i bought a Cruze Eco 6 speed manual last week. Beautiful red car. I replaced a Kia Spectra with the Cruze. I am not hard on the stick and am driving conservatively and only getting 25.5 combined. Tops on freeway on cruise has been 33. Any similar mpg behavior? On the highway on cruise control the readings on instantaneous mpg go from 55 to to 30 to 99 and occasional stay at a consistent level in the 30s. Flat California highway driving around the Sacramento area. Is this normal break in behavior or out of the norm?
MPG is lower than expected?
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Possibly. I have just over 2000 miles on mine, and am averaging near 40mpg. I travel mostly interstate, mostly hilly and run 65-75 with the cruise control.
1.4L LTZ and I just hit 9,700 miles and got my best tank ever, 30.8 MPG. I actually recently visited the dealer to have them do a once over, since I have never gotten the advertised mpg, no matter how much I baby it. My sales guy claimed that at 10,000 I would see a big difference. My bet is against. The last 1000 miles I have been running premium gas, switched to nitrogen in the tires and at 34psi vs. the 30 recommended. I also dropped in a K&N filter the day I brought her home. I am satisfied with my average mpg of around 28 for my daily commute, as I drive about 135 miles/day in some pretty nasty stop and go traffic. I just wish I could get some of the outstanding mileage advertised on a gentle Sunday drive under optimum conditions.
Please read the links at http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/27-f...uth-about-epa-city-highway-mpg-estimates.html regarding what goes into EPA tests results aka advertised numbers.
Your issues are precisely why someone needs to spearhead http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/27-f...fuel-economy-complainers-required-answer.html to help determine if the problems lie w/the driver, his/her habits, the commute, the car, conditions, terrain, trip lengths, etc.
All things considered and in the day of the internet we try to get it right. When you go to you tube and people are purporting real world experiences and some are from magazine editors you would think you could duplicate it and if not maybe our cars need to go to the shop for analysis if we cannot at least ballpark within 5 to 8 mpgs of what is claimed. Like the guy who drove from LA to San Diego with the air running and on cruise and he has a picture that shows the odometer stating 42 mpg. So the easiest flattest non rush hour freeway with the car on cruise and overdrive one would think they could make it at least to the mid to high 30's. I don't think a questionare is needed for good old common sense. We own a Prius and it does what it says, although better mileage with name brand gas. I have had economy cars before that averaged 30 city and highway. So in an era where one is looking at fuel economy I think it is fair to ask why you are not getting at least combined in the 30s without hard driving? I thought someone might know if there was some kind of known mechanical problem to explain it or if it is an aberration.
One thing for sure it is a nice car with god MPG but dissapointed in expectations.
One thing for sure it is a nice car with god MPG but dissapointed in expectations.
Suppoedly, the EPA test results are the only figures that manufacturers can legally advertise (I've seen VW break that rule in an online ad for one of their TDIs). Even the EPA says Your Mileage Will Still Vary.
Again, if you have some expectations based upon EPA estimates, you should read what about what goes into them and compare your drives to them. Short drives, for example kills mileage. Underinflated tires or ones w/high rolling resistance hurts it too. I see some people accelerating to red lights. Guess what? All that energy (in a non-hybrid) is going to be wasted when they have to stop at the light.
Some people have bad habits for mileage and don't even realize it or know to report it. Heck, I might have some.
Did you realize they don't test on a real road but rather on a dyno? They don't measure actual fuel usage but rather tailpipe emissions. Did you realize that highest avg. speed in any of their tests is only 48.4 mph? Did you realize that only 2 of the tests start w/a cold engine and are 31.2 minutes long? If you do 5 minute stop and go city drives, you will almost certainly fall well short of EPA city estimates.
I posted what Consumer Reports got in their testing at http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/25-s...-terrible-mpg-cruze-lt-auto-12.html#post10050.
The purpose of the questionnaire is to establish a set of baseline facts when someone complains about mileage and to give suggestions on that to check (e.g. oil, you're calculating your mileage wrong or based on guesses, underinflated tires, you've swapped out the tires for larger ones w/high rolling resistance, reset your trip computer then w/a warm engine go onto the highway and drive 10 miles and tell us what it says, etc.)
It is not worth the time to spend time reading posts and writing guesses when people who complain about mileage provide scant info.
west for instance says "as I drive about 135 miles/day in some pretty nasty stop and go traffic." Stop and go is killer for mileage. I don't know if those are a bunch of separate trips w/cool down in the middle or not. He says best tank of "30.8 mpg" but yet his car is only EPA rated at 28 mpg combined and 24 city. What does he expect? Get what I mean about the questionnaire?
If he wants good mileage in stop and go, he should get Toyota HSD based hybrid or one from say Ford (has a very similar design). At least some of the kinetic energy can be captured and repurposed for later use (instead of being completely thrown away) and the car can run at low speeds w/the engine off.
I have the ECO manual. It is very very sensitve to the drivers driving habits.
Tops on the freeway should be higher. What gear and what speed do you have it in?
Overall MPG is affected drastically by how fast you acceleate, even if you keep it below 2000 rpm. How fast you go in each gear. How much you coast vs (like some idiots) pass and accelerate toward a red light only to slam their brakes and stop just so they could be one car closer or feel like they traveled to their destination faster.
From go I got 34mpg city highway combined and moved into the 40 range as I learned to drive it.
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