GM to Make Major Technology Announcement

[Robert Hall]

A Prius, if you actually drive it as opposed to just puttering around, doesn't achieve anywhere near 50 mpg. A European compact car with a diesel could put it to great shame.

My friends that have them say they get around 45mpg in typical mixed use (city, suburbia, freeway). The problem is those compact European diesels aren't here. The Prius is.

[Robert Hall]

without reading the comments in this thread, my question which may have already been asked is this : is this GM merely catching up. Prius has already offered 50 mpg for 4 years, and GM is nowhere near that. The next Prius will almost certainly improve on this. Where is GM? Behind as usual.

GM's always behind the curve, though...remember, they still build some cars with pushrod V6s and 4spd automatics, as if it were 1994 or so...

[Blake Noble]

My friends that have them say they get around 45mpg in typical mixed use (city, suburbia, freeway). The problem is those compact European diesels aren't here. The Prius is.

But, there is a teacher at my school who had an '04 Prius. Said she didn't go over the 36 mpg mark and could get 39 if she was really lucky and if there was a brisk wind blowing behind her.

And the Jetta is going to offer a diesel starting either this year or the next here in The States, so it's a start.

Edited March 8, 2008 by YellowJacket894

[turbo200]

A Prius, if you actually drive it as opposed to just puttering around, doesn't achieve anywhere near 50 mpg. A European compact car with a diesel could put it to great shame.

unless you're basing this on personal experience of owning the car, I can't say you know what you're talking about. my own experience with my hybrid is drive it hard drive it soft, it'll return the same. and actually the best way to drive it is accelerate strongly to a point and then stay firm and let the CVT and hybrid system do the rest. I can't tell you how good my mileage would be if I could just get to 50 or 70 and not have to stop constantly because of traffic in front of me. But the reality is, from my experience, you can achieve the numbers they are claiming. I have been on pleny of drives where I averaged much more than the EPA estimates, I mean sometimes as much as 65-70 mpgs, of course this is with perfect traffic conditions.

Even with that, GM is nowhere near a 45-50 mpg car either.

Edited March 8, 2008 by turbo200

[PurdueGuy]

unless you're basing this on personal experience of owning the car, I can't say you know what you're talking about. my own experience with my hybrid is drive it hard drive it soft, it'll return the same. and actually the best way to drive it is accelerate strongly to a point and then stay firm and let the CVT and hybrid system do the rest. I can't tell you how good my mileage would be if I could just get to 50 or 70 and not have to stop constantly because of traffic in front of me. But the reality is, from my experience, you can achieve the numbers they are claiming. I have been on pleny of drives where I averaged much more than the EPA estimates, I mean sometimes as much as 65-70 mpgs, of course this is with perfect traffic conditions.

Even with that, GM is nowhere near a 45-50 mpg car either.

GM is working on their prius-fighter. Yes, they are behind. Hopefully the final Volt product will be better than the Prius, and not merely comparable. The BAS system isn't about high mpg, it's about small gains for small money.

[Robert Hall]

But, there is a teacher at my school who had an '04 Prius. Said she didn't go over the 36 mpg mark and could get 39 if she was really lucky and if there was a brisk wind blowing behind her.

And the Jetta is going to offer a diesel starting either this year or the next here in The States, so it's a start.

Yes..it would be nice to see GM offer diesels in the Astra, Aura, Cobalt, Malibu, etc... I think that would be a great way of raising their CAFE ratings (along with cutting back on the 5000-6000 bloat beasts).

[Blake Noble]

unless you're basing this on personal experience of owning the car, I can't say you know what you're talking about.

I base my claim on what a few owners of the car have told me. Me having a personal experience, though, is and will always be virtually nil because, well, it's just not what I'd buy or desire to take a test drive in. So I suppose having a first-hand experience wins the discussion here and I tip my hat to you.

Even with that, GM is nowhere near a 45-50 mpg car either.

At the moment, I can't offer a rebuttal to the claim, so your one-hundred percent right here as well. Now, if GM built the Astra hybrid diesel they presented at the '05 NAIAS and brought it here as a Saturn, then they'd have something. And the reason why that car isn't being built is beyond me. GME made a bad decision by not building it. Let's hope that concept's concept finds it's way into the NG Astra and the other Delta IIs, as well as most of the Epsilon IIs, Alpha, and a few Zetas or whatever replacement comes after it provided GM makes the right decision and replaces Zeta with another global rear-drive architecture for larger cars.

Edited March 9, 2008 by YellowJacket894

[daves87rs]

You guys are making a mistake, if you are basing your calculations on $3 a gallon. Try $5 a gallon. GM is about right with their 2-mode introduction: that will help Tahoe sales from tanking. When OPEC goes off the U.S dollar and if one more South American dictator rattles his sabre, we will see $150 a barrel. Hybrids make so much more sense at $4.50+ a gallon.

In fact, the Smart Car might even start to look good...............

True. Sadly that will only be a matter of time.....

[daves87rs]

A Prius, if you actually drive it as opposed to just puttering around, doesn't achieve anywhere near 50 mpg. A European compact car with a diesel could put it to great shame.

True, if you drive it in the real world.....

A co-worker's wife has one, and gas milage is all over the place. Sometimes it will pull 40+mpgs, though nore often than not, it struggles to stay above 30...They have different different driving styles, but not enough to make a real impact.

Much of those Mpgs will depend of the weather, traffic, and so on.....

I come to find that GM's, while lower, also seem to be more real world...

[Blake Noble]

Well, you know, it's been said time and time again: a Cobalt with the manual transmission can pull 39 mpgs.

[loki]

Well, you know, it's been said time and time again: a Cobalt with the manual transmission can pull 39 mpgs.

i'd sure hope so. I made 37mpg in indiana with my 3.1L 99 monte over 6-7 gallons

Edited March 9, 2008 by loki

[turbo200]

True, if you drive it in the real world.....

A co-worker's wife has one, and gas milage is all over the place. Sometimes it will pull 40+mpgs, though nore often than not, it struggles to stay above 30...They have different different driving styles, but not enough to make a real impact.

Much of those Mpgs will depend of the weather, traffic, and so on.....

I come to find that GM's, while lower, also seem to be more real world...

It's just that iny experience, it was my own poor usage and understanding of the CVT transmission and the hybrid powertrain that resulted in under 40's mpg. Now, I drive it like I stole it, and regularly pull 42 mpg, average. This is with stiff, treacherous LA traffic, where hard braking is something to get used to, you're always running into reasons to stop. This is why I refuse to accept that it's the hybrid tech and not the driver's fault. I don't think I"m going out on a limb here saying a lot of people could use pointers on how to most efficiently and judiciously use acceleration. I just got off the freeway, was driving 78, my instant mpg readout was giving me 70-80, consistently.