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I have been reading how everyone here is getting such great fuel mileage, and I know I have a bit of a lead foot, but I'm only getting an average of 32 mpg since I got my Spark.

Don't get me wrong, it is much better mileage than the 19 MPG I was averaging in my HHR, but there is a mighty big difference in the size, weight, and engine size of the two cars.

So far I have only put 891 miles on Gossamer (yes that's my Spark's name - think of the red monster from Bugs Bunny) in six months, but I traveled 123 miles yesterday and I would guess that about 80% of it was on the highway with the cruise control set at speeds from 65 to 75 mph.

I have found that I lose about 2 to 3 tenths of a mpg everytime I take off from a stoplight - which there are thousands of where I live, and many of them are what I call coffee break lights - it takes about 5 minutes or more to get through them IF you make it through on the first cycle.

I have actually sat at stoplights waiting for them to change and watched my average MPG tick down!

So with all that in consideration, does it sound like I am getting the mileage I should be getting compared to what everyone else is?

My Harley has more horsepower and torque, and I average about 45 mpg on it, so I guess I just expected better numbers from Gossamer - especially after seeing the numbers others have put up. :headscratch:

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I am in the same boat, I am currently averaging about 30-31. I live in a congested city, with traffic lights every four blocks on some of the main drags, mine is also an automatic, and very seldom do I even hit fourth gear. Between the lights, driving behind buses, school crossing guards, etc. it is painful. It seems it takes like a good 5 mile run to put on a couple of tenths, and one stop and acceleration to lose it. I've had mine on the parkway a few times, and got it up to 34, but as soon as I hit the city it's over, so it shows that it is capable. You are not going to see much, if any gain on 65 to 75 mph, it seems like the quickest is between 40 and 50 mph. When I first came to this board and seen some of the ratings some of the people were getting, I thought something was wrong with my car. I got mine in January, it was extremely cold, and we were using the winter blend fuel, and I couldn't get out of the 28-29 mpg range. Now with the weather warming up, and using the the standard fuel, she has picked up some. I am only at 1400 miles on the clock, so I assume a few more miles aren't going to hurt either. But I definitely feel your frustration, with the big city traffic, no matter how you try, you lose.

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Since the Spark is billed as a city car or urban commuter, I had expected better fuel efficency at idle.

After all, any one that has ever driven in any large city in the world knows that you are going to be in traffic and sit at lights.

I probably should have bought a Prius, but I really don't need a tampon dispenser! :hysterical:

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When you're idling, your getting 0mpgs, that's why the numbers start to fall sitting at lights. That's why some European cars have a start/stop feature. If you want to bump up mpgs, start coasting longer to stops, and get into the right lane at lights, the more you squeeze the gas and spool up the squirrels the faster the numbers plummet. Hybrids are the same way, CD only averaged 36mpgs with their current gen Prius. There's some folks on the Hyundai Accent forum only getting 23mpgs city on a car rated for 29 city by the epa, so at least those bad Spark numbers are close to epa city. EPA city doesn't take into account severe urban conditions, such as the two scenarios mentioned. Thus far, my driving consists of 30% city, the rest urban hwy in non-rush hour at 70mph. I'm getting 35-37 mpgs with the a/c running, better than the 34mpg combined epa rating, and I don't hypermile or drive slow. Most on fuelly.com are also exceeding epa with their Sparks. I just joined fuelly, btw.

Edited by austex04
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Also, the manual transmission Sparks seem to have an advantage over the automatics, the final gearing I think is different as well. You can see that trend on fuelly. Hopefully, more Spark owners will join and track their mpgs on fuelly as well , to give a more accurate overall average in real world driving conditions.

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I am in the same boat, I am currently averaging about 30-31. I live in a congested city, with traffic lights every four blocks on some of the main drags, mine is also an automatic, and very seldom do I even hit fourth gear. Between the lights, driving behind buses, school crossing guards, etc. it is painful. It seems it takes like a good 5 mile run to put on a couple of tenths, and one stop and acceleration to lose it. I've had mine on the parkway a few times, and got it up to 34, but as soon as I hit the city it's over, so it shows that it is capable. You are not going to see much, if any gain on 65 to 75 mph, it seems like the quickest is between 40 and 50 mph. When I first came to this board and seen some of the ratings some of the people were getting, I thought something was wrong with my car. I got mine in January, it was extremely cold, and we were using the winter blend fuel, and I couldn't get out of the 28-29 mpg range. Now with the weather warming up, and using the the standard fuel, she has picked up some. I am only at 1400 miles on the clock, so I assume a few more miles aren't going to hurt either. But I definitely feel your frustration, with the big city traffic, no matter how you try, you lose.

