Best Fuel Efficient Car from GM?
 

What is the best fuel efficient car currently offered by GM??

Probably the aveo- but they don't make it, they just market it

https://www.edmunds.com is good place for research models. Also, https://www.fueleconomy.gov/

I've heard the Aveo got listed on Consumer Reports worst list, and the mileage isn't that great because of the low geared transmission.

I guess if I HAD to have a GM I'd look at the Vibe or the G5, not impressed with the Aveo at all.

I'd recommend the Pontiac Vibe over the Aveo as well. It'll have more space, better reliability and similar FE (33 vs 34 on 08 EPA hwy.) It's the equivalent of the Toyota Matrix. If my car got totaled, I'd probably be looking for one myself.

The Malibu Maxx gets better FE than that POS Aveo, and it is a LOT bigger, too. If you want something nearly as roomy as an SUV (and bigger than ALL SUVs like the RAV4, etc.), with less headroom but twice the mileage, get a Malibu Maxx.

I regularly get 38-40 hwy, it seats 5 COMFORTABLY, has so much cargo space it's not funny, and you can put 8' 2x4s in it and still close the hatchback if you don't tell the wife.

Actually gets BETTER mileage than the Malibu.

Bruce -

I was thinking Vibe (Matrix) too.

EDIT: The new Saturn (Opel) Astra is also right there with the Vibe at 24/32 (new EPA) MPG. The "Mild Hybrid" Saturn Aura Green Line Sedan is also rated at 24/32.

CarloSW2

My old boss has a Chevy Cobalt (virtually the same thing as the Pontiac G5). Might not be quite as economical as the Aveo, but it'd be close. Assembled in Ohio, with more performance and a better chassis.

Actually, the upcoming Cobalt SS might turn in even better EPA numbers since it's getting a turbo'd 2.0L direct-injected engine (from the Saturn Sky Red Line/Pontiac Solstice GXP), slightly smaller than the standard 2.2L, but with more power. [Edit: looks like it'll go from 33 to 35 mpg on the highway, but I couldn't find any info on city mpg.]

Makes you wonder doesn't it, they holding something "in reserve" in case they get forced to up CAFE by a chunk or what??? Or is it like a budget, spend all of it or it gets cut, so they just sail close to the wind all the damn time??

i've heared GM is thinking about bringing the new corsa to the us as well as the yet to be officially released 2009 meriva small mpv based on the same platform.

the Aveo is just a rebadged daewoo that's probably geared for european citys driveing rather than american highways. over here it's only advantage over comparable cars is it's pricetag...

today i've read VW is also planning to increase it's activity's in the US, they're even planning to produce some new compact models there

i think most car manifacturers are beginning to design their mid to small segment cars with the US market in mind

I worked at a commercial high volume bodyshop kind of place once. They did work for dealer chains, manufacturers and fleets, they reconditioned late model vehicles for resale basically. Fixed up minor dings, polished out scratches, that kind of stuff for lease returns, 2 or 3 year old trade ins/ups. Anyway, we had about an acre of Daewoos there, one, two or three year old vehicles, some with as little as 3000 miles on.... ah, we loved it when we had to pull a Daewoo up to the workshop... if the doorhandle didn't come off in your hand, you might be able to get behind the wheel if the power seat hadn't siezed or the battery wasn't dead, then, if the console didn't fall apart when you put the key in, you might get it started, then if you could get the door closed without the trim falling off, you might get the shifter into reverse... I had a couple of close calls with the transporter trucks in those, because we had to cross the main pikup/delivery area... and about 4 out of 10 times the ABS would be on the fritz and you'd go to stop and sail straight into the path of a truck at 15mph...

That is just a shovelful of the mountain of reservations I have about Daewoos, and hence the Aveo

lunarhighway -

Ohhhh, I like the Meriva. Very practical. I heard that the current generation Corsa was not crash-worthy for the US, so they would design the next generation Corsa to be "forward compatible" to US crash specifications. Is 2009 the next-gen Corsa?

CarloSW2

i like the maxxes.

id say non current gm made car would be desil chevette, easy 50+ mpg without even trying

I have a Maxx and would love to know how you get 40 out of the thing. I get 24-26 in town, 28 on the highway, 30 with premium. I agree though, great car.

