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Wagons Dodge Caliber Dodge Caliber MPG-Real World Numbers
221 messages, Last post on Jun 09, 2009 at 5:10 PM
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Replying to: jhknight (Dec 24, 2006 8:25 am) How many minutes per week (not miles) on city streets vs. minutes on the freeway in free flowing traffic? You may be a "city mileage" driver without knowing it. You have to look at minutes, not miles - for example, I have a 30 mile mostly free flowing freeway commute, I drive 70 on the freeway, yet my average speed per the trip computer is only 34 mph. This means the time spent on surface streets to get on the freeway and off really drag down my average speed, even though they are a short distance, and hence really impact my mileage. Another example. My wife gets 14 mpg in our '06 Impala, with short city drives. Yet when the whole family and luggage was loaded in and I took in on a 800 mile round trip to L.A. from San Francisco, we got 27 mpg. That's how much city driving can kill mileage. FOR YOUR ACTUAL DRIVING PROFILE you might be getting great mileage. Usually when people report unusually high or low mpg, it relates more to driving conditions than anything else. I'd like to say some drivers take it easier on jack rabbit starts than others, or don't tailgate which involves braking/speeding up/braking cycles, but in reality nowadays most drivers fall into the "bad driver" category, which is why the EPA is revising mileage charts down in 2008. Take consolation. If you are getting 25 mpg in the Caliber odds are you'd be getting much less in an SUV or full size car. Conversely, if you drastically downsized to a Toyota Yaris you'd probably only pick up 3 mpg.
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Replying to: jhknight (Dec 24, 2006 8:25 am) CU's overall mileage, mpg 24 CU's city/highway, mpg 17/32 CU's 150-mile trip, mpg 29 CR's actually uses a metering device to monitor fuel usage, which is much more accurate than "refill and calculate." Note that steady state highway cruising is 32 mpg, quite good, but that even the small amount of surface street driving that goes with a 150 mile road trip drags the mileage down to 29. The greatest variance is the CR city figure, 17 mpg, vs. the EPA city mileage. The way I read CR mileage results in trying to predict my own mileage is to look at the highway and city figures. It's almost impossible to hit CR's highway figures, but if I tanked up and drove to L.A. and refilled on empty I would probably come close. In other words, their highway number is the upper limit. The city number tells you how much the city component of your driving will drag down your overall figure. If it's low, like the 17 mpg for the Caliber, city driving will really penalize you. Of course the funny part is that your 25 mpg is very close to CR's mixed use driving, actually 1 mpg better. Nothing "bad" going on there.... |
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Replying to: micweb (Dec 26, 2006 10:18 am)
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Replying to: jhknight (Dec 26, 2006 2:36 pm) |
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| I've just gone over 26K miles in my SXT w 2.0 CVT2. I'm averaging just under 30 mpg going to and from work which is 80 miles a day round trip. I'm still very pleased with the cars performance. K&N has just come out with an oil filter for the Caliber with an air filter coming soon. I'm waiting to see how much of a difference that will make. | |
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My driving pattern on the first tank: 1. 80 mile free flowing freeway ride home from dealer. 2. Surface trips the next day - Christmas shopping etc. 3. Mixed local freeway and surface trips the next day. 4. Two days of 70 mile free flowing (it's quiet this week) freeway commute to work. 312.4 miles on trip odometer, 10.697 gallons put in, 29.20 calculated mileage. I think the dealer did a good job of topping this tank off at delivery - the "catch" for the pump nozzle is high in the filler spout, so even without topping off the tank fills very full on level ground. When I went to top it off on my refill this morning, it hardly took any more gas than the "automatic" fill put in. (My "top off" technique is the one recommended in Ford's owner manuals - shove the nozzle in far and then partially squeeze the handle to let in more gas. Pushing the nozzle in as far as possible is critical to prevent an overfill that could swamp your vapor recovery system or even spill on the ground or side or your car.) I think this is a pretty accurate reading. Based on this reading, I expect 30-32 mpg on our trip to L.A. this weekend (far fewer surface street miles than this first tank, but higher freeway speeds) and 29-30 mpg on my commute (fewer surface street miles than this first tank, but after the holiday there will be a return of the "slow and go" sections I encounter on the freeway on my commute). We'll see how good my crystal ball is - I'll report back periodically. At first I want to drive the Caliber on my "commute" cycle with no weekend family trips that bring down the mileage with surface streets, so I can compare mileage with my Chevy Cobalt (which started at 34-35 when the economy was slower and I wasn't taking an exercise class a mile from home after work, but has dropped to 33-34 as traffic has gotten heavier and I started my class). Then I'll switch to a pattern duplicating the former PT Cruiser usage (only one freeway commute a week, weekends hauling family) to see how the mileage compares to the PT on that more grueling pattern. The Ford Focus stick shift I had got 32-33 on my commute; the Cobalt is getting 33-34; so I'd say this larger, family oriented "cross-over" is doing quite well indeed. It's certainly no gas-guzzling PT!
