Hello everyone
 

Hi guys, my name is Aaron, I'm from Michigan, I drive a Saturn Astra, and I suck at hypermiling :)

I've browsed the forum many times and just decided to join to get some tips on improving my miserable winter mileage, the site has already inspired me to build a grill block and install a block heater, hopefully that will bring me back up a little closer to my Summer mileage.

The car is a 5 door hatch, with a 1.8L and unfortunately a 4 speed automatic, I average about 28MPG during the warmer months, and closer to 24 in the winter, overall average over 30k is about 26.6 which I'd love to improve - I'm just no good at doing it!

Welcome to the site Aaron.

Previous to getting the Prius, I had a Matrix. It seems the Astra and Matrix are fairly similar (size and 1.8L engine). A grill block is a great idea for comfort and mileage as is a block heater.

From a quick search, it looks like I have the only Astra on the site - shocker... lol.

For what it's worth, it has the advanced display with two slots for tracking FE, as well as an instant readout which updates 2-3 times per second, as well as an advanced diagnostics screen which can tell me incoming air temp, cabin temp, and coolant temp, maybe some other useful things if I dig, so I shouldn't need a scanguage - just need to learn how to drive!

Thanks Daox, yeah it was your matrix that influenced me to do the grill block and heater, great writeup and pictures, thank you. I think, according to epa, that the matrix/vibe does a little better than the Astra on FE, which is sad considering it's actually a bit bigger, and has some nicer utility type features.

You're definitely starting with the right mods. Also consider adding a warm air intake of some kind.

Reading through the 100+ hypermiling tips (tabbed above) is another good place to start. Recently I've started shutting off my engine more at stop lights and that small change alone probably gave me a 5% boost in fuel economy. Double check to make sure your car is flat-towable (the owners manual should clarify this). If it is, take advantages of coasting where you can. An automatic is not a death sentence to good mpg; it just makes 20-30% over EPA more common than the 30-50% you can obtain with a standard.

aearles -

That's the best thing about a lot of newer cars, they are giving real-time MPG readouts.

I used to get 30 MPG without trying in my manual tranny S-Series. I like the Astra because of it's 1.8L displacement and a *decent* curb weight of 2850 lbs (decent for today's heavier car standards, that is). I really like your 5-door because of is Matrix/Vibe/SW2 hauling capabilities. But I don't know how to get past that auto-tranny. Do you have a regular route that you drive or are you all over the place? A driving "rut" can be good for MPG because it's like a (slow motion, ha ha) race track that you drive over and over and over again.

There aren't any *Saturn* Astras here, but there are 6 non-Saturn Astras here :

Model=Astra only Garage search

Unfortunately I don't think any of them match your generation or configuration, :( . I think yours is rare because the Euro was too weak when the Saturn Astra was being imported from Belgium. That made the Astra more expensive than the competition.

Here's a short thread on the Astra :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...a-fe-6201.html

CarloSW2

Ahh you're right, thanks for pointing out the Garage. The Astra H is pretty much the same from 2004 through 2009, so there are two others that are the same Gen as mine. They were available here with a manual as well, they were just even more rare in that config, so instead of searching for one I ended up with the auto.

My route is pretty regular, however, the traffic is not.

Yeah they did price the car a bit too high at first, and offered no incentives at all on them, I went to look at them when they first came out and the guy basically told me I couldn't afford one and that I'd be better off looking at higher end models that GM actually offered incentives on. I ended up getting mine about a year later, when they were killing off the Saturn name and dying to get rid of them, I paid about 18 for mine, although I've seen people get them even later for as low as 12-14k new... so clearly I'm stuck with it for a while! :o

Thanks for the info.

If you want to see what FE others are getting , look for
Opel Astra or Vauxhall Astra on
MPG and Cost Calculator and Tracker - Spritmonitor.de

You can convert liters/100 km using this online concersion site :
Online Conversion - Fuel Consumption Conversion