Uh oh, words getting out about that one, the Maxx that got away, next thing you know there'll be two big guys in dark suits saying they're sorry about the mistake at the factory, and won't you take this fully pimped out Escalade and the $10,000 check and promise to shut up about it.... ;)

You have an LS, LT, LTZ or SS? Sunroof?

We have the LT without sunroof and drive it like a granny. Putting premium in it is a waste. Only can hit 40 in the summer, but high 30s in the winter hwy.

First thing to do is put in Bosch +4 spark plugs. You will need a locking socket extension for this manuever, about $15 at Sears.

Second thing is substitute Lucas oil additive for 1 quart of your oil at next oil change.

Keep your air filter blown out. I went to Harbor Freight and got a $5 air pump meant to air up your tires, runs off the cigarette lighter, and use the red reduction nozzle for that. I also keep the tires aired up about 5 PSI over sidewall.

Switch to Amsoil if you can. Use the on-board computer to tell you when to change oil, go longer if you use Amsoil.

Keep Gumout high mileage fuel additive in at high concentrations every time you change your oil. I use 1 bottle to 1/2 tank at an oil change. Seafoam in the gas from time to time helps as well.

Use neutral generously. Drive like you don't have brakes.

Drive downhill whenever possible. :D Seriously you get better mileage Denver to Kansas City than the reverse, but it is doable with normal driving.

Keep your speed between 55 and 62. More than that your mileage suffers HORRIBLY.

You may experiment with a small grill block.

PUT IT IN NEUTRAL AT STOP LIGHTS, or turn it off completely. +2 to +4 city. Seriously. Know your stop lights and how long they last.

Get every unnecessary item out of the vehicle to save weight.

Check your brakes for drag. Using brake lube helps a lot on this particular vehicle, as the brakes are lightweight and can suffer lots of drag on the front calipers.

Mostly the usual, but if you drive 70-75 you will get about 28 highway, drop it back to 60 and watch those dollars pile up in your pocket.

Here's my calculator: If you drive 60 miles at 60 mph, it takes you about 8 minutes longer to get there than it does if you drive 70. The vehicle will get about 7 MPG better, let's say 35 instead of 28. This means .43 gallons savings in 8 minutes. At $3.50 per gallon, that means $1.50. At $10 per hour, you would have to work about 12 minutes to earn up enough money to offset the difference because you also have to pay taxes on that money! This means you just saved myself 4 minutes of your life by spending a little more time with your wife, not being ticked off in traffic, not worrying about getting a ticket, etc.

Would you rather drive slower and save wear on your vehicle, or go to work instead? I'd rather not be working, but spending the time talking with my wife instead. Then there's the whole slowing down and speeding up thing - I have calculated out that with parasitic losses due to extra braking for slower traffic and real-world tests, if you drove 75 in a 70 zone, even if you don't get a ticket, if you can move your mileage from 28 to 35, the break-even point is somewhere around $40 an hour before it's more economical to drive faster vs. making the money at work.

COZX2 has gotten over 100 MPG with his severe mods, btw, and can get more than double EPA estimates.

My wife drives apparently like you do and gets almost the same exact mileage. I drive known routes and get significantly higher MPG than she does.

There are more things I do, and am saving all service records, gas receipts, etc. to figure out total cost per mile on this thing over its entire lifetime. Also doing the same with my Nissan Altima (soon to be sold) and honestly right now the Maxx wins out hands down over the Altima.

When I get the supermile CRX going I will do the same for it - trying for 100 MPG in a hyper-modified CRX HF.

*shudder* that's just ruining a good synthetic.

You know that demo display they have, where the oil hangs onto gears? That's called roping and is considered a parasitic loss.

I have the LS with the sunroof. I live in Montana so there is up and down mountains. I use Redline synthetic oil in the engine and tranny as well as their fuel injector cleaner. I put in Autolite Iridium plugs and Magnecor wires at the tuneup. Am curious about the Pulstar plugs. I made the mistake of putting heavier T-rated tires on, but it sure drives better with them. I have 121k and have never had a brake job or new air filter (I have installed an air filter monitor). Of course the screen in that MAF sensor doesn't allow much flow anyways. And yes, I've calculated at 75 mph on multiple same trips when I used to commute 75 miles that premium Exxon did give me the best mileage, 2-3 mpg advantage. I appreciate your honesty about the 55mph thing. It's a great car I think.

do NOT use lucas or other oil-thickeners unless you're having other problems. my rings are going on the cressida so I'm using a little oil and smoking at high rpms. I threw some lucas in there, now the oil foams up and i start losing oil pressure on the highway. it's out of action for now but if I pull it back into action, I'm changing the oil to thicker oil without lucas before driving it. stop and let it idle (or more like hold the gas just enough to keep the oil light off) for a minute or two and its a-ok.

do not use additives in general if you don't have problems. especially if you use good oil to start with.