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Replying to: micweb (Dec 28, 2006 10:58 am) Tank #1, from Oakland to Kettleman City along 5 at 75-80 mph: 28.52 mpg, after filling up in Oakland first. Tank #2, the rest of highway 5, up the Grapevine, down into L.A.: 33.11 mpg (I would have expected the hill climb to drop the mileage, vs. the initial flat part of the drive on Tank #1). Tank #3, whizzing around on the insane L.A. freeways: 34.54 mpg (maybe my average speeds were lower?). Tank #4, leave Simi Valley, up over the Grapevine, and along 5 to Little Panoched Road: 27.44 mpg. I averaged my roadtrip mileage by adding up all the individual mileage segments, adding up all the individual gallons segment, and dividing (I didn't add the individual mpg figures then average them, in other words, I went back to scratch). AVERAGE MPG, 824.8 miles, 27.174 gallons = 30.35 mpg. Quite good actually. My 2001/2004 Golfs got hammered at 80 mph, dropping to 26 mpg; my early Zetec Focii delivered 30 mpg. THIS IS VERY RESPECTABLE ON A CAR THIS SIZE. It is much bigger than most of the economy cars I drive, and far from aerodynamic. It is zippy, with a rev happy engine, although it doesn't have a lot of low-end grunt. It's willingness to freely rev make up for the lack of brute horsepower - if you want European smoothness (Mercedes contributed the variable valve timing system!) this is the way to go, if you want V-8 grunt from a 4 cylinder, Chevy's Ecotec is better. Mileage champ remains the 2006 Cobalt Coupe at 36-37 mpg, and the Dodge Neon at 34-35 mpg tied with the 2003 Honda Civic Coupe at the same mpg. These mileage figures are all off stick shift cars, driver only, light load, 75-80 mph on Bay Area to L.A. drives. |
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9.498 gallons on a "top off" fill, 288.6 trip odometer miles, 30.39 mpg For this last fill up after coming off the L.A. trip. I'll now drive the car with mixed freeway commute (1 day a week) and weekend city driving and see how that mileage compares to the old PT Cruiser with automatic. Then I'll switch to all freeway commuting for a week (no weekend city trips) and see how that compares vs. the all-time mileage champ, my stick shift Cobalt. BTW, this is a lot more car than the Cobalt - I'd call it a midsize vs. a compact, or a "new compact" vs. a "new mini". They are at least a half, if not a full, size different. |
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Average mileage from SF to LA with some surface driving in LA: 28.53 mpg Took a passenger this time, might have affected mileage. Meanwhile my Cobalt stick shirt returns a consistent 33-34 on my commute (used to be higher but the traffic has gotten heavier and the trip computer indicates my average speed is down to 33 mph). The Cobalt remains a mileage champ, but the extra quiet and comfort and size of the Caliber make me prefer it. It will be interesting to see the EPA's revised "closer to real world" mileage figures this fall. |
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I've just put my K & N air filter in my Caliber with a full tank of gas. I'm going to test mileage for the next few weeks and will post driving conditions and mpg with the K & N air filter. I'm not expecting much, I'd like to see close to a mile a gallon difference but I'm expecting .5 of a mile more per gallon. Time will tell! I do notice a difference when I punch the gas or need to pass as this air filter handles 431 scfm's compared to the paper filter at 330 scfm's.
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