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otherwise there seems to be a conspiracy in this nation to keep cars using as much fuel as possible. How do you explain the disappearance of the 1984 honda crx 1.3 that got 70mpg ????? (about the time the republicans slapped import tariffs on the more fuel efficient imports) And the current failure of US automakers to provide desireable and fuel efficient vehicles? Why is it only Honda and Toyota can break the 40mpg barrier???
The real reason "Watergate" happened is that the republicans were trying to find out, why the democrats were buying up so much farm land.
The real huge plot is by the spinach growers. They have been able to make the American public believe that we Americans like spinach and that it is good for us. Basically spinach is a weed, that has a secret power to shape our thinking to vote for democrats! It's all a huge conspiracy!
Farout
right on the spot 29-30 city and 38-40 highway,no complaints
at 2000km,no noises, no leaks and I have adapted to the cvt
or it has adapted to me.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
city driving that's about what the published estimates
said,however if that's long highway run then you have
a legitimate complaint regarding mpg.
I have a heavy foot and I consistently get 25mpg/US gallon
or 30mpg/CAN gallon in 95% city driving.
he list of possible reasons are quite a few. As long as you vehicle is getting the lower mpg as on the factory sticker, that's all they will work with you to archive.
The caliber is a rather heavy vehicle, and perhaps DCX over stated what you can expect to get in mpg.
Farout
30 mpg is still not that bad, could be better but not bad and the car is reasonbly priced. Overall a decent car, i like mine
window sticker: "epa mileage may vary". My 2000 stratus epa numbers says 18 city 24 highway, I get 27 to 28. my 1995 Merc Villager sticker; 16 city, 21 highway, I get 24. perhaps the reason vehicles are not getting more efficient is because nobody compains? or is the planet running out of oxygen? or is it my imagination the OPEC just cut oil production to keep prices high? now that we're used to $2 a gallon we'll never see it less than that, but they will push toward $5 someday... and the automakers continue to produce mediocre engines as cheap and inefficient as possible. :mad:
1st tank from 67 miles to 345 miles = 22.3 MPG. 9/29/06
4th tank from 1001 miles to 1301 miles = 25.03 MPG 10/18/06
I wonder if the air-fuel ratio should be adjusted on some Calibers with low MPG. My Caliber with just 2000 miles shows no blackening on the tail pipe end which would indicate that my air-fuel ratio is not running over rich. An aside:while running thru the mountains & returning to sealevel, my Caliber bucked hard accelerating from a stop & my engine check light lit up. The Dodge dealer said another Caliber came in with the same problem. The dealer said the return to sea level made the oxygen sensor think the Caliber was too rich(when it was not), & adjusted the air-fuel ratio even leaner causing the bucking. A reprogramming & my Caliber runs nice once again. Anyhow, this aside confirms that my air-fuel ratio was right before the mountains & also now, after the reprogram. Those people with low mileage, check your tailpipes. If they are black, your air-fuel ratio may be too rich(& maybe affecting your mileage?). But don't lean your air-fuel ratio too much or you can burn up your engine. I just came across a website that could help you if your air-fuel ratio is wrong. The website is bobblick.com. Click on the green TECH REF. Next page, click on programs. Next page, scroll down to oxygen sensors. For most people, just go to your dealer parts & service & ask about air-fuel mixtures. Hope they don't give too many song & dance stories.
I will edit this post when I make incremental measurements while my new Cal 2.0 CVT SXT is breaking in and warming up over the first year or so...Florida, 30%hwy/70%city commuting basis.
1st tank from 67 miles to 345 miles = 22.3 MPG. 9/29/06
4th tank from 1001 miles to 1301 miles = 25.03 MPG 10/18/06
8th tank from 2611 miles to 2901 miles = 25.64 MPG 11/09/06
Currently, I have about 8K on my Caliber SXT CVT and I get 24 mpg, just under the 26 "advertised." I have taken two highway trips that netted 31 mpg and 32 mpg.
Oddly, the only time I have beaten the EPA city rating was when driving a 1989 Dodge Dakota four-cylinder 5-speed to deliver pizzas...talk about hard miles. I think 8-valve engines are much more stingy in city driving than the 16-valve engines everybody is using these days for performance. Of course, a manual transmission, might help too.
Yes, I'd like better MPG, but the combination of style, performance, and safety for the price paid, can't be beat on the Caliber. The heavier Caliber should prove good in the snow too - at least better than most lightweight imports that might boast better MPG.
Keep driving...
Calibreath
I went out to see the Fit, Yaris, and Versa this weekend.
Last weekend I revisited the Focus (sedan and hatchback) and my current commuter vehicle is a Cobalt.
THE CALIBER IS THE LARGEST, MOST FUNCTIONAL VEHICLE IN THE GROUP.
The Focus is second best in terms of size and usable space, but a lot lighter, not as solid. The Cobalt is a little behind the Focus in terms of interior room.