I used to use all sorts of crap to minimise the smoking in Marvin (Valve seals/guides) pretty much discovered that they just turned to sludge and hurt mpg, as did 20W50, most effective and least problematic of those was the bardahls stuff in the can, which was also the cheapest. However, discovered Pennzoil "High Mileage" oil, (gold jug) used 10W30 and was very impressed, sealed up and cleaned up Marvin a treat, the castrol version was also pretty good, as was the Canadian Tire MotoMaster brand. I was getting whatever was on sale at the time, but Valvoline "High Mileage" I was not so happy with, appeared to have far too high a detergent content, everything started leaking like hell... so I'll avoid that one now. However, for a vehicle that otherwise seems to be tight but might have problems with sticking and carbed up rings, that might be the one to try first. Also discovered that Vizard (he of the tuning books) did dyno testing that suggested that 25% synthetic gave 99% of the HP advantage of a full fill of synthetic. So I'd recommend for worn engines, that you try a couple of changes of a good high mileage oil in the manufacturer specified grade, then when the problem is under control, use 1 quart of a compatible 5W30 or 0W30 synthetic in there with the high mileage stuff. For all oil burning scenarios, I'd also suggest trying a new non-Fram PCV valve, wrong crankcase pressure will do wierd stuff.

Anyhoo, with these new high mileage oils, there's almost never a good situation to be using additives.

101mpg, what kind of tires are you running on your Maxx? I don't know if you know this, but the factory Bridgestone was originally 1 lb lighter than any other tire I'm aware of that size, probably another way GM raised the MPG on it. Also explains the poor drivability of the tire.

I've also tried the neutral thing, throwing it into neutral as I coast to a stop, but every now and then heard a clunking noise so I stopped that.

Okay - note to all on the Lucas: WIFE'S vehicle and our agreement is that our own vehicles are our own, we do what we want. Had to talk her into Lucas as it was all Jiffy-lube type oil changes. I think I have fixed that now with oil changes around here about $30 and I can put Amsoil in it for that. Hopefully Amsoil from here on out - no need to worry about Lucas or any other need for additive. Let's face it - Wal-mart oil changes SUCK. Not my first choice. I'm going for the Amsoil as I've always had fantastic results with it. A little Seafoam in the tank never hurts either.

Still the factory tires on it. It's a 2004 and about 30K miles on it. Bought it with only 11K miles in 2007 - I know, it's basically brand new.

WRT neutral: The Maxx has this WEIRD thing where it is not actually out of gear in neutral. Tried this on several different test drive vehicles. Get it up to freeway speeds then coast to a stop. At about 5 MPH it "kicks into gear" and kicks out of it - the weirdest thing I've ever heard! It is truly odd, and maybe someone else can shed light on why this particular vehicle (should be the same on the Malibu 2004-07?) does this?

Neutral at freeway speeds should be fine though

Pontiac actually bought the design from Toyota I believe, as the Matrix was in production long before the Vibe, but they are virtually the same car.

101mpg has it right, Your right foot makes more difference to mileage then most believe. I don't drive over 65 mph on the highway since I found that time vs mpg optimum is between 60-65 mph.

Dump the Lucas oil additive and just run a good synthetic. If you want to use an oil additive look into Lube Control LC20. It is an antiOxidant and lets you extend your oil change intervals. Basically beefs up your oils additive package.

Lucas's fuel treatment is a very good gas additive that works very well at maximising your fuel mileage.

I'm not thrilled with the over use of fuel system cleaners such as Gumout. Two of the best OTC cleaners are Redline SL1 and Techtron.
I feel BG44k has been reformulated and isn't as good as it use to be.
If over used these cleaners can do more harm then good. If used try to keep it to at most once every six months.

Lube Control does most of their business with fleets. Less than 5% of their sales are to the general public. Internet only sales.

Love thread since I have been eye-ing the Malibu as my next vehicle.

