How do I score?

[wagonman76]

You've got a 3 speed and you get into 3rd gear around 35 mph? If it's anything like my stepkid's 91 Cavalier (2.2 L4, 3 spd auto), it does really well keeping at 45 tops. Pushing it to 55 just drinks the gas so fast you'd swear there was a hole in the tank. The lack of OD is what hurts when you have to keep higher speeds to keep from backing up traffic. Is there any different way you can take?

I agree, you've probably got the higher temp thermostat in there. If you wanna run hotter, you can try various grille blocks, which should also improve aero. Even with my grille blocked, it doesn't run any hotter, but I know my gauge would read hotter if the engine was. Of course if I lived in SC where it really gets warm I might notice a difference.

Oh another thing, how many miles is your commute? If it is pretty short, that would make it harder to get better mpg.

[RandomFact314]

I think my commute is usually about 20 miles a day.

[Christ]

Based on my own observations, your transmission can take short stints of EOC, like 200 ft to a red light, for instance.

This might help you out a bit. If you know you're going to stop at the light anyway, you might as well shut 'er down a few feet before hand, and coast up to the light in Neutral.

Else, you could always think about weight reduction and aero modding, not that there's too many bad lines on the car to begin with. The grille is wholly unnecessarily large, though, and those side mirrors could stand to be smaller/inside the car, for starters.

Thinking about the back of the car, you might benefit from a deck-extension spoiler, like those used on NHRA cars (but not as hideous) to help reattach flow from the roofline at a virtual 12-14* angle. Easy enough to visualize, just run a string from your roof at a 12* angle, and another one at a 14* angle, and see how long your deck spoiler would have to be to reattach flow beyond the deck lid.

Smooth wheel covers, or something approximating them, as well as rear wheel skirts and a partial "sunscreen" type Kamm extension over the rear window would all be valid mods that could easily be made to look half decent and not cost that much. They'd all get you closer to 40 as well.

I think the coup de grace, so to speak, will be when you get some more experience under your belt, finally get down and greasy, and swap that tranny over to a 5 speed. That will put you "over the hill" in terms of fuel economy, for sure.

I'm estimating that when I do the 5 speed swap in Cara, I should have no problem seeing 33-35 MPG average, with my normal driving cycle (average tank speed ~40MPH) mostly due to the ability to take advantage of longer gearing, and shift at lower engine speeds, and maintain low vehicle speed in a 1:1 relationship w/ the input shaft of the transmission, rather than the variable input of the torque convertor (when under 40 MPH). There's something to be said for a direct clutch link, ya know?

[RandomFact314]

Look at this neon This is what I want

[2000mc]

might look into the neons history... the rated mpg moves around weird, why does the 97 get 3mpg better on the highway?

hwy mpg for 3spd auto
2000, 01 - 28
1999 - 29
1995, 96, 98 - 30
1997 - 31

[RandomFact314]

Originally Posted by 2000mc

might look into the neons history... the rated mpg moves around weird, why does the 97 get 3mpg better on the highway?

hwy mpg for 3spd auto
2000, 01 - 28
1999 - 29
1995, 96, 98 - 30
1997 - 31

Without actually looking id say it probably has something to do with the weight/size of the neon getting bigger each year b/c they went from sporty-ish to more like a small family car but that is just me guessing

but I never thought of that, good idea though... thanks

[Christ]

That's right, it's weight and power differences, plus the generational differences, including aero changes.

[RandomFact314]

This is yet another WTF moment for me as far as MPG and neons go... This is a AUTO neon from this website (obviously)

[2000mc]

i'd tend to think that the first 2 entries are not actual, at best mileage and fuel were rounded off. unless you contact the owner, i'd ignore those 2 entries and just look at the rest of the fuel log.

[RandomFact314]

That would still not explain the other really great scores for the same car...