MPG seems really low..

[VaVaVeo]

I know the car is supposed to get ~ 27 MPH city and freeway combined, but I'm not seein it thus far. I have an '05 LS automatic and it's really low. I filled my car up to half a tank yesterday; it was nearly on E when I put in 3.45 gallons. That took it up to half, so I'm assuming the gauge is off... Not sure, but doesn't it have a 10 gallon tank? or is it 12? Not sure really...

Anyway, I drove about 16 miles in some heavy traffic and it used nearly a quarter of a tank. So between 2.5-3 gallons used for 16 miles? But since I had roughly 4 gallons in it (at least to my knowledge), which brought it to the halfway mark that'd be about 1... Still, 16 mpg is super low from what I've read online..

Could it be that I have an 8 gallon tank? That'd seem rather odd to me, being so low...

Is there some way that the fuel gauge could be off?

Thanks for the advice!

[Daox]

You have to fill your tank completely full to calculate mileage. You can't say your gauge went from 1/2 to 1/4 and you used X amount of gallons. The gauge isn't remotely accurate enough to do that.

[VaVaVeo]

aw...

[thehunterooo]

Yeah, the best thing to do it to fill it up, reset the ODO, then wait to it nears empty, fill it up, then take the miles driven and divide the amount of gallons you used to fill up to being full again, the fuel gauge itself is not very good on there cars. In heavy traffic and heat, you should see 22-23mpg city at worst, combined, 27mpg is a very fair number if not higher. The auto tranny on the aveo's is not very "good", if you can get to over 42-42 mph then you will see a jump in mpg's. Also, if you see lower mpgs then what I have said, you may want tocheck your tires, spark plugs, air filter etc....

Welcome to the forum btw! We are here to help you (go on 4chan at all?)

[thehunterooo]

Also I forgot to say, the aveo has a 10-11 gallon tank, when I am at 1/4 on the gauge, I only have about a gallon and a half or so ( I have to burn 3-4 gallons before I get to the 3/4 mark when it is full). The gauge can sway big time even if you burn just a gallon.

[VaVaVeo]

ah ok... ill give 'er a look over. im gonna do oil/tranny fluid this weekend and prolly spark plugs and filter too.

and yea, i go to 4chan every now and then.

[JPD]

The way to measure is to divide the volume of gas pumped when you fill up by the miles driven - use the trip A or B to measure more accurately than the main read-out.
I found a drop-in K&N air filter (33-2320) gave an extra 1mpg better economy (I have a 2010 manual Aveo 1.4l). Low rolling-resistance tires (I brought Bridgestone) help a little + 0.5mpg.
I use a 'scan gauge e' (purchased via this forum) and it took a while to work out how to drive efficiently.

[NYChevoo]

Just putting this out there if anyone is interested. My daily commute is 140 miles round trip and in my auto trans Aveo I have never gotten above 30mpg. At least it has been consistent all the way up to 156000 miles.

Now on the other hand typically my wifes Aveo5 Hatchback only goes from our house to the train station and local markets and she only clocks 20mpg. All about a 3 mile radius.

[wylee]

See my fuelly signature for my M'sPG. This is driving the same roads that I averaged 38mpg with an 05 Corolla and then an 08 Corolla. Something that hurts the Aveo is that it warms up VERY slowly; even in the summer it takes me about 5 miles for the engine to reach normal operating temperature. In the winter, it can take well over 10 miles.

[Thymeclock]

See my fuelly signature for my M'sPG. This is driving the same roads that I averaged 38mpg with an 05 Corolla and then an 08 Corolla. Something that hurts the Aveo is that it warms up VERY slowly; even in the summer it takes me about 5 miles for the engine to reach normal operating temperature. In the winter, it can take well over 10 miles.

Rather than hijack your thread, I thought the slow warm-ups issue would be a good topic to explore in a new thread.