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XFE stands for-Xtra fuel economy
What's funny is that Chevy also made some changes behind the scenes on the HHR (and maybe the Cobalt too) because the '07 HHR auto was a 30 mpg freeway champ, and so was the '08 DESPITE the EPA changes, which could only be if they remapped etc.
I guess this time Chevy wants to get some marketing punch out of their efforts.
My hats off to Chevy for getting such great mileage out of an engine that has substantially more displacement AND more horsepower than its competition.
BTW I'm not sure the improvements will show up in "real world" driving. I was getting 3-4 MORE mpg than the rating with mostly long trip freeway driving with my '06 Cobalt manual transmission - and I SELDOM get more than the EPA freeway rating (the only other car like that for me was the VW Golf). I could easily hit 37 mpg on drives from San Francisco to Yosemite (despite the hills) and later in its life when I was driving more aggressively on my freeway commute still got 34 mpg.
Now that the Cobalt is "tweaked" to deliver EPA numbers, I bet the reverse will be true, most people won't get the EPA numbers. Of course that's the way it already is with most companies, so now it's a level playing field for Chevy.
Still, maybe one day I'll get another Cobalt and see what it can deliver on a long drive to Yosemite or L.A. ....
A small side benefit of this car, although the manual trans is built in Italy (!), the car is built in Lordstown, OH, the engine is built in the U.S., and the domestic parts content is 80%, among the top ten of all cars built in the U.S. And some folks say you can't build a good domestic subcompact that is reasonably-priced. Phooey, I say!
Bill
My friends family always has a Lexus in the family which he admits is for his image. I don't find that thought very attractive to me and don't find over paying very impressive. Luckily he also always has an American brand car or two as well, usually GM.
I just bought a brand new 08 Cobalt LS four door sedan with the auto tranny and the 2.2 L engine today, and I am anxious to see what kind of mileage I will get with it on my commute. My drive is 24 miles one way, and it is 90% highway driving.
I bought the last Cobalt on the dealer's lot, and it sounds like I was lucky to get it. They have sold like hot cakes, I am told.
My main motive in buying this car was for fuel economy. I hope I won't be disappointed. I would like to believe that I can get 35 MPG on that commute that I described above. I've read a few posts in here, and it seems like I am not out of line with that expectation, right?
Tom
If you don't get 30 mpg on your commute, make sure you are taking your foot off the gas early when you see a need to slow down, to maximize your coasting, and don't get in the habit of tailgating, you have to constantly ride the accelerator and brakes to maintain your distance and that kills gas mileage.
Finally, keep in mind that city driving is like salt in water - it doesn't take much to ruin the mileage.
We'll see how she does.
Now, micweb, I don't tailgate! I call it bump drafting.
Seriously, you make a good point about tailgating not being good for gas mileage, but it can have far more dangerous consequences that reduing fuel economy, as I'm sure you know.
I don't tailgate, and it really makes me uncomfortable when someone does it to me.
Thanks again, Peeps. I'll be sure and post when I get some miles on that car and let you guys know what kind of MPG I am getting.
Tom
I will be using that A/C BIG TIME, so that will work against me. I'll be sure to keep it on recirc, so that should keep the compressor from working as hard.
Tom
I still have not filled the tank again, but the onboard computer is telling me that I have averaged 29.2 MPG so far, after having driven the car home from work Thursday, to work and back Friday, and to work and back today, plus the lunchtime trips for something to eat.
I have used the A/C constantly since taking delivery of the car last Tuesday.
I'll post when I fill up again and manually calculate my mileage.
Tom
Don't tell me you got rid of Thelma Jane. :surprise:
Hi, Karen!
No, I have NOT sold Thelma Jane. She is sitting in my garage right now, waiting for our next wheelin' trip. She has pretty much become a "trail queen" now.
She is beat up, banged up, scratched up, and filthy, which is the way Jeeps like to be. I only drive her down to Turkey Bay to go wheelin' and back home again; that's the only use she gets nowadays.
I needed some reliable and fuel efficient transportation for getting to and from work, and that is why I bought the Cobalt. Think I am going to be pretty happy with it.
Tomster
I should have been more realistic in my expectations, since my "highway driving" is not interstate cruising. I use two lane back roads that have hills and curves, and I often have to slow down for traffic, then speed back up after passing. I encounter three stop signs during the 20 mile portion of my commute that I call "highway driving" before getting into city driving for the last three or four miles of the trip.
