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I don't know for sure, but I would assume it was something small with a smaller engine, like an Alero or an Achieva, both of which at one point or another could have been had with a 4-cylinder engine and manual transmission.
Same here, my 3.1 1996 Cutlass Supreme can get up to 31 mpg using cruise control on a flat road like the NJ Turnpike or something like that. Sometimes even better. I think the window sticker had it at 29 mpg max. I was going to sell it but with the way gas prices are going, it will be staying in the driveway for a while. A car this big getting that kind of mileage is nice to have.
People bragging about their one-time best MPG on the freeway downhill while drafting a semi truck are missing the point. That is not the same as the EPA rating. We can argue the merits of the EPA test process, but at least it's consistent. A car that scores higher on the EPA test cycle will likely score higher in real life, WHEN DRIVEN THE SAME. The EPA drive cycle isn't steady state for either city or highway. It uses consistent fuel blend and a consistent cycle. Obviously anything that deviates from that cycle will change the results. "Your mileage may vary."
People bragging about their one-time best MPG on the freeway downhill while drafting a semi truck are missing the point. That is not the same as the EPA rating. We can argue the merits of the EPA test process, but at least it's consistent. A car that scores higher on the EPA test cycle will likely score higher in real life, WHEN DRIVEN THE SAME. The EPA drive cycle isn't steady state for either city or highway. It uses consistent fuel blend and a consistent cycle. Obviously anything that deviates from that cycle will change the results. "Your mileage may vary."
Hey, I occasionally get 100mpg gallon with my 455 powered 69 Olds!! Beat that!! *
*Gotta read the fine print!! That’s trailering the car the 650 miles round trip to Norwalk when they had the Dock Miller race. 😏
My 2004 Alero coupe with 3.4 V6 and 4spd auto will knock down 31 to 34 mpg going to nationals with two people, tools, wash and detail items. 31 was the worse running in the hills of Pennsylvania and 33/34 a few times going to and from Springfield Illinois did 32 going to Wisconsin damn northern Illinois toll booths stops kill the mileage!
The FWD Delta 88's would pull nearly mid 30's Imperial. The Quad 4 stuff, around 40 mpg Imperial. Our 81 Delta 88 4 door, Olds 307/TH250C/2.41 got a best of 32 mpg Imperial and regularly got high 20's the first few years we owned it. It was down to around 26 mpg after quite a few km's, then low 20's when parked with over 400,000 km on it. Honestly, those window stick mpg meant almost nothing in real world driving. In Canada it was 80 km/hr, everyone was mad at the Ford Dealer I apprenticed at. Only one truck met the rated mpg at 100 km/hr. We would test it at the test speed and they would achieve the posted mpg or very close, people didn't read the fine print.
Joe P is right, that's just my personal best with the car, it's EPA rated at 29 hwy mpg for that year Cutlass, and that's pretty much exactly correct. I keep track of MPG all the time when I go on long trips and it almost always comes out to around what its EPA rated for
the best i ever got from my 1980 98 diesel was 28 mpg,put a 455 gas engine in and would still do 21 mpg hiway.my 99 88 gets about 30 mpg hiway.did have a 84 98 gas that would do 24.
Actually is was probably the 4.3 V6 Diesel in the fwd cars, It was rated at 43 mpg highway, I believe. That was with a 3 spd lock up transaxle. The Celebrity with 5 spd probably got a few more but not technically an Olds. GM did everything right on that little motor except have it produce decent power! The 85 hp rush🤣. A factory water/fuel seperator and 6 head bolts per cylinder made it much more reliable than the 350 version. Too bad they didn't keep it long enough to Turbo charge it. Supposedly the fwd guys have done it without major failures.
Too bad that's all they got on their test. I drove my car an average of 200-300 miles per day (granted mostly interstate driving) and it was not uncommon to get 30-31mpg (manually calculated at fill up).
Too bad that's all they got on their test. I drove my car an average of 200-300 miles per day (granted mostly interstate driving) and it was not uncommon to get 30-31mpg (manually calculated at fill up).
And you're still missing the point. The mileage that a specific driver gets with a specific car under a very specific set of driving conditions is useless information if no one else can duplicate those conditions. The whole point of a standardized test is to allow comparisons based on a standardized set of conditions. That doesn't mean that a different driver on a different route under different weather conditions won't get better (or worse) mileage. It's just an attempt to allow comparisons among different cars with some attempt to normalize the conditions. Basically if you get better mileage than the standardized number, given how you drive and where, then if you were to drive a different car with a higher rating, you would almost certainly get better mileage numbers with that car than you did with this one. One person's experience with one specific car under one specific set of conditions is meaningless as far as comparing to a different car driven by a different person under different conditions.
June 17th, 2021, 12:21 PM
