Thread: 04 GTP Bad Fuel Economy

Well, first off don’t freak. GPs actually get great mpg for a mid sized car. Well, the N/A ones do, the GTPs get like 2 mpg less than great. Secondly, the DIC mpg avg read out is usually close. But you can’t take for 100%, and the instantaneous read out is all over the place on any car. Track your mpg the old fashion way and see what you get. Also, it is winter, all cars get crappy mpg in the winter, especially on short trips until the engine is warm and the tranny can lock up. If you getting 23 mpg on the highway your probably looking before your warmed up, wait until the tranny locks, then look. If you track your mpg in normal city/highway driving you should be at about 20-21mpg. I have a few questions for you. #1 Are you using premium gas? Because if your not you WILL get crappy mpg. #2 Does your car have stock size tires? #3 Cars get zero mpg in park, how long do you warm up your car?

Originally Posted by pr84704p

I have been warming the car up 5-10 minutes before driving.

I knew it. Even on the coldest day, two minutes max buddy. Not only is it a huge waste of gas, your tranny stays dead cold. Dress up warm, don’t let it idle more than a minute, drive slow at first, low RPM is more important than actually speed. Since you don’t know your car yet, be aware you not going to get max mpg until both your tranny and coolant get warm. On my car the tranny won’t lock up until ~90F, that alone is good for 5 mpg on the highway.

Originally Posted by cerick08GP

I knew it. Even on the coldest day, two minutes max buddy. Not only is it a huge waste of gas, your tranny stays dead cold. Dress up warm, don’t let it idle more than a minute, drive slow at first, low RPM is more important than actually speed. Since you don’t know your car yet, be aware you not going to get max mpg until both your tranny and coolant get warm. On my car the tranny won’t lock up until ~90F, that alone is good for 5 mpg on the highway.

I gotta try only keeping it on for a couple minutes then. I did not know that would affect the mpg negatively. I think i was doing mostly everything else right. Thanks for helping out.

Well, the DIC could be off. Especially if you haven’t got stock sized tires, they will throw it way off. On my car, the avg mpg seems off by ~1 mpg so far in my tracking. Let me put it straight, first off you bought a super charged car! Every S/C car in history gets lower than the standard versions. I can almost assure you that your car is top notch, how it is driven accounts for +/-30% of most people’s mpg. Historically an N/A GPs gets the same mpg as the V6 Camary, so if you think you bought a bad car. Go trade it in, get a mid sized 04’ ricer that will get about same mpg, but have about 80 less HP and be happy again.

The dic mpg is touchy is your not used to it reset it drive a normal day with out the long warmup period and let a couple days of driving register to get an acurate average

take offs use the most gas per mile so to speak and idleing is a negative mainly because your not traveling so it kills your average on miles traveled versus gas used

you should be getting around 16-18 city and 25-31 freeway depending on how you drive

told ya always make sure your tires are inflated right and you aren't a lead foot. I actually trick myself sometimes, if i push higher up on the pedal where the spring is taking most of the force i'm pushing just as far but not accelerating as much.