[CruzeEcoBlueTopaz]

Well its that time of year for me to start adding up my miles and expenses for tax purposes here are some of my results. I earned a 50mpg avg over 9 months which is very impressive and im very proud of my cruze eco. Keep in mind there were many days and weeks I would avg well into the 50's actual mpg and days the weather and wind wasnt so kind and would drop my avg into the mid 40's.

Overall the past year I have been extremely satisfied and surprised with the performance of the chevy cruze. It has been a trouble free year and I have no doubt 2013 will be the same. This chevy cruze after almost 90k miles is shifting better then it ever has. The turbo and exhaust sound smooth, loud and proud. Nothing has broken on this car, the interior looks exactly the same as it did when it arrived from the factory. One minor detail to mention would be having to fill up my coolant tank just after the temperatures started to become freezing. Since topping it off it has remained level for many thousands of miles so im not concerned about it instead im keeping an eye on it. Oh and my oem tires after 85k miles rated for 65k miles are still 3/32 thank you Goodyear for making a superior tire and thank you GM for engineering a modern marvel.

2012
Total Spent
Gas $ 5,927.68
Oil $ 479.67
　

2012
Total Miles
Work Miles 62,855
Personal Miles 13,571

Gallons Used 1,539.8
Miles Driven 76,426

Actual AVG MPG 49.6

 

[chevycruze2012]

how did you calculate this? I want to know so i can do this for my LT =]. Right now im getting right at 40mpg. Thats because im a calm driver lol. Please fill me in on this. Love to hear about it..

 

[CruzeEcoBlueTopaz]

how did you calculate this? I want to know so i can do this for my LT =]. Right now im getting right at 40mpg. Thats because im a calm driver lol. Please fill me in on this. Love to hear about it..

Well im a contract courier so I have to keep track of miles and buisness expenses. The past year I have kept a daily log writing down miles driven, fuel used and cost. At the end of the year or month, whenever curious, add it all up and these are the results.

 

[obermd]

He also drives almost all highway miles at 55 MPH which is the sweet spot for the ECO MT. Fabulous results.

 

[CruzeEcoBlueTopaz]

Thats right the majority of miles I drive are at highway speeds.

I would like to point out that after all the miles Americans drive everyday im not alone when I express great pleasure in saying I am now paying only $3.09 for a gallon of 87 non ethanol compared to avg prices over the past several months approaching $4.00 a gallon for 87 regular.

 

[chevycruze2012]

thats pretty good i must add. Im paying 2.95 here for 89 octane.=]. Ill keep all this in mind.

 

[CruzeEcoBlueTopaz]

thats pretty good i must add. Im paying 2.95 here for 89 octane.=]. Ill keep all this in mind.

One thing to take into consideration would be my 50mpg over 76k miles while using 87 octane non ethonal fuel. I experiemented with both octanes and I did reach my limit for fuel efficiency regardless of the octane I used meaning I did not notice any difference between regular and premium. Unless your using 89 for some other reason I think drivers could save some money using 87 octane but thats just my 2cents. I dislike saying my 2cents but I did anyways.

 

[chevycruze2012]

how does ur cruze run on 87 octane? I used to run it or methanol in my cavalier, but i noticed the owners manual suggested 89 i think.?? I like to get the most mpg and thats why i used it in my cavalier alot, but im not sure with these newer cars with all the redesign of parts and all.

 

[obermd]

The Cruze 1.4T engine (LT, ECO, and LTZ) is actually designed for 91 and higher octane. However, the car's ECU is very, very good at eliminating knock by aggressively retarding ignition timing. This is why it can safely use 87 octane. At the steady 55-60 MPH CruzeEcoBlueTopaz drives on his daily route it doesn't matter because the car simply doesn't need that much power to maintain the speed. Paying extra for higher octane doesn't make sense in his case.

For the rest of us however, it is definitely worth testing with higher octane to see if our fuel economy improves. Higher octane is more knock resistant and therefore allows the ECU to maintain more aggressive ignition timing, which provides both smoother acceleration and better fuel economy.

 

[chevycruze2012]

Im reading the owners manual now and it does say "Use regular gasoline with a posted octane rating of 87 or higher. If the octane rating is lower than 87, an audible knocking noise, commonly referred to as spark knock, might be heard when driving. If heavily knocking is heard when using gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher, the engine needs service". Does this mean using 87 octane is a high risk for damage to the engine or what?

 

[obermd]

Im reading the owners manual now and it does say "Use regular gasoline with a posted octane rating of 87 or higher. If the octane rating is lower than 87, an audible knocking noise, commonly referred to as spark knock, might be heard when driving. If heavily knocking is heard when using gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher, the engine needs service". Does this mean using 87 octane is a high risk for damage to the engine or what?