The Fit and Yaris apparently get great gas mileage, but their size is a joke. Sure they look nice when new and get sexy gas mileage, but in reality they are not much bigger than the GM Metro's and Suzuki Swifts we laugh at today. The Versa is a little bigger, but not by much, but has a real cheap feel to it. People on the Versa boards complain about 22-25 mpg with the Versa, so gas mileage isn't only a Caliber issue; and the Versa is a lot smaller and lighter.
SO you can buy a "real" car (a lot bigger) - and get hammered on gas mileage - or downsize slightly but keep most of the functionality of the mid-sized car with the Caliber - and you'll get good gas mileage (most people here report about 25 mpg with a few reporting upper 20's. Your gonna have to seriously downsize to get the last 5-7 mpg of gas mileage to give you bragging rights, though, and I don't think its worth it in terms of long-term utility of the vehicle or saftey.
Like many of you, I wish the Caliber got the mileage of the Yaris and Fit, but it looks like King Kong when parked next to them. That's why it gets less mileage. BUT the mileage still beats almost all SUV's and cars....
(Oh yeah, acceleration - I DO get 35 mpg with my stick shift Cobalt - but that is on a long freeway commute using all the gas saving tricks I learned from Popular Mechanics and my dad years ago. AND the Cobalt is a lot smaller than the Caliber, check it out for yourself and you'll see what I mean. IF you have a leadfoot and insist on V-8 acceleration in your compact car, you'll never get compact car mileage. I KNOW how much more quickly other drivers pull away from me at lights, and how hard they have to slam on their brakes at the next stoplight because they don't coast down. The great American leadfoot is the single biggest factor in not making EPA rated gas mileage - that and the fact that you don't drive stick shifts. :P )
I recently started comparing some of the smaller vehicles in preparation for purchasing a vehicle for my wife. BTW where are the comparo threads for the Caliber vs. ....? Is it not comparable to anything?
The Fit and Yaris apparently get great gas mileage, but their size is a joke.
THE CALIBER IS THE LARGEST, MOST FUNCTIONAL VEHICLE IN THE GROUP.
That's not what I seem to be finding. I guess some of it will have to do with one's definition of "largest".
The Caliber is about 16" longer in length than the Fit, but the inside measurements are fairly close. In fact the Fit has more front head and legroom than the Caliber. Second row is pretty close as well. The Fit also has more cargo volume. I haven't looked at the Yaris or the others you mentioned but I imagine the results will be similar.
For safety I do have concerns about the Fit being such a small vehicle, but the interior room advantages make me think twice.
As far as know the best seats made are by Saab and Mercedes; possibly Volvo seat backs would not collapse, but I once saw a ~2000 Volvo wagon in the Dallas auto pound with a partially collapsed seat back. The rear end was crushed almost all the way to the back seat back.
I once observed a group of lawyers and investigators at a Chrysler dealership watch while a Chrysler tech removed the rear seatback from a Ram extended cab pickup. The truck had been rear ended, the driver's seat back had failed and the driver's head had struck the back of the rear seat. The tech cut away the cover and foam from a marked area on the rear seat back and the metal mesh at that point was deformed, presumably by the driver's head. The tech I was standing next to told me that it was either fatal or paralyzing to the driver. I scanned the faces of the investigators when the deformed mesh was exposed and some of them got very grim expressions; others' expressions suggested to me that they thought their side in litigation would be helped by this finding.
I read you posting about the Caliber and you referred to a check engine light problem. What are you referring to. We bought our caliber about 6 weeks ago and its got 1800 miles on it and tonight out of no where the check engine light came on. We have a lot of traveling to do over the holiday and I'm concerned. What do you know? Should I not drive the car. Obviously I can't get it to a dealer until after Christmas.
check engine light can be as simple as a gas cap not
tightened properly in any case if you turn the car
off and the light is gone generally it's nothing to
warrant immediate action.
and at 6000+ miles the MPG has gotten worse; a steady 25mpg. I am looking at replacing the *%*%* !! gas PIG thing with something a bit easier on my conscience!
How many minutes per week (not miles) on city streets vs. minutes on the freeway in free flowing traffic?
You may be a "city mileage" driver without knowing it.
You have to look at minutes, not miles - for example, I have a 30 mile mostly free flowing freeway commute, I drive 70 on the freeway, yet my average speed per the trip computer is only 34 mph. This means the time spent on surface streets to get on the freeway and off really drag down my average speed, even though they are a short distance, and hence really impact my mileage.
Another example. My wife gets 14 mpg in our '06 Impala, with short city drives. Yet when the whole family and luggage was loaded in and I took in on a 800 mile round trip to L.A. from San Francisco, we got 27 mpg. That's how much city driving can kill mileage.
FOR YOUR ACTUAL DRIVING PROFILE you might be getting great mileage. Usually when people report unusually high or low mpg, it relates more to driving conditions than anything else. I'd like to say some drivers take it easier on jack rabbit starts than others, or don't tailgate which involves braking/speeding up/braking cycles, but in reality nowadays most drivers fall into the "bad driver" category, which is why the EPA is revising mileage charts down in 2008.