I also have that lunchtime excursion every day that puts 8 "semi-city" miles on my car. (I call it "semi-city" driving, because I do get on a divided highway for a couple miles each way.) As someone mentioned, it doesn't take much city driving to pull the overall average way down.
I still like the little car just fine, and I know the mileage will pick up a little when she gets broken-in better. She only has 300 miles on her now.
Tom
Try it. Before you take your lunch, zero out the MPG indicator and see what it tells you after the trip. Conversely, next time you take a road trip, wait until you are up to speed then reset it. If you are cruising at 70mph I would expect to see about 34 mpg. But remember the actual slow and go and surface street driving and bumper to bumper freeway traffic can really slow it down.
I have to admit I have seen a tremendous generational shift in terms of attitudes toward the accelerator pedal and gas mileage. In the 50's and 60's I grew up under the influence of driving with a very smooth, gentle foot on the throttle, no more than 1/4 of the way down. The other day I had a conversation with a young coworker who said her car is small and she has to floor it all the time to get good pickup. And then people wonder where the mileage went - it's not only her, I'm the last one off the green light line, last to come up to speed, but usually seem to catch up with the "jack rabbit starters" at the next stop light.
Thanks for the reply.
You do know that there is a setting on the DIC for instant MPG instead of average MPG, right? I go to that position sometimes and am amazed by the highs and lows.
I have the option of running on parkways on the way to and from work, instead of using the two lane country roads, but that route adds a couple miles each way to my commute. I was using the parkway route on the way to work this AM and had the DIC set to read instant mileage. I was cruising along at a steady 70 MPH, and the DIC readout varied tremendously, based on the lay of the land. The slightest incline would send the reading down, and the slightest downhill run would send the reading way up.
Like you, I try to avoid jack rabbit starts, and in town I like to get off the gas long before the intersection when I know I am going to get caught by the light or by the traffic that was waiting for the light to change. That way, I can almost always avoid having to come to a stop and then have to go back up through the gears to get back up to speed. Saves on the brakes, too, that way.
Tom
I assume you have a GTO or had one in the past, since you are using that username?
I LOVE GTO's, especially the 66 Goat. My best bud in high school had a silver gray 66 GTO that was drop dead gorgeous! It had the 389 with four barrel carb and auto tranny.
I sure hope my Cobalt will get 32.2, like yours is doing!
Tom
Your driving habits match mine. You should be getting great gas mileage!
I see what you mean about resetting the average MPG computer for different driving conditions. I might give that a try sometime. Thanks for the idea.
For now, I want to just reset that puppy when I fill up the tank, so that I can see how the DIC average MPG correlates with the manual calculation that is based on miles driven since the last fill-up divided by the gallons required to fill the tank.
Take care. Happy driving.
Tom
I'm sorry, but I just cannot get too excited about the latest generation of GTOs.
The GTOs that I love are from the 60s, with the 66 being my all time favorite, followed very closely by the 67, which is very similar in styling to the 66, of course.
Tom
I decided to go ahead and try what you suggested, and I set my average MPG computer to 0 this AM as I was leaving for work.
By the time I got into the edge of the town where I work, about 22 miles from my home, I was getting a reading of 34.3 MPG. By the time I parked at work, about two miles later, the readout was 33.7.
I will try to remember to reset that puppy to 0 when I leave to go to lunch today, and I will be able to see how low the reading goes for in town driving.
I'll bet if I got that little Cobalt out on the Interstate for a long trip, I would get 37 or 38 MPG!
Thanks for the good idea, Micweb.
Tom
Sticker said 22 City, so that was pretty close.
Micweb, that was sure a cool idea you had about resetting the computer for different driving conditions.
I set it back to 0 for my trip home.
Gas was $3.899 here (western KY) when I went to lunch, and it was $3.959 when I came back from lunch. This was at Kroger's, which is always in line with the other stations around here.
Tom
Sometimes people get mad at their cars for bad mileage when freeway mileage is actually great - they should be mad, instead, at city congestion and poorly timed stoplights.
I will do just that. I'll reset to zero tomorrow morning and then see what it reads when I get home tomorrow evening. This will show me what the MPG for my typical day's driving will be.
The only snag might be that I may not drive my car to lunch tomorrow, since we sort of have a tradition of four of us going out together for lunch on Fridays, and we drive one of other guy's cars. If that's what happens, though, that would be a good way to see what MPG my commute alone would give me, with no lunchtime trip.
