600 mile trip results & MPG

My Girlfriend and I took a trip this past weekend. Just over 600 miles round trip. Philly burbs to Richmond burbs, and then back. Not really what I would consider a long trip, but long in terms of time and traffic. Got tied up for about 90 minutes in Saturdays 86 car pile-up on I-95 just outside of Baltimore. What a mess. Luckily no one was killed. I figured we were about 15 minutes behind the wreckage. Good thing I took about that long to check the oil and tire pressure before leaving! Anyways.......... Long trip comfort, while not luxury quality, is still quite comfortable. I've seen others comment on not having auto power up drivers window. Now I know why. Pulling out from a toll booth while raining, trying to shift, re start wipers, and holding the switch out to raise the window is a real juggling act. Speaking of rain (hail is what caused that pile-up), the wipers work really well at highway speed. Something that has always bothered me about other cars. I didn't get a chance to check the accuracy of the speedo/odometer with mile markers. However 80mph indicated does NOT seem like 80mph as I know it. I realize that I-95 really runs around 80mph average, but people were still passing quite a lot and they didn't seem like they were over 90mph. So, I would really like to see someone with a GPS to check accuracy at different speeds (ie: 40, 60, 80, etc) I may be wrong about this, but who knows. It seems that 70mph = 3000rpm exactly. That there bothers me some when it comes to fuel mileage. It's coming up close to 3500 rpm @ 80mph and you can really hear the engine gettin' jiggy with it. Is the AVCS kicking in around this range? A second overdrive (6th gear) would really help EPA mileage figures IMHO. The good thing about the unusually high revs is that downshifting to pass is NOT necessary. Just ease into the throttle a bit and ...........BAM your out and around. Now for the mileage. These figures are all manually hand calculated, and do not match the trip computer at all. 1st Fillup (after dealer fill): 19.28 mpg All stop and go work commute. 2nd Fillup.........................: 20.15 mpg All stop and go work commute. 3rd Fillup.........................: 19.56 mpg All stop and go work commute. 4th Fillup.........................: 23.84 mpg All highway, but stop and go/major traffic/extended idling down to Richmond I-95 5th Fillup.........................: 26.42 mpg All highway, just slight traffic. Mostly cruise set at 80 mph. From Richmond back up to Philly. Car now has over 1700 miles on it today. If I could drive 55-60 mph and NOT have fun pulling out from toll booths/on ramps, 30 mpg is definately in reach with this car. But for cruising at 80 mph, 26mpg isn't too shabby for a low 14 second sedan.

I average about 23mpg doing suburb driving/highway. During the summer when i took a trip down to Lake George, it was all highway driving at an average of 70mph and i averaged 28.9mpg, so 30 is definately within reach if you take your time.

It just seems that creeping up around 3000rpm, the engine sound definately changes. Keeping it below that it's much more sedate. Oh, and cruise control.....I love it! Real precise. Real easy to use. Real comfy to reach, etc. I do have issues with the climate control though. It must have A.D.D. It is all over the place with temp output. One minute it's blowing cool, the next it's blowing hot. Not DRASTIC, but always bouncing hot/cold up and down. My Chrysler 300 is smooth and precise. Hope they come out with a fix/flash for this.

your 70mph is 3k? my [b]80mph[/b] is 3k on mine (AT) I just broke 1000miles.. and I aerage 19.8 mpg now.. I haven't had the auto hvac on long enough to evaluate temp control.

do you guys stay UNDER 3k rpm always ???

no.. i try and keep it @ 4k max.. with the occasional 6k. I just happen to cruise @ 3k @ 80mph

[quote name='RoundBoy']your 70mph is 3k? my [b]80mph[/b] is 3k on mine (AT) [/QUOTE] Yes. It's almost like they planned for 70mph to be 3Krpm. It's funny, your driving at 75-80 and I found myself looking for 6th gear on several occaisions. Heck my 1 ton truck is like 2500rpm at 70mph and that has small tires and 4.10's. Anyone out there with a good GPS willing to take a highway ride in your LGT to check speedo accuracy at different speeds?

or willing to blow past a speed trap ? TLS: are you on different size tires then stock?

WOW a 10mph difference in top gear between the auto and manual? That will give the auto better gas milage.I dont get it the chart on gearing I read had the 5th gears at Auto-.834 and Manual - .738 this would make me think the manual will be at a lower rpm at a given speed.The final reduction however has the Auto at a 3.27 and the Manual at 4.111 whats the difference between the final reduction and 5th gears?

according to the tech ref thread in the turbo forum...: MANUAL 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Ratio 3.166 1.882 1.296 0.972 0.738 AUTO 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Ratio 3.540 2.264 1.471 1.000 0.834 This gives @ 3000 rpm in 5th: Manual: 74.7 mph Auto : 81.5 mph

I don't know RoundBoy, it was like DEAD ON gauge wise with 3K = 70mph almost exactly. What size/diameter tire did you base your calculation on?

The stock tires and the numbers in the TECH REFRENCE thread in the turbo fourm ;) And my personal driving of 80mph @ 3k i can vouche for the speeds @4k as well :eek:

OK, I read the TECH REFERENCE section that these figures are posted from. Only problem I see is that no tire diameter is listed. And wether rolling diameter is used or static diameter. That there could change the #'s drastically. If it wasn't so "visibly" dead on (3K=70mph) I'd say I might be off in my observations, but it was blatently obvious. I guess we need SUBE555 to chime in and let us know how he calculated those figures.

i am assuming the stock 17" tires .... but I admit i have no idea how those numbers come about :)

I run a GPS in my car, and the speedo seems to be pretty accurate. It overreported just slightly on the stock tires, though never to any large degree -- usually less than 1mph off. I've since replaced the wheels and tires; on 225/45R17 rubber, the speedo is almost dead-on with my GPS all the time.