2004 Chevy Malibu Bad Gas Mileage??

hello all,

Got a problem here. I just bought a 2004 chevy malibu. i got the fully loaded LT model with the V6. Everything is great, Except for the gas mileage. I get about 14.3 - 15.7 in the city only slightly higher on the highway. Now they (GM) claim 23 city and 32 on the highway. this is obviously nowhere near that. i only drive the car an average of 15 miles a day and it's mostly city miles. i almost never use the A/C. Everything i have read about this car claims to get excellent mileage some even as high as 25 in the city most get about 20 - 23. The car only has about 400 miles on it i have only owned it for about a month i keep it below 50 mph and never make sudden accelerations. any ideas?

I just read several posts about this in Edmund's Town Hall and I can relate my own experience as well. In my case (Maxx LS, 650 miles), here in FL the A/C is always on full or near-full blast. I'm getting around 15 city, but over 30 highway.

The Edmund's folks (all below 1,000 miles) are complaining of city mileage in the 13-16 range as well.

I have an '04 LT with 9100 miles and I get great mileage. It's never been below 24 around town and goes as high as 34-35 on highway trips.

Are your trips long enough for it to warm up? Is it red-light to red-light in a city, or running errands around the suburbs? The car seems to have a lot of power off the line and I can see a lot of stop-and-starting lowering the mileage a bit.

I only have about 2300 miles on mine, but around town I get about 24-25 and on the highway I average about 34.8 mpg.

Mine is only an LS, but I see no reason why you are getting such results. Have the dealer do some troubleshooting, something must be out of spec with a rig that new and the results that I and you get being so different. I like to think of myself as an assertive driver, but that is strange.

I don't think anything is wrong at all. "City" varies from location to location (hills, heat, etc., etc.), and "green" engines always get worse mileage than older ones. I define a "green" engine as one with less than, say, 2500 miles.

Yeah i think i just have to give it more time. we'll see how the mileage is after a couple thousand miles

i have a 2000 malibu, bought it brand spankin new, now its got 96000 miles on it, and let me tell you, it just eats gas like its candy, but i live in phoenix so i think the heat has something to do with it. but i change the air filter alot, and it only gets about 200 miles on a tank of gas, which for me is like 3 days worth of driving. try a cold air intake, cuz cold air is more dense than hot air, so the engine dosent have to suck in as much air, check the air pressure in your tires, take the air dam off the front, and buy the high octane fuel, it usually gets me about 50 to 70 more moles when i use something like 90 or 92, but im cheap so most of the time i put 86 or 87 octane in the car.

i got a 2001, w/79,000..... i live in LosAngeles...i get about 270-290miles on a typical full take of city/highway driving.. highway w/ minimal street/traffice driving gets around 320.

We bought an '05 Maxx LS about 3 months ago and are averaging about 24 mpg with 2/3 to 3/4 city driving.

The faster your car is going the less gas it needs to maintain that speed (because the engine parts already have great inertia, the car knows it doesn't need a powerful blast to keep that speed). Acceleration uses more gas, because as you accelerate your RPMs rise (which needs more gas to push harder to make the cylinders go down faster). Your best bet is to find the best speeds you can cruise at in your car that keep the RPMs below 2k. Quick acceleration can actually raise gas mileage, because since you get to your target speed faster, you have less time of raised RPMs.

I was just wondering, how much does A/C alter the gas mileage on gars generally? I drive a Camry, moms drives the Malibu. On the Camry the A/C only seems to change it about 1/2 to 1 mpg. I know the Camry's A/C works SOOOO much better (it is actually cold) moms Malibu is just cool.. and doesn't seem to help at all. Is this a common problem with Malibus? (I know off topic, sorry)

You are driving too short of distance to get an acurate reading not mention that you are still breaking it in. I would recommend you reset the reading on the radio information center and start over and include some hwy in it, I have the same body style 2004 LS, got it with 63 miles on the ticker, 94102 miles later I easily get at least 24 city and as much as 33.1 Hwy. As far as the A/C question I have noticed about 1 mpg lossed with it on HWY. Not sure about city as I mostly do HWY.

You have 94,000 miles on a '04 already? If that's not a typo, that's the record I've seen anywhere, and will make a lot of us breathe a big sigh of relief. I think you probably meant 9400.

I admit that, with temps having been in the 90s consistently for the past few months, I haven't seen a DIC reading around town of over 20 mpg, which means it's probably 17-18 in reality. That's with an average speed consistently of 15-25 mph.

You have 94,000 miles on a '04 already? If that's not a typo, that's the record I've seen anywhere, and will make a lot of us breathe a big sigh of relief. I think you probably meant 9400.

I admit that, with temps having been in the 90s consistently for the past few months, I haven't seen a DIC reading around town of over 20 mpg, which means it's probably 17-18 in reality. That's with an average speed consistently of 15-25 mph.

Well your right it was a typo, it isin't 94102, its 94205. Yes on a 2004. I get that alot. And I can tell you its running like the day I got it, grant it they are HWY miles but non the less they are miles. I could tell you 04 LS owners the items that will most likely fail based on the time and miles I have driven it but that s another post. So you can defenetly breath a sigh of relief. The last Chevy a 2000 Impala had 188xxx on the ticker when I turned it in for the Malibu in 2003. These engines are awesome and reliable. Got to love a chevy.