Gas mileage

[Velocidallas]

I was wondering about this but currently I own the GEO Prizm LSI 1994 and it has a 1.8L engine. Now my question is why does my car have better gas mileage then a Prizm with a 1.6L engine? I thought the bigger the engine the more power and gas it uses. I saw some websites and it showed me that the 1.8L has a little better gas mileage.

[Velocidallas]

Or does it depend on how you drive? Since someone I talked to said it depends on how you drive and they said that bigger size engine will always take more gas.

[JakeEv]

I'm no expert on this matter, I really only know my own car. But, when looking at those websites, always take their estimations with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that my 91 Prizm with the 1.6L should get something like 24 city/28 highway, but in my own tests on my car I consistently get around 34 mpg, and have on more than one occasion gotten over 40 mpg by using only Chevron gasoline along with laying off the accelerator and only going 55-60 mph on the freeway.

[JakeEv]

I don't, however, think that the extra .2L on your engine should really make a huge difference on gas consumption. I think it's more of a 4-Cylinder vs 6-Cylinder issue when it comes to "bigger engine = more gas". But again, I'm no expert.