Saturn VS Honda

I lived in southern CA until 2 years ago. I drove at least 20k miles a year there for 20 years, with several years over 50k. Much of that driving was over the mountains and through the deserts on the very roads you describe. I also have plenty of experience with all kinds of cars, both mine and other people's, plus rentals, plus test vehicles from various auto industry/research entities I've worked for.

Again, 32 MPG for a small car on the open road is unimpressive at best. Geez, a friend's *'83 Cadillac Eldorado* got 30 MPG on the way to Palm Springs. You'd think 20 years and 1000 LB less mass would yield more improvement.

If it makes you feel any better, the Ford Focus isn't too great on gas either. Not that it matters much to most people anyway, in comparison to car payments and insurance.

Matt O. .

I don't believe for an instant that an 83 eldorado got 30 mpg on those roads unless it had a honda engine in it and was only going 30mph. Hell those cars would burn a gallon backing out of the driveway. The BMW I have no idea about, but an eldorado no way :-) In any event, I'm not really concerned that much about gas mileage because I do very little driving, but I thought at 32mpg my car was pretty average.

A Honda would get 5mpg. No way in hell it would move a Caddy with any efficiency unless maybe you had 20 gears. Besides that a 83 probably only made 100hp (lot more in torque)... I dont think these guys had any math classes. I doubt that caddy makes over 20mpg.

reports the 1982 highway for Seville/Eldorado was 27mpg. Of course, that is an EPA estimate which we all know don't hold up in the real world. Math class was not required though as apparently, (in 1982 anyway) they had some sort of fuel data calculator built into the instruments.

--

10 things men know about women: 1)?2)?3)?4)?5)?6)?7)?8)?9)?10) women have breasts

The Jap SUV's and Vans have been doing a pretty good job of tricking the EPA's treadmills. Not sure how they pull it off.

Same way Honda and Toyota did it a few years ago when they got busted or emissions - the computer can apparently detect a test cycle (somehow?) and kick into a supereconomy test mode. They got into a bit of trouble with the EPA over this a few years ago w.r.t. emissions testing, when it was revealed that certain cars would kick into a low emissions mode durring the test cycle...

There's no trick to it. Just gear the car really tall so the engine is barely ticking over in top gear at test speed. Often this results in poor real-world performance, because most people would be driving a gear or two lower in the same situation.

Any car will get phenomenal mileage going slowly in top gear. I've gotten over

70 MPG in my Rabbit Diesel, going 45-50 MPH on an Interstate in a snowstorm. Similarly, I got 40 MPG in my '85 318i, which usually got 25-27 MPG.

Matt O.

You dont have an understanding of how EPA treadmills work. They dont freewheel without resistance and my cars has a taller gear than the majority of automatics out there and it rides just fine in it.

The original alternator in my SL lasted over 120,000 miles ! E

What year is your SL and is it an SL1 or SL2 ?

The original on my 94 SL1 made it just past the warrant, The one I got at the dealer to replace it made it just past its 3 year warranty. The one I got a local Chevy dealer only had a 1 year warranty but is still working. ron

My alternator in a '94 SL2 made it to 110,000 miles.

Around here, batteries only last 2 years though due to the heat.

Still on the original radiator hoses too at 125,000 miles!

My Ford blew hoses every two years along with freeze plugs (costly to pull engine for the rear one), radiators, and 3 alternators, 1 headliner (glue came loose (heat), 1 bent crankshaft, heat damaged computer (mounted on engine by smart Ford engineer!), assorted broken springs, and a bunch of minor stuff. Only way to drive the Ford was to take routes close to car part shops (no lie!). Had nice well used-toolset in trunk just in case. What a piece of crap car that was.

B~

Another data point: '93 SL2, 137K miles & 11 years (at which point the car was totaled), original alternator (battery replaced twice). Almost all driving done in Southern California (medium to high air temps.).

I lost the oil burner lottery, could be I won the alternator lottery :o).

Bill Davis '93 SL2, 2005 ION2

It was a '94 SL, just SL, basic single cam. I have heard the twin cams ate alternaters because oil tended to leak into them, but this is just what I heard on-line. It ran 168K with no major work. It threw the engine at 168, so I got a new Ion. E

You're comparing the L series (their "luxury" model if I'm right) to a civic, of course the steering is going to be tighter in the civic. As far as a mileage difference, go to to gov's fuel economy site and they should have a rating. As far as reliability, I've see 3 saturns now (S series) with over 250,00 and still running strong.

The single cams (SL & SL1 ) also ate alternators since they were jammed back behind the engine where they couldn't get any cool air. I heard this was corrected on later models but can't say what year. ron 94 SL1

corrected, I wonder if it was possible to make it worse than what it is in my 97sl2. My altenator is located between the firewall and the engine, right beneath the power stearing pump, son when the pump seal fails again, they can get a two-fer out of this repair again. Seal fails, leaks all over the altenator, altenator fails and wow that was a nice bill.

:(

later,

Tom @