Chevrolet Equinox Real World MPG
Please report on your Equinox mileage in this discussion. Please include city/highway, odometer, driving style or similar comments that you think may be helpful. Thanks,
Steve, Host
Steve, Host
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For me, my 05 Equinox is treating me good.
Here are my mileage results:
City; 17mpg
Mixed local and highway; 20mpg.
Some local and more highway; 22mpg
Little local and mostly highway with cruise set to 65mph; 25mpg
All highway cruise set to 70mph; 26mpg
I had a 30mhr tail wind, highway cruise set to 70; 30mpg
Yes, 30 mpg.
Nox On!
:shades:
One thing is for sure, it probably won't be pretty...we sat in traffic for 1 hour Saturday trying to go to the local air show...it literally took 1 hour to move about 3 miles.
I will say this...from reading other Real World MPG boards and having driven some of those cars as well, the climate, roads and hills in Western PA create some of the worst MPG conditions over the course of the 4 seasons. We had a 2004 Malibu Maxx that was pretty good on gas (rated at 22/32) and in our daily start/stop short distance travel we averaged about 20 MPG. On a trip to Hilton Head last year we averaged 30...which I thought was excellent considering we rarely drove below 70 mph.
We are going back to HH this year and I figure we'd be lucky to get 23mpg with the Equinox...which has me thinking we might try and cram ourselves and our stuff into my ION. I get 26-27 with my daily commute (about 1/2 city and highway type driving) so I figure it should get 30 mpg (loaded up) on the highway.
I will post my first tank numbers for the Nox in the next week.
gas purchased: 9.7 gallons
distance traveled since first full tank: 150 miles
MPG = 15.46
BUT...if you consider my long delay (1 hour in almost standstill traffic to go approx 3 miles) it gets a little better.
After reading some "gas comsumed at idle" articles, I am gonna guess that I used at least 1 gallon of gas to go that 3 miles...
So, I will factor that out...
8.7 gallons to go 147 miles = 16.897 MPG
I am thinking that's fairly realistic...we do about 90% start and stop driving (up and down hills) and about 10% highway, so I expect the numbers to be closer to the city mileage.
This would also be in line with what we averaged with our Maxx. The Maxx was rated 22 city and we averaged 20. The Nox is 19 city and we are looking at around 17.
I'm curious to see what the next tank gives us.
2006 Equinox LT/FWD - lifetime MPG = 16.163
miles = 150 gallons = 9.7 MPG = 15.46 (1 hour in traffic to go 3 miles) -- 7/11/2006
miles = 107 gallons = 6.2 MPG = 17.26 -- 7/17/2006
miles = 150 | gallons = 9.7 | MPG = 15.46 (1 hour in traffic to go 3 miles) -- 7/11/2006
miles = 107 | gallons = 6.2 | MPG = 17.26 -- 7/17/2006
miles = 164 | gallons = 9.7 | MPG = 16.91 -- 7/22/2006
first tank 17.9
second tank 16.2
third tank 15.75
fourth tank 14.2
hhhmm, strange.
The 5th tank was my all time worse, at 11.16, so you may have that to look forward to (it was during a Feb. cold snap, but it still worried me). Hang in there for a while!
For a full tank, you should get 300 miles.
The lowest mileage you should get is 18 mpg.
I have been averaging about 19-20 for mixed driving over two weeks. Pure highway, I have gotten 25 mpg.
Factors that hurt mileage:
1) Air-conditioning.
2) Driving with windows open while speeds are over 30mph.
3) Outside temperature. Cold weather forces refineries to reformulate gasoline to a mixture that produces 10% less fuel economy. Your best economies will be between Memorial day and Labor day.
4) Speed.Speed.Speed. The Equinox, like most vehicles, gets 10% less fuel economy for every 10 miles per hour over 55 mph. In other words, at 75 mph, you get 20% less fuel economy than driving at 55 mph.
5)Weight. If you load the vehicle up with 4 people and drive it on a long trip, you will get a little less economy than if the car had just a driver. (not a big factor).
6)Heavy acceleration. Leaning on the gas pedal kills fuel economy. You know you do this if your breaks are getting replaced after 40,000 miles.
5W-30 Mobile One oil
I consistently get:
19 mpg mixed driving.
23 pure highway at 70 miles per hour.
Did you mean "does not help?" If not, then how can idling help mileage when you're consuming (a small amount) of gasoline while not putting on any miles?