Take consolation. If you are getting 25 mpg in the Caliber odds are you'd be getting much less in an SUV or full size car. Conversely, if you drastically downsized to a Toyota Yaris you'd probably only pick up 3 mpg.
CU's overall mileage, mpg 24
CU's city/highway, mpg 17/32
CU's 150-mile trip, mpg 29
CR's actually uses a metering device to monitor fuel usage, which is much more accurate than "refill and calculate." Note that steady state highway cruising is 32 mpg, quite good, but that even the small amount of surface street driving that goes with a 150 mile road trip drags the mileage down to 29. The greatest variance is the CR city figure, 17 mpg, vs. the EPA city mileage.
The way I read CR mileage results in trying to predict my own mileage is to look at the highway and city figures. It's almost impossible to hit CR's highway figures, but if I tanked up and drove to L.A. and refilled on empty I would probably come close. In other words, their highway number is the upper limit.
The city number tells you how much the city component of your driving will drag down your overall figure. If it's low, like the 17 mpg for the Caliber, city driving will really penalize you.
Of course the funny part is that your 25 mpg is very close to CR's mixed use driving, actually 1 mpg better. Nothing "bad" going on there....
1. 80 mile free flowing freeway ride home from dealer.
2. Surface trips the next day - Christmas shopping etc.
3. Mixed local freeway and surface trips the next day.
4. Two days of 70 mile free flowing (it's quiet this week) freeway commute to work.
312.4 miles on trip odometer, 10.697 gallons put in, 29.20 calculated mileage.
I think the dealer did a good job of topping this tank off at delivery - the "catch" for the pump nozzle is high in the filler spout, so even without topping off the tank fills very full on level ground. When I went to top it off on my refill this morning, it hardly took any more gas than the "automatic" fill put in. (My "top off" technique is the one recommended in Ford's owner manuals - shove the nozzle in far and then partially squeeze the handle to let in more gas. Pushing the nozzle in as far as possible is critical to prevent an overfill that could swamp your vapor recovery system or even spill on the ground or side or your car.)
I think this is a pretty accurate reading. Based on this reading, I expect 30-32 mpg on our trip to L.A. this weekend (far fewer surface street miles than this first tank, but higher freeway speeds) and 29-30 mpg on my commute (fewer surface street miles than this first tank, but after the holiday there will be a return of the "slow and go" sections I encounter on the freeway on my commute).
We'll see how good my crystal ball is - I'll report back periodically. At first I want to drive the Caliber on my "commute" cycle with no weekend family trips that bring down the mileage with surface streets, so I can compare mileage with my Chevy Cobalt (which started at 34-35 when the economy was slower and I wasn't taking an exercise class a mile from home after work, but has dropped to 33-34 as traffic has gotten heavier and I started my class). Then I'll switch to a pattern duplicating the former PT Cruiser usage (only one freeway commute a week, weekends hauling family) to see how the mileage compares to the PT on that more grueling pattern.
The Ford Focus stick shift I had got 32-33 on my commute; the Cobalt is getting 33-34; so I'd say this larger, family oriented "cross-over" is doing quite well indeed. It's certainly no gas-guzzling PT!
Tank #1, from Oakland to Kettleman City along 5 at 75-80 mph: 28.52 mpg, after filling up in Oakland first.
Tank #2, the rest of highway 5, up the Grapevine, down into L.A.: 33.11 mpg (I would have expected the hill climb to drop the mileage, vs. the initial flat part of the drive on Tank #1).
Tank #3, whizzing around on the insane L.A. freeways: 34.54 mpg (maybe my average speeds were lower?).
Tank #4, leave Simi Valley, up over the Grapevine, and along 5 to Little Panoched Road: 27.44 mpg.
I averaged my roadtrip mileage by adding up all the individual mileage segments, adding up all the individual gallons segment, and dividing (I didn't add the individual mpg figures then average them, in other words, I went back to scratch). AVERAGE MPG, 824.8 miles, 27.174 gallons =
30.35 mpg.
Quite good actually. My 2001/2004 Golfs got hammered at 80 mph, dropping to 26 mpg; my early Zetec Focii delivered 30 mpg. THIS IS VERY RESPECTABLE ON A CAR THIS SIZE. It is much bigger than most of the economy cars I drive, and far from aerodynamic. It is zippy, with a rev happy engine, although it doesn't have a lot of low-end grunt. It's willingness to freely rev make up for the lack of brute horsepower - if you want European smoothness (Mercedes contributed the variable valve timing system!) this is the way to go, if you want V-8 grunt from a 4 cylinder, Chevy's Ecotec is better.
Mileage champ remains the 2006 Cobalt Coupe at 36-37 mpg, and the Dodge Neon at 34-35 mpg tied with the 2003 Honda Civic Coupe at the same mpg.
These mileage figures are all off stick shift cars, driver only, light load, 75-80 mph on Bay Area to L.A. drives.