Not normally. However, it is an indication that the car may end up working really hard to control knock when running 87 octane. There are a lot of Cruzen on the road in the US and Canada running just fine on 87 octane. Because of the driving environment and styles, most of them would run better on 89 or 91. GMs problem with saying "91 or higher" octane is that the Cruze is advertised as an economy car. To determine if you need to increase your octane you must test your car at different octane ratings. To do this, the next two to four tanks, fill it with 89 octane and monitor how the car feels during acceleration. If you feel less throttle pulsing while accelerating, the higher octane is working in your favor. Next, boost to 91 (93) octane for two to four tanks and test again. Now comes the wallet check - pick the octane that feels best for the pump price. Any higher and you're throwing away money at the pump and any lower and you're throwing away money out your tail pipe in the form of incompletely burned fuel. Also, even though you may discover that you can run at 87 or 89 during the winter, almost everyone who does this type of testing ends up at 91 (93) in the summer. The higher air temperatures in the summer make the car have to work harder to maintain compression and ignition timing.

 

[chevycruze2012]

I can tell you that my car seems to have good throttle response on 89 octane, but i can experiment with 91 bec thats as high octane availbale here in iowa lol. Octane 89 is cheaper.(2.95 gal). What do you suggest from ur personal experience?

 

[obermd]

I'm at 5,000 ft and have discovered both my Cruzen run best on 91 octane.

 

[chevycruze2012]

I'm at 5,000 ft and have discovered both my Cruzen run best on 91 octane.

I will keep this all in mind. Ill try 91 next time and post results

 

[Bohdan]

WOW that is great to hear. :eusa_clap: You mentioned nothing had broken with this kind of mileage how is the water pump and belt holding up at this point. With the problems that the Cruze seems to have I had started to wonder if the Cruze would be able to reach the 100,000 mile mark before all **** broke loose.

 

[CruzeEcoBlueTopaz]

WOW that is great to hear. :eusa_clap: You mentioned nothing had broken with this kind of mileage how is the water pump and belt holding up at this point. With the problems that the Cruze seems to have I had started to wonder if the Cruze would be able to reach the 100,000 mile mark before all **** broke loose.

Its all good. I have a buddy at the dealership and bring it in once a month for the oil change and they take a look at the engine for me and everything is nominal including the water pump. ( crossing my fingers ) Well I have allready replaced the spark plugs and both air filters other then that hings like the belt and filters are the least of my concerns im just hoping I dont encounter any major repairs anytime soon.

 

[sciphi]

Excellent fuel economy!

I found my Cruze to get better fuel economy on 93 (no 91 available) than on 87. It helps that 93 is commonly $0.20-0.25 cents/gallon more, making the price difference between it and 87 not a big deal.

 

[rodneyiii]

Congrats on the 50mpg achievement if that is what you aspire to do. All I can say is that all of you hyper-milers out there are driving around puckered up trying to eek that last bit of mileage from the car instead of relaxing and just driving the car. Good lord, if I try to attain those mpg numbers, I will go crazy. I'd also get flipped off by everyone behind me because I would be pooping away from stoplights for fear of wasting some fuel. I came from a Dodge Charger SRT8 that got 14 mpg city and almost 21 mpg hiway so I am ecstatic about the 29 mpg I get with my combined city/hiway driving. Lighten up, let you butt cheeks release the seat cushion and just enjoy the car. Has your engine ever revved above 3000rpm's? I'm really a nice guy but some things just seem pointless - sorry.

 

[obermd]

Congrats on the 50mpg achievement if that is what you aspire to do. All I can say is that all of you hyper-milers out there are driving around puckered up trying to eek that last bit of mileage from the car instead of relaxing and just driving the car. Good lord, if I try to attain those mpg numbers, I will go crazy. I'd also get flipped off by everyone behind me because I would be pooping away from stoplights for fear of wasting some fuel. I came from a Dodge Charger SRT8 that got 14 mpg city and almost 21 mpg hiway so I am ecstatic about the 29 mpg I get with my combined city/hiway driving. Lighten up, let you butt cheeks release the seat cushion and just enjoy the car. Has your engine ever revved above 3000rpm's? I'm really a nice guy but some things just seem pointless - sorry.

Waaaaaaaay out of line here !!!

The ECO MT will easily top 50 MPG at 55 MPH. Using mild hyper-miling techniques on flat roads with no wind the ECO MT will cruze along at 55 MPG at 55 MPH. If you spend all the time on 55 MPH roads and your daily drive is 300+ miles a day as CruzeEcoBlueTopaz has told us about in the past you're going to set your cruze control at 55-57 MPH and just let the car do it's thing.

In addition, you're not driving a trim that was designed for high MPG numbers - he is. The ECO MT gets it's best real world fuel economy at 55 MPH. You're going fast enough to not require downshifting on most hills and not going so fast that you're creating a lot of aerodynamic drag, both of which negatively impact your fuel economy.

 

[rodneyiii]

Waaaaaaaay out of line here !!!
If you spend all the time on 55 MPH roads and your daily drive is 300+ miles a day as CruzeEcoBlueTopaz has told us about in the past you're going to set your cruze control at 55-57 MPH and just let the car do it's thing.

Again - Sorry about the rant. I could easily achieve the rated 38mpg hiway in my car IF I drove 55 mph. However, there aren't many highways left that have a 55 mph speed limit. Even then, not many drivers adhere to that speed since they would get run over by the pack. A few extra mpg's aren't worth that frustration. I achieved a 37.6 avg on a recent 140 mile trip by keeping my highway speed at about 68 mph (in a 65 zone).