40.5 mpg
 

So, the new to me 2001 SL1 is running a bit better than the old car that got wrecked back in May. Filled up in Columbus, IN Friday, took the two lane back to Lexington, KY through Madison, IN. If you are not familiar with this route, it is hilly and twisty. It has been mild here, so no a/c except for about 40 miles Sunday. So, 200 miles two lane, twisty and hilly, at anywhere from 35mph - 75mph and 40 miles with the cruise on the interstate at 80mph. Had half a tank left, filled it up. Held 5.919 gal and had 240.1 miles on the trip. Comes out to 40.564 mpg. I'll take it.


Rob

That's great. I wish my 99' SL2 got that. It had been getting about 30.5 mpg on my mostly interstate commute (it is a bad oil burner...I joke that it eats oil like a 2-stroke). I had to get my valves redone after burning 1 and losing a cylinder so I went ahead and got new piston rings too and now I am up to 33mpg. I hope it climbs a couple mpg when it breaks in and the rings fully seat.

As the wear surfaces match each other, friction should decrease, and economy and overall power should increase. If I drive mine all the time on the interstate and with the air on, I get 34-36 mpg.

That's good to hear. In my post I was implying the AC was also on. I'm interested to see how much a difference it makes when it is off...it sure does eat a considerable part of power to the wheels when trying to merge into rush hour traffic off of 25 mph ramp lol. Enough I turn it off for max power!

Hahaha, same here. I call it the turbo button.

Last summer I took a drive from Bowling Green through the back roads to Knoxville via the Cumberland Gap. And then on to Atlanta through The Tail of the Dragon. Great fun on those roads.

I seem to regularly get at least 36 in my SC without really trying (70MPH on highway). I wouldn't be surprised to see 38 if I concentrated a little.

On the 00-02 models, if you floor the gas pedal, the computer turns the AC off for you.

no way Keith---I'd heard that on earlier generations, the PCM might, under certain circumstances, cut out the A/C.

Did they actually make it a built in trigger in the logic?

oh my 95 and 97 SC2s get 35 on the highway w A/C on long distance driving. Speed in the low to mid 70's. MPG nosedives after that (for me anyway)

Yes way, it does cut off. Almost all cars do that today. BTW, I took my 02 SL(1) on many long distance road trips, typically cruising between the high 70's to mid 80's, sometimes with AC, sometimes not and always got over 40 mpg. My overall mileage over 275k was 37.85 mpg. I kept a spreadsheet on it for all costs and my amortized cost per mile came out to about $0.14/mile. That included all maintenance, tires, brakes, gas, initial purchase (new) and insurance and registration/taxes. Beat the heck out of the national average of over $0.60/mile (for cars purchased that year).

sweet -- the SL1s kicked butt on mileage

Pretty sure manifold air pressure triggers the a/c cutout on my car. Keith is right, most cars built in the last 20 years have some sort of wide open throttle a/c cutout.

Said "no way" sarcastically out of surprise --which is why he answered with "yes way".....I do not doubt Keith's answers on things unless they are sufficiently bizarre so as to warrant further investigation. And when I do further investigate for my own learning purposes, turns out he's usually right.....:)

derf, I like your avatar of that Tuxedo. I have a similar one but his mask is only on the left side of his face, so I call him Phantom.

Why thank you. Shame I missed the top of his head when taking the photo (he moved). He's 16 and his old bones are starting to hurt. Lab tests say he's in renal failure.

Zeke says he's just fine and goes about his normal daily routine.

Actually taking him back in for a re check of that creatinine result which indicated renal failure, and another test for heart disease which he has.
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For anyone with an old cat showing signs of stiffness, there is a product called "Dasuquin for Cats". It's like osteo-biflex for cats and IT WORKS. Takes a week or two to reach full effectiveness but your buddy/budette will thank you for the mobility they gain back. Not cheap but effective.

Check with your vet first, of course.

I don't know how old my Tuxedo Maine Coon is, he was dumped out here by someone and adopted us. My previous buddy was 27.5 years old when he reached the point that he was in too much pain to go on. This on tests positive or FIV (HIV for cats) but he is very healthy and I won't put him down, at least not as long as he is in good health.

27.5? yo....you clearly maintain your family members as well as your cars

Yeah, they did... Honestly, it lakes me re-think the thought of getting a manual trans SL2 for a daily driver(to keep the miles off my Redline)... Maybe I should be shopping for a simple cam car?

Single cam 3rd gens are only 100hp, but that is plenty when you get the stick shift.

We had an automatic SL1, but it was gutless in the hills... The transmission programming didn't help much...

beat me to it. I have enough troubles getting my SC2 up some of he hills outside of Pittsburgh. If you live where it's flat, I'm sure it's fine. But where bones lives in WV, I'll bet it revs a lot and goes nowhere in a hurry

how did you saturn hold up on the tail? thought about going out there sometime

i average about 100-150 miles per 1/4 tank on my 02 sl2. thats no a/c with hills on two lanes and city driving. btw any one know what kind of hp a 3rd DOHC SL2 gets?

124hp

thank you derf, i wasnt aware that these little monsters had that much power being a 1.9

I just did 441 with the Saturn and it was just fine. However it did lose momentum on some hills making me wish for ten more HP. Then there was the little issue of the engine grenading while engine braking.
Also the long wheelbase made some tight turns worrying events.

With my 135 mile per day commute last week, I managed 41.1 mpg averaging 70 mph and no ac on. I'll take that any day considering the same size car won't get that today.

Yeah, cars