Pontiac Vibe gets POOR gas milage! Why?

Dec 21, 2003 9 Replies

Hello all,



My Vibe gets about 21 mpg. Most of my driving is on the highway. It said on the window when I bought this shoe box 33 mpg highway 29 city. Is it this winter reformulated crap gas or is it the Vibe? Here I thought I would get a car with a four banger and I would save on gas. Heck my old Buick Skylark got better milage then this piece of junk. My Vibe has 28,000 highway miles on it.



Thanks



Mike


Could be a lot of things - cold weather, reformulated gas, your driving style ( do you floor it every time you take off and drive 85 on highway? ) It's still under warranty - why not take it back to the dealer and ask?

"Everyone" keeps coming in here with that complaint. Could be the fact that its nothing more than a van with high drag and that motor has no LOW END torque or hp to move it effeciantly at highway speeds. All epa stickers are rated on a treadmill and they do a poor job of factoring in drag coefficiency I think.

123@6000 hp 118@4400 torque 2980 Curb Weight 4.24 Final Drive Ratio

Your skylark done better because it was more squat and had more low end torque where it was needed and a higher final drive ratio. The lesson here is, dont buy a van or any big vehicle with a 4 banger. Its just to overworked. Remember all the smoking chrysler minivans? All 4 bangers. I'd have to drive my bonneville really really hard and aggressive on the highway to be getting 21mpg...AND IT WEIGHS MORE! I can get a good 28-

30mpg running a constant 75mph. Hopefully you still have your skylark.

I think a 3800 would make the Vibe a sweet efficient runner.

It has other issues as well so it is going to back to the dealer. I may just leave it there and get a real car. :-) Too bad I traded in my

2000 Grand am GT for this piece. I wanted more fuel effiency. The Grand am got better mpg.

Mike

fuel efficiency in a 4 cyl only works when the vehicle in question weighs less then 2800 lbs.

I couldn't agree more

-- markwb

2001 Bonneville SLE

Yep that is a wonderful motor.

Mike

You must have other problems. I have been getting 30 for day one. Could be a bad injector.

I've had a Vibe for a half year and always get in the low 30's with a mix of highway and city. It's under warrenty - get it checked.

Most common problem with poor mileage is an oversized right foot.

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