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
I also want to point out that the same friend urged me not to change my oil until the light came on. I was a "everey 5000 miles" man religiously, but I took his word for it. I now change my oil close to every 8,000 miles, I have never had a problem, and I get the same gas milage!
I've got 33,000 miles on it and every year on my summer vacation I go to Florida.
Total of 3,000 milles highway (round trip) and 600 miles in Florida (city and country roads).
I always average between 24 and 26 mpg every time. I use my cruise control at 68 mph and 90% of the time the air "on".
This summer will be it's 5 th time down south.
I LOVE MY TRUCK!
I am being easy on the pedal to get the high mileage. Speeds toping out at 60-65 mph on the highway. Agressive driving will kill the high mileage. The good news for me is that this car can easily get over 32 mpg on the highway. I am pleasantly surprised. Total mileage to date is less than 1000. Car was built the week of October 19.
The 32-35 mpg figure is for mainly level ground with speeds between 55 and 65. I just took a trip into the mountains a little and could not keep 32 mpg. The car takes on the big hills fine but the mileage does drop. I hit 4th gear and 3000 - 3500 rpms several time to keep up speed in the mountains. As a reference, the tachometer is below 2000 rpms on level ground at the same speed in 6th gear.
Bottom line.. I drove around 60-65 mph for most of the trip and just managed a little over 30 mpg for the 200 mile trip (about 100 each way. I easily hit 32+ mpg on the way back home (down hill most of the way) but was getting 27 mpg going to the destination (up hill most of the way). (Baltimore - Hagerstown - Carslise and then back).
One other note, I am wondering if the trip computer is correct. I am checking it with actual gas usage. On the first tank I checked it was 2 mpg off in the higher direction. This means my mileage is actually 2 mpg less than what the car tells me. I need to check this over several tanks to be sure but I am suspicious of the trip computer now based on my first tank that was checked.
My trip computer is off by 2 mpg on the second tank also. It appears that my earlier mileage claims are exaggerated by 2 mpg.
What I have learned so far.
I can easily get 34 mpg on the highway doing 55-65 on relatively flat ground (Mileage is actually 32 when computed from gas usage).
I have been getting about 29 mpg in mixed driving to work. (Mileage is actually 27 when computed from actual gas used).
The car is doing what GM advertised. I do have to drive with a relatively light foot to get the 32 mpg highway number but it is not hard to do on relatively level ground.
LTZ 4cyl
Seriously, how many miles on your Nox now? On some cars it can take 5,000 miles or more before the mpg gets close to the EPA rating. My van's mpg kept improving (although just slightly) even after I had put 20,000 miles on in.
That kinda tells me you're probably driving it like a Corvette off the line. These are mere babes that need to be coddled from a dead start. Sudden pedal to the metal is a mileage killer.
I've done a couple of slow highway trips and come up with 36MPG at about 60 MPH.
It seems anything above 68 MPH is the mileage killer.
When making those mileage checks make sure you nurse those last drops into the tank on both ends of your check. I find that I can coax about an additional gallon in after the automatic pump shuts off.
I bet the manual says to fill the tank until the first click and then quit.
That extra gallon may help your range but it's not going to affect your mpg.
I only top it off occasionally so as to get that accurate check and ensure all is normal.
I have have found the computer provided mileage measurements to be less than reliable.
Additionally, the automatic pumps vary a great deal as to shut off time. Sometimes I add 1/2 gallon and other times 1 1/2 gallons. The extra gallon will not impact MPG, but for an apples to apples test you must start with a full tank and end with a full tank
Like I said, just an occasional check, I don't have the patience to trickle that last bit of gas in at every fill up.
And if my mpg takes a hit between tanks, I'm on notice that something may be going flooey with my engine.
Observations:
1. Local with light foot, 23-24 is a realistic number.
2. Highway, very depend on speed. I have very carefully tested the fuel economy on my 4000 mile trip.
a. on a very flat road, 55-65mph cruise can easily yield 32-35.
b. 70-75mph yields 27-31.
c. 75-80mph yields 23-27.
d. 80-85mph 20-24.
e. computer reading is pretty accurate as compare to my hand calculation.
Therefore, highway speed is the key for the fuel economy, and 22-32 chevy advertised # are realistic. The equinox is a very solid vehicle on both urban and interstate roads. 0 problem to report so far.