Old Lurker has a question.
 

One of the most interesting forums on the I-net, I have read posts for years. I finally have gotten up the courage to ask a question:

I (we) own a 2011 Buick Enclave with about 47K miles on it now. We live in SE Florida where it is hot for about 7 or 8 months and nice the rest of the time. The Enclave is used mostly for errands, occasionally hauling a load of furniture or people 20 or 30 miles. Probably 90% of the time is contains only me (skinny ol'phart) and 50 lbs. of bowling equipment. 19" wheels, fairly new rubber kept at recommended pressures.

The mileage stinks, 13 -14 mpg around town and maybe 18 -19 mpg on the occasional trip. We live in an urban area so there is alot of driving where the traffic goes around 35 -40 mph (more or less!) with stops every few blocks or half mile,, etc. so it is not as bad as true city driving.

Personally, I think the shift points are set way too high, the transmission needs a tow/haul mode and a highway mode with lower shift points.

However, the Buick folks say the shift points cannot be changed and have no suggestions as to how I might improve the mileage.

Your suggestions are appreciated. Please do not tell me to simply drive slower etc. I already know that!

Dicnic

Is that a 6-speed automatic transmission that you can 'manually' force gear changes to occur via shift-control buttons or movement (like 2011 Cruze)?

Yes, 6 Speed but .....
 

Using the manual shifting mode only lets me hold it in a lower gear for a longer period of time, NOT force an upshift earlier. Unfortunately the manual shifting mode name is not quite true, as usual.

Go higher on the pressures and try a little pulse and glide to play shifting games?

Maybe there's a performance oriented GM forum that can offer tips on forcing torque converter lockup, too. You'd have to find out what kind of transmission you have and what else it's used in, but there'd be a start.

And no, I don't actually have any idea what I'm talking about here.

It's nearly 5000lbs and has ginormous 19" wheels. It's going to take a lot of energy to repeatedly accelerate and decelerate all that mass.

None of the information you provided matter....(kinda)
1. by a scangauge
2. find a flat section of highway close to you
3. using scangauge, run up 6 miles, reset, run back.
4. do this for 50mph, 60 mph, 70 mph.
your looking for the sweet spot in the rpm curve.
On my Infiniti Q45 it was around 1780 rpms

Second, how much freeway driving total miles a yr, do you do?

Highway driving
 

I might put on a few hundred miles on the freeway per year. Only drive freeways when going north or south for 10 or 20 miles or so. Traffic on I-95 is so bad it is not only dangerous but often not faster than other routes.

Some pretty easy stuff to do without getting too carried away:
- index and gap your spark plugs
- go with low rolling resistance tires like the Nokian Hakka's (check youtube for their rolling resistance test with a Prius)
- go with Amsoil low viscosity ATF
- try Amsoil 5W30 Signature Series or ENEOS 5W30 engine oil
- use a good oil filter like Amsoil EAO or Mobil1 Extended Performance
- if you have a rear diff, put in Castrol Syngear 75w90 since it's the lowest viscosity GL5 and same in the transfer case
- try NMF (gonmf dot com) in the engine, trans, diff, coolant, power steering, and fuel
- try ws2 from lowerfriction dot com in the engine and diff
- don't run ethanol blended fuel
- try to scoop a set of lighter wheels - stock cast wheels are crazy heavy
- led headlights from aliexpress if you do lots of driving @ night/winter

Along the way you can start to learn better driving techniques - in particular anticipating traffic patterns ahead of you.

Good luck!

There you have it.
Not at an efficient speed to gain much mpg.
Back to the comment above.
A lot of stop and go getting that 5k beast moving.

Province of Quebec up in Canada put this out for driving techniques:

http://www.ecomobile.gouv.qc.ca/en/e...lite/index.php

Ecomobile - Ecodriving

If you could stand to drive something else, virtually anything else would do better. Even a full-boat Impala would get better mileage. When you need to move furniture, rent a small trailer and tow it.

If you don't ever carry more than 5 people, go smaller yet with a Malibu. Power enough, I drove one from TN to MA and was ridiculously comfortable, and the trunk space was like a Las Vegas magic act. You can still tow a couple of sofas and a fridge behind one, too.

And that's only if you've got your heart set on GM. Maybe an Escape would be more to your liking?

It looks like you have the 6T75 Transmission with the following gear ratios;

1st: 4.484
2nd: 2.872
3rd: 1.842
4th: 1.414
5th: 1
6th: 0.742
R: 2.88
Final Drive: 2.77, 3.16, or 3.39.

You most likely have the 2.77:1 final drive (3.6L LY7 265hp engine) vs. the 3.16 or 3.39. The higher ratios are probably on the deluxe package (3.6L LLT 285hp engine).

Either way the gearing looks to be fairly decent. I'm not surprised about the first gear considering this beast weighs so much.

I can't fathom why every car maker and every level of U.S. Government isn't doing this- putting this information out there and promoting it. Even moreso, they should have been doing it since at least 1973. :confused::mad:

Apathy most likely. Fuel efficient cars were all the rage and getting the spotlight when gas was pushing the $4.00/gallon mark. As soon as gas prices plummeted so did the desire to drive a 'gutless' hybrid or fuel economy car. Instead desire for the SUV has once again increased. It goes in cycles, the majority of drivers do not care about fuel economy unless it begins to tie up money that could be devoted to 'play'. I remember it used to take near $60.00 to fill up my malibu. I did this twice a week so literally I did not have any extra money to put towards things that I would like to have done as most of it was tied up in fueling my car so I could work.

That being said, the fuel scare did leave a mark as people are more open to the idea of owning a fuel efficient car vs. a truck or SUV :D

You do realize this is the U.S. government you're talking about, right? :rolleyes:

Uhhhh... Oh. Yeah. :/