Hypermiling a 2012 Malibu LT (4 cyl auto)
 

Have a Malibu LT rental to drive around on the east coast for the next 10 days (wanted a subcompact, but was involuntarily "upgraded" again by Enterprise... I hate that and will have to look elsewhere in the future).

It is rated at only 22 city and 33 highway (26 combined). But its automatic transmission has a 0.74 sixth gear and a 2.77 final drive. Fifth gear is pretty short at 1.00 but with the tall final drive it still turns slowly and sub-freeway speeds in 5th too.

So, I'll gas it up, check the tire pressure, and see what it will do.

Will report back. Just for the hell of it...

I didn't realize they still make Malibus. Is it rental car special only? I don't think I've seen a new Malibu in years.

I hate the "free upgrade". The smaller cars are usually more interesting to drive. I try to get a Ford Focus rental. Half descent car.

I like the new malibu's 6 speed auto with 2.4 auto and flex fuel, rated at 33 hwy. Better looks IMO that the impala or cruize. E85 is 2.499 right now so great to have the option. 26 combined is just 3 mpg combine, or 4 hwy behind my 2.2 5 spd cobalt and the Malibu is a whole lot more car. Look forward to seeing your results.

This is the 2012 and I'm not sure it is the E85 flexfuel edition. The transmission also has one of those automatic "manual" functions. On the gear selector is a +/- rocker switch to select gears with. Mainly it is for "sport." But it might help hypermiling if you practice a lot. The trans seems maybe less prone to unwanted down-shifting on hills, but not much less prone to it, if it is at all.

Next couple of days features a lot of driving on highways... will have some "data" soon.

It's fun to get into a completely different car and see what you can squeeze from it. Dumb about the "upgrade" though.

Some automatics with paddles, rockers, +/- gates will let you override the default upshift logic to get into higher gears sooner.

Even some CVT's, as I discovered:

EG: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...rly-21149.html

I wish I could say I like this car. The gearing is amazing, and using the "manual" option on the gear selector I have been able to upshift very early. I can get into fifth gear at 35mph to cruise at <1500 rpms. It'll stay in 5th down to almost 30mph and about 1200 rpms. And I can get into sixth gear starting at 45mph and do about the same, though it automatically up-shifts under 45mph. I can cruise 55mph at something like 1600 or 1650 rpms. Those are cool features.

IRRITATIONS: reduced ability to choose how the electrical features work. The AC is always on. Only by shutting off the fan can you turn it off. You can't run this car's fan without using the AC. And the car does not let you know that your AC is always on because it still has a snowflake button selector, which seems to be "AC" but is actually just the "high AC" selector. I figured it out when I noticed fan mode blew cold air and then checked the owner's manual. This will waste a lot of fuel over the car's lifetime and wear out the AC system faster. That's just stupid. The Malibu also has auto on headlights. You can shut them off, but the car beeps at you a few times and leaves an irritating message on the instrument display saying "auto lights off" for the entire time the lights are off. Worse, that message replaces your ability to monitor what gear you are in if you choose the "manual" mode on the gear selector. On the pickier side, the power windows have that auto down/up function that makes partial opening tricky and irritating.

Some of my irritation will change a little if hypermiling it proves productive. I'm in combined conditions of highway and urban driving in and around New York City and Philadelphia.

I like the transmission quite a lot. Upshifting early is easy, and so is coasting in neutral. And I am learning to use the instrumentation better. I never did get to pump up the tires before my first distance drive. And now I see the tire pressure reading shows 30psi at 60 degrees ambient air temperature while max sidewall is 51! Or at least that's the max psi recommended on the front driver side tire. Enterprise has at least three different brands of tire on this car.

No numbers so far - does it have an onboard MPG display?

I like its styling.
So I assume, it is not an electro-power assist?

I found the gauges and figured out how to set and use them two days ago. It has about thirty miles on the trip meter now. On local roadway driving, speeds 25-45 mph and with the tires still under inflated (!) I am averaging 31.2mpg as of this morning's "commute." I leave for a longer trip again tomorrow. I'll gas up and pump up tire pressure to max sidewall (not beyond).

I like the look too (more outside than inside).

I don't think so, if you mean electrical assist to the drivetrain. If you mean steering, braking, or other pumps that are traditionally often on belts to the engine, I don't know (maybe?).

First tank MPG data later, maybe tomorrow or Friday.

I figured out today on the Cobalt if I have the heat on the AC runs, if I blend it just far enough with vents the AC doesn't run.

I often run heat to the floor to get enough air to defog the windshield without turning to defrost where AC run's for sure. If you can't tell if the AC is running, it also won't allow to recycle the air when not blended enough. I can see gph jump about 0.1 when AC is on as well.

First fill
 

Annoying, right? Why not just let the driver control the car? Have these settings as options on the controls.

FIRST FILL: 454 miles divided by 12.588 gallons = 36.07 mpg. The car is rated 22/26/33.

That is allowing for possible pump variation because you cannot pump your own gas in New Jersey and I did not do the fills at the same station. It is also with the handicap of tires at 30/31 psi instead of the 40psi three of the four tires require (the last is rated 51 psi). I also was only just learning how to hypermile this car.

I have long freeway trips today and in the coming days. I now know this car pretty well. And the tires are all at 40psi. :thumbup: But I did refill with cheap "10% Alch" gasoline. :(

-james

E10 doesn't hurt that bad, only 3% less energy, have a E35ish blend in the cobalt yesterday and still broke 40. Just topped off with 3.5 gallons more so now a E45ish blend.

air conditioning
 

Drove several hundred miles today. The transmission is pretty amazing. 65mph and just a hare under 2000 rpms. Instant MPG numbers often amazing at cruise. 50s are easy for this car. DFCO in a heart beat. After a few hundred miles I had a 37.3 mpg ave in combined driving. Then I hit two hours of awful stop and go traffic and ended the day at 36.1 mpg

And what's up with the AC on these cars? I sat at a rest stop for several minutes with the car off and the AC on internal circulation and low fan without pressing the "snowflake" button. The air stayed a constant cool temp. It is electric, not belt driven? It seemed to have no effect on instant MPG too (if you can believe the factory gauge).

I can answer this better, now. It has electric asisst power steering: http://www.gmcertified.com/themes/de...let_Malibu.pdf

And apparently it has the "ECOTEC" emissions package, variable valve timing ("VVT"), and multi-point fuel injection.

Second tank, in combined freeway/secondary road conditions using E10 gas (lower energy density), two hours of stop-n-go traffic, and a rain storm: 498mi/15.107 gal = 32.96mpg. The gauge on-board said 35.4mpg

[EDIT: if E10 gasoline has 97.6% of the energy density of regular gasoline, then maybe I would have had slightly higher MPG, maybe 33.75?]

Final words
 

On the last day I had this car, I got another chance to drive a Hyundai Sonata, this time a 2013. I rented a Sonata last year and wrote about it here. They are similar in terms of features. Both have the manual-auto six speed gear box. But on balance, although I wish I could say differently, the Sonata is the better car. The Sonata transmission shifts better, and it stays in the selected gear better and is therefore more amenable to the upshifting hypermile strategy with these automatics. The Chevy felt like the tranny could fall off when shifting from neutral to drive; not so with the Sonata.