I could do this again Monday, and then I would have a round trip to work WITH the lunchtime trip included for a comparison.
Tom
4/8/06 (drive to Yosemite) DIC says 36, based on odometer/gas receipt 33.62
36.47 during Yose drive
35.56 after return from Yosemite and drive to work.
33 mile work commute cycle with minimal surface streets:
33.42; DIC says 36.0
32.96; DIC says 35.2
33.19; DIC says 35.5
36.77 (trip to LA)
34.47; DIC says 37.6
35.73; DIC says 38.0
commute
35.07; DIC 36.8
34.26; DIC 36.8
39.17; DIC 39.2 (drive to Yosemite again)
34.85; DIC 38.5
36.0; DIC 38.0
Towards the end of my ownership at around 10,000 miles or so, I was getting between 33 and 34 on my commute
Theoretically your XFE should get higher mileage (especially since you don't have to deal with 10% ethanol as we have out here), but I think the Cobalt always gave good mileage, Chevy might just have tinkered to match to the EPA test cycle better.
For comparison, here are some figures from my ownership of an '07 Yaris liftback with 5 speed:
38.53 (I guess the dealer didn't shortchange me on the full tank of gas)
35.92
36.14 (drove to LA)
36.37
36.15
36.82
37.51
37.40
37.33
38.27
38.14
37.72
36.43
37.09
37.36
38.27
I keep track of mileage by printing out a gas receipt with every fill-up, and noting the miles from my odometer (I reset the trip portion of the odometer on each fillup).
I think most tank to tank variations are due to "fill variations" since as much as I try to fill up consistently, I think there are inevitable variations. I think its wishful thinking to think that, on the same route, one tank got 2 or 3 mpg better than another - fill variations can account for that. This is why you need to track over a period of time (5 tanks under the same seasonal conditions?) and average.
My trips to Yosemite produce great miles since, despite climbing to elevation and then descending, the lower overall "country road" speeds more than make up for the inefficiency of climbing (I also think I recoup most of the extra energy spent climbing up when I return back down).
Driving to Los Angeles (from the Bay Area) isn't the kind of "freeway driving" high mileage fans think about when it comes to high mileage. Speeds can run in excess of 80 mph and you often need aircon. The car to be hit worst by my LA trips was the VW Golf, of which I had two 5 speed versions, an '01 and '04. Both dropped from the 30 mpg I got commuting to only 26 mpg. My Dodge Caliber with 5 speed only dropped from 32 mpg commuting (yes, I was surprised by how well the Caliber did too) to 30 mpg on the interstate run. Generally I get 2 mpg better on my commute, despite the surface component and some slow and go traffic, than on high speed runs to LA. I think 70 or 75 is the magic number; above those speeds, you pay a stiff penalty in fuel economy.
You have sure owned a lot of cars!
I have no room to talk, since I used to change cars as often as most people change underwear.
Like you, I calculate gas mileage each fill up by noting the miles on the trip odometer, which I reset at each fill-up, and dividing by the number of gallons purchased. I also try to be careful to fill to the same level each time, but, like you, I realize that there will be variation. You are absolutely right about the need to average several tanks of gas together for a true estimate of MPG.
That DIC seems to always overestimate the MPG in your case, doesn't it? I guess they all do that?
Tom
Little GTO, you're really lookin' fine,
Three dueces and four speed, and 389
Wah,wah, wah, wah, wah ,wah, wah
Tom
I think I'm going to have to slow down my car swapping ways. There are inevitable lost costs (like sales tax here in the semi-elitist state of California - not credit for the tax paid on our trade-ins) and with gas going sky high, the easiest way to balance that increased cost is to reduce the costs of ownership by holding onto them longer. So I think I will bump my trade in mileage from the usual 10k miles to 30 k, still leaving some warranty left to enhance the trade-in value.
(Although I would love to trade in the Fit on the new Fit, the 2009 is the first upgrade for this model, which was "long in the tooth" when we got it here in the states.)
They are supposed to get my back glass leak fixed this afternoon, but the glass guy has not yet shown up. The service manager is pretty put out with the glass guy, because he has a history of not showing up when he is supposed to. We only have one guy in town that does that work, though, so we are at his mercy.
Tom
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One more source of irritiation I most definitely did mnot need.
Thanks GM :sick: