solved poor aveo fuel economy

[avguy]

... but not sure how that is relevant. .....

You need to compare apples to apples. You said you're getting 23MPG city, wich is 4 below the 27 EPA/Book number. But your "city" isn't the same as the EPA city, or anyone else's for that matter. Hopefully we can agree that "city" means non-highway driving, where there is some amount of slow-downs and stops. But there is also a huge amount of variation possible within that broad description. Rabbit lives in Pittsburg. We vistited Pittsburg a couple years ago, and I counted 5,342 bridges, and most of them had construction going on. We burned a LOT of gas going nowhere at all. At home here in Mass, my "city" (slowdowns and stops), is not anything remotely like Pittsburg. I get 33-35 "city" in my '05 5-speed, and would suspect that Rabbit does not get anywhere close to that in Pittsburg. And what's your "city" compare to either one of ours - who knows? And your friend with the Hemi - he doesn't follow you around, so his driving pattern has to be different than yours.
So what I'm getting at is that the ONLY way for you to know if your Aveo is really doing that bad, is to drive another vehicle (or more than one), and compare that one to it's own EPA/book city MPG. Now I know you probably can't easily do that, but who knows, maybe your friend with the Hemi would like to drive an Aveo. Maybe your Aveo is really that bad - IDK. But without this type of comparison, I don't think you can really know for sure.

[gone k48]

You need to compare apples to apples. You said you're getting 23MPG city, wich is 4 below the 27 EPA/Book number. But your "city" isn't the same as the EPA city, or anyone else's for that matter. Hopefully we can agree that "city" means non-highway driving, where there is some amount of slow-downs and stops. But there is also a huge amount of variation possible within that broad description. Rabbit lives in Pittsburg. We vistited Pittsburg a couple years ago, and I counted 5,342 bridges, and most of them had construction going on. We burned a LOT of gas going nowhere at all. At home here in Mass, my "city" (slowdowns and stops), is not anything remotely like Pittsburg. I get 33-35 "city" in my '05 5-speed, and would suspect that Rabbit does not get anywhere close to that in Pittsburg. And what's your "city" compare to either one of ours - who knows? And your friend with the Hemi - he doesn't follow you around, so his driving pattern has to be different than yours.
So what I'm getting at is that the ONLY way for you to know if your Aveo is really doing that bad, is to drive another vehicle (or more than one), and compare that one to it's own EPA/book city MPG. Now I know you probably can't easily do that, but who knows, maybe your friend with the Hemi would like to drive an Aveo. Maybe your Aveo is really that bad - IDK. But without this type of comparison, I don't think you can really know for sure.

I'll have to ask around to see what others get with the same commute. I know my wife's 2011 4cyl Ford Escape gets the same mileage as I do with the same driving. I spoke to another friend who drive a Chevy Cavalier not sure the year, 2000 something. She said she gets better than 32 MPG and her commute is the same as mine everyday. I realize there are a lot of variables but bottom line is the Aveo should get a lot better mileage than it does regardless the type of driving.