As a brother owner of a Cobalt XFE I find your details very interesting. The first thing that caught my attention was your tire pressure. GM advises 30PPSI on my cobalt, the tires claim MAX 44PPSI. I keep them from 39-41 during this weather. I have personally ran tires on air pressure of around 10 ppsi higher than the tire said was MAX before and it made the sides of my tires wear uneven. The only way of making them last would of been a lot of tire rotations, and by the time I spotted the uneven tread wear the rotations were over do. It was too late.
Maybe I have the wrong member, but I thought you once claimed you had an avg of over 57 avg MPG for one tank and had displayed the picture of your dashboard reflecting that.
I follow some of your advise, but I'm already at almost the max of the tire company's recommendations, and by past mistakes I do fear going over the 44 it claims is MAX. I pump 40ppsi and in warm days, long trips the pressure might get close to 43ppsi. That's as high as I feel is good for my tires, and I can tell these corners become much harder to cling on too at higher tire pressures, and in eastern Kentucky one has curves everywhere they drive.
I don't like to reset my MPG Avg computer. I know how to do it, but I choose to leave it alone and calculate ALL of my driving and average it up. I'm still at 45.4 MAX, and that is what I parked it at in the driveway. I have to do A LOT of EOC, even for short distances, and if it's rush hour at a long red light (we have one that takes 5 minutes in rush hours!) I will turn my engine off but pay plenty of attention so I have it started at the moment the light turns green. I only do this for the lights that make me wait more than 2 minutes.
I hope my first oil change will help to improve my MPG. Also I am already due to rotate my tires, and I really wish I had a hydraulic jack instead of what chevy puts in the trunk of these cars. I have YET to understand how on earth to even unfold the jack and lug-nut wrench that came with the doughnut tire.
I'm too lazy tonight, what is DWL again?
About shifting, I have drove manuals since I got my first 125cc motorcycle at 14 years of age. I dislike automatics for the many advantages I get out of manuals. However I wish these cars came with a 6th gear! The way my car is geared I change the gears very fast from 1 to 5th, and I hate to take the RPMS very much above 2,2500 even when escalating speed.
I very much plan on getting over 50 avg MPG, but when I do it will have to be for the entire average, not just one tank. I feel the more miles driven the more accurate that average will be, if one does not re-set it.
I have very much got the hang of this EOC stuff. It's pretty cool, I bet I coast for two solid miles until I pull right into my driveway and turn the lights off! I do this everywhere now. Just about any place I go, I find a way of coasting in and parking with the engine off.
Because of my schedule I have found myself doing a lot of late night driving that seems to be a magnet for police radar guns. I live in an area where most people that are lucky enough to score a job here, work first shift. 2nd and 3rd shifts are fairly rare in these parts, so the police seem to act as if everyone on the road is a suspect after 10:00 pm. I can not thank my radar detector enough because on numerous occasions recently I have been driving below 45 in a 55 zone and pick up radar from clear down the road which I use as a cue to bump start and get to the P.S. Slow drivers do not get many chances after dark here, they are on a constant hunt for intoxicated drivers at night time. I do not believe they are busting too many though because everyone here knows they risk a sobriety road block at any time of night or day here. So far all such checks have been between the hours of 7:00pm and 1:00Am. So I'm often out during this same time period trying to perfect mostly driving in EOC and bump starting, and so far it's becoming second nature for me. However, I honestly believe most of the local police hear recognize my car by now. Heck I have even been motioned through sobriety checks without even rolling my window down while it seemed all the others were being stopped. Something about my car stands out in a crowd, and I suspect it is my cb antenna and bright GPS I travel with everywhere. Most people in small cars here do not have theirs set up like mine. So that's sort of a good feeling.
My best to you and your high MPGs! I'll be playing catch up for awhile you can be sure!