ALS - go test drive a Malibu Maxx. It's got a longer wheelbase than the Malibu and is actually 1/2" SHORTER. It gets better mileage than the Malibu! MUCH bigger cargo space and way better layout. The seats are better in the rear, too. The Maxx is one of those cars that will be great in years to come.

The two drawbacks: If the stereo breaks, the car may not run. Cannot change stereo, but it has a good one. Other drawback - electric-only steering, not electric power assist. They changed it for the 2007 model, may get a retrofit for my wife's before it breaks and crashes the vehicle. Will have to give up 1/2 MPG but WORTH it.

121k on my Maxx and no steering issues at all. I actually like the electric steering. The Maxx when I bought it in 2004 was rated 2mpg LESS than the same drivetrain Malibu. I have had a 4cyl loaner malibu and under the same driving conditions it didn't get any better than my Maxx on MGP

tho it's no longer made, does a chevy prizm(toyota drivetrain) count?

My Maxx is for sale. It's in immaculate condition, all maintenance done, new 7yr Delco professional battery and 80k American Platinum tires. It has a NTZ bypass filter installed on the engine and tranny, always run redline since break in. Asking $8k. email: thetoyotaman@juno.com

There are two different assist systems available in the Malibu, electric and beginning in 2006, hydraulic. Electric assist uses a manual steering rack with an electric motor mounted on the upper steering column providing assist. There is still a mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the front wheels.

https://home.comcast.net/~spazzer/1640789.htm

This link has more information on how the electric assist system operates, it is a saved page from the GM Service Information website.

I've got an 07 Chevy HHR and I'm getting 32 MPG highway out of it without any mods (going 70-75 mph)... i'd say that's pretty good.

Matrix & Grand am GT (99-2005)

Grand am Got me 30 freeway while the Vibe dont :(

Yeah that does count. I heard they get 40's mpg.

thanks for the recognition on the prizm. but, i forgot about the 3cyl(or 4 for that matter) chevy/geo metro. that is if geo counts as GM or if they still made a 3 banger after dropping the geo name. also pontiac firefly.

BTW, speaking of metro, where's skewbe been?

The best recent GM would probably be a 2002 Saturn SC1 5 spd or a 1999 Saturn SL 5 spd without AC or PS. EPA highway on those was 39 or 40, far exceeding anything GM actually builds currently. Before those would have been the diesel Chevette as previously mentioned. All the others are rebadged imports.

Hmmm the 5th Gen Nova, the Prizm and the Vibe were all built in Fremont, California at NUMMI so those I wouldn't really consider imports... the rebadged isuzus, were based a whole lot on GM europe designs, and had input from GM North America, so you might call those imports.

Hello all! I work in sales and marketing for a GM dealer, so I'm intimately familiar with GM vehicles...their quirks and qualities. As much as I love the Vibe for its "fun-to-driveness" and bulletproof reliability, I have to agree that it's really tough to hit the 34 sticker number consistently. 31 or so seems to be closer to reality, although I've had customers report 35-36 on long trips driven prudently. The stick version CAN deliver...but too many customers are loath to consider one. I'm currently driving an 07 G6 with the Ecotec 2.4...33 highway rating, and if I stick it right at 58 I can turn 36.3-36.6 consistently. Very enjoyable car to drive as well. It's always fun to hear customers brag about the mileage they get from their big Buicks as well...32-33 is quite doable with a LeSabre and some Park Avenues. And, it seems the older ones are sometimes capable of even better...88-90 models can hit 35 at times. (I have to believe these numbers since they come from older customers who keep track of EVERYTHING on their car.) My wife's 94 Park Avenue will turn 31 on a long trip...and that's with 175K on the clock. I know I'll get another 100-150K out of it...it's all maintenance. I've always said if you maintain your car like it was an airplane it'll never let you down.

P.S. Have to second the Maxx....it's a real sleeper.

GM made some tweaks to the Cobalt this spring and came up with the Cobalt XFE (extra fuel economy). 25 city, 36 highway. Remapped engine computer, low rolling resistance tires, tweaked final drive ratio. Manual transmission only, as far as I can tell.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/2008c...f.jsp?id=25185

Wondering when someone was going to bring up the Cobalt XFE. And ditto on Lucas oil stabilizer. Unless you've got a 71 plymouth with no rings left, you have no need.

Yes, its a Daewoo!!! :thumbdown:

That car needs way more publicity. Was it available in February when I was car-shopping? I've never heard of it.

The Chevy website has little info on it, and I was unable to find a price easily.