I'm averaging about 31mpg or so but I do a lot of city use and currently I'm at 2485 miles on mine, hoping when I move out of the big city I can boost that up quite a bit :D

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Well I checked my average speed for the 123 mile trip and it was 48mph - I wonder if that takes into consideration sitting at lights, since as I said, 80% of the trip was on the highway at 65 to 75 mph.

BTW, I always have the air on, and on recirculating (I hate the heat), and try to always coast to the lights, but it's hard when there are lights every couple of blocks.

I'm hoping that now that all the snowbirds are going back north that the traffic will ease a bit before school lets out and tourist season begins.

Since the rainy season is begining (it rains just about every afternoon), I'll be driving Gossamer more often, and I guess I'll get a better idea of what my average mileage will be.

It would be great down here if they issued hunting permits for snowbirds and tourist season! ;)

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Well I checked my average speed for the 123 mile trip and it was 48mph - I wonder if that takes into consideration sitting at lights, since as I said, 80% of the trip was on the highway at 65 to 75 mph.

BTW, I always have the air on, and on recirculating (I hate the heat), and try to always coast to the lights, but it's hard when there are lights every couple of blocks.

I'm hoping that now that all the snowbirds are going back north that the traffic will ease a bit before school lets out and tourist season begins.

Since the rainy season is begining (it rains just about every afternoon), I'll be driving Gossamer more often, and I guess I'll get a better idea of what my average mileage will be.

It would be great down here if they issued hunting permits for snowbirds and tourist season! ;)

Where are you located talking about snow birds? I can stand them either, I like your hunting license lol.

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I have been reading how everyone here is getting such great fuel mileage, and I know I have a bit of a lead foot, but I'm only getting an average of 32 mpg since I got my Spark.
Frick, I'd love to get 32 MPG with mixed driving. My Cavalier can't even get that 100% highway. Edited by Trancer07
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having the ac on 3 no 4 (fan speed) will save gas, maybe the cars programming?

I don't think the fan speed should have an effect on fuel mileage, since the a/c fan is not driven by the engine.

As far as I know, all the fan speed settings do is force the (sorta) cold air from the compressor more forcefully.

Although thinking about it, since everything is computer controlled, I guess it could be possible that the higher fan settings could make the compressor work harder.

Anybody know for sure?

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Where are you located talking about snow birds? I can stand them either, I like your hunting license lol.

I'm in the Big O, the Mouse House, the tourist capital of North America! :camera:

The way I look at it, if I can shoot wabbits during wabbit season, and ducks during duck season, why can't I shoot tourists during tourist season? :)

And it should always be open season on snowbirds! :rant2::)

Edited by Gossamer
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Frick, I'd love to get 32 MPG with mixed driving. My Cavalier can't even get that 100% highway.

seafoam the intake, b12 the gas tank, check your air filter,tire presser

after that is done replace your o2 sens, if you haven't...your millage is way way low man

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Sorry, I was being overly optimistic about the squirrels. Running the a/c on recirculate can save gas, because your cooling the air inside the car instead of the hot air from outside. The compressor doesn't have to stay engaged as long to cool, and that's less load on the engine.

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  • 2 weeks later...
seafoam the intake, b12 the gas tank, check your air filter,tire presser

after that is done replace your o2 sens, if you haven't...your millage is way way low man

Yeah, I've been trying to get better mileage out of this car since I bought it. Gas mileage has always been on the low side or below the EPA spectrum. I've replaced filters, o2 censors. Tire pressure is correct. about the only thing I haven't done is the seafoam thing. I think I did something like that to my hyundai at a Valvoline Quicklane oil change place several years back.

Edited by Trancer07
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  • 5 weeks later...

Hey everybody I've got a 2013 Chevy Spark lemonade yellow. I've got about almost 1700 miles on him. I'm getting about 33.9 mpg. I like to drive to SF alot Go Giants. I live a hour or two from anywhere cool so I take take Mellow Yellow everywhere yay first new car.

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