The US display is best used for fuel economy values below 99 MPG. The metric displays are the only way to track numbers above 99 MPG. In order to see what your car is doing above 99 MPG, use metric and the following table:

l/100km	mpg	Low	High
0.1	2,352.1	1,578.6	4,704.3
0.2	1,176.1	944.6	1,568.1
0.3	784.0	674.0	940.9
0.4	588.0	523.9	672.0
0.5	470.4	428.4	522.7
0.6	392.0	362.4	427.7
0.7	336.0	314.0	361.9
0.8	294.0	277.0	313.6
0.9	261.3	247.9	276.7
1.0	235.2	224.2	247.6
1.1	213.8	204.7	224.0
1.2	196.0	188.3	204.5
1.3	180.9	174.4	188.2
1.4	168.0	162.3	174.2
1.5	156.8	151.8	162.2
1.6	147.0	142.6	151.8
1.7	138.4	134.5	142.6
1.8	130.7	127.2	134.4
1.9	123.8	120.7	127.1
2.0	117.6	114.8	120.6
2.1	112.0	109.5	114.7
2.2	106.9	104.6	109.4
2.3	102.3	100.1	104.5
2.4	98.0	96.0	100.1

The first column is the car's readout in L/100 KM. The second is the direct conversion to US MPG. The third and fourth columns are your "error bar limits" based on the fact that the first column is a rounded number.

The one number that isn't on this chart is 0 L/100KM. The Cruze will display this whenever the fuel injectors have been turned off and the car is using wheel spin to keep the engine turning. This mode is called Deceleration Fuel Cut Off (DFCO). In order to enter DFCO, the engine must remain turning at 1500 RPM or higher for at least two seconds (Manual Transmissions) or four seconds (Automatic Transmission) after you let off the throttle. When you are on Cruze control, DFCO will also be entered when ever possible. The Cruze will come out of DFCO when the engine speed hits 1200 RPM, the throttle is pressed, the ECU needs throttle for the Cruze control, or the driver puts the clutch in. The automatic transmission appears to remain in DFCO through downshifts. Some people have complained about the slight surge felt whenever the car enters and exits DFCO while descending a hill on Cruze control, but this is normal and isn't harmful to the car. In fact, if you're paying attention you can even feel the car entering DFCO as well.

I use three displays - Speed/Range/Instant MPG, Trip 1 or 2, and the ECO's game displays. The last is unfortunately not available on non-ECO trims. For those of us with 2011 and 2012 ECOs, 4.7 L/100KM = 50 MPG, so you can see how well the rolling averages are doing as well. The formulas for conversion are 235.2 / MPG = L/100KM and 235.2 /(L/100KM) = MPG.

If you want to see threads on individual efforts at hypermiling, they are in the Fuel Economy sub-forum.

 

[obermd]

Here's the chart from MotorTrend's comparison of 40 MPG cars. The Cruze ECO MT is the top line. I have discovered this chart is accurate on flat level ground.

 

[obermd]

I was doing about 65mpg today doing around 40mph on flat road no problem. This cruze absolutely rocks.

The ECO MT just begs to be hypermiled.

 

[obermd]

It will continue to climb as the car breaks in. My ECO's mileage climbed pretty steeply for the first 5,000 miles and then started to level off around 7,000 miles.

 

[obermd]

To enable DFCO it takes two seconds in a manual correct? Why does it seem sometimes that DFCO is not enabling when it's supposed to. I'm trying to enable it at around 2500 RPMS at times to do a rather quick slowdown and even after 4-6 seconds sometimes DFCO does not enable. In fact I have trouble engaging it at all RPMS and I feel this is hurting my MPG. I had NO issues enabling DFCO in my civic but this cruze is proving to be a challenge. Any tips?

Switch your car to metric and watch for 0.0 L/100KM. If you don't see it two to four seconds after you let off the gas (do this without the A/C running) my recommendation would be to contact Chevy Customer Service here to get assistance. I strongly doubt most dealerships will even understand the issue without assistance from Chevy.

 

[obermd]

Do you have a manual or automatic? If think I remember you have a manual. I did notice today that my ECO MT is slower entering DFCO when the A/C is running at full tilt which is why I said to test with the A/C off. You may also want to take a video with an audio track of when you let off the gas. Your dealership, because this will require a dealership to resolve this, will need this as a baseline.

 

[obermd]

DFCO seems to have a bit of confusing "logic" programmed into it. Mine works very consistently, but it's consistently confusing me as to why it won't engage in certain situations... it works pretty well ~98% of the time.

Example: There's an off ramp I take every morning going to work. The ramp follows a long gradual uphill section I take in 6th gear, gradually slowing as I reach the top and coasting into the ramp. If the light is red at the end of the ramp I attempt DFCO in 4th and when that doesn't work, in 3rd. 3rd usually gets it to kick in, but then it kicks out, then in again. Sometimes it won't kick in at all. In this one particular situation, day after day, winter or summer, DFCO consistently refuses to work "properly", or the way I would like it to anyway.

One thing I've noticed that will very consistently discourage DFCO is having your foot on the throttle when down shifting, or attempting to rev-match while downshifting. When seeing throttle input when downshifting, I think the car assumes you are downshifting for better acceleration after selecting the gear and doesn't activate DFCO. This could be why your car rarely uses DFCO.

If you think that could possibly be why, the next time you drive make a concious effort to remove your foot from the throttle before clutching, and select the lower gear and release the clutch all without touching the gas. When I first got my Eco I was used to rev-matching downshifts and I quickly found out DFCO would take FOREVER to engage when I did that.

I never rev match when downshifting during decelerations. When I do rev match it's because I want the turbo engaged immediately after the downshift so I'm not looking for DFCO in this case. This is a great observation. I have also discovered that the car is less likely to go into DFCO if there is a heavy load on the electrical system which is why I suggested that 2013LT test without the A/C running.

 

[obermd]

I have right about 1 gallon (3.8 liters) when the range goes "Low". I have 5 liters when the low fuel light first triggers.

 

[obermd]

Not impossible, you just have to control all undesirable behaviors for THAT ENTIRE TANK OF GAS.

It's the external undesirables that are hard to control. Your speed, how you accelerate/decelerate, and even how you react to other drivers are controllable. This is why in the introduction to the HyperCruzer thread that Gold will require some luck. If you get stuck behind a multi-car pile up (or the first snowstorm in Denver) you end up sitting for hours.

Long term hypermiling requires you adjust your driving habits and attitude to make the best of whatever conditions you find yourself in.

 

[obermd]

Only downfall is letting the car idle to melt the snow while you plow/shovel a path out.

I want the car cold after I do this as I'm usually over heated. The only time I'll let my car idle is while I'm scraping windows, and even this is iffy with the Cruze because of how long it takes to warm up at idle.

 

[obermd]

Hmm... I pretty much never idle. Like mentioned there really isn't much point. I didn't know these things had heat assist that rocks though.

The diesels have heat assist. The rest of us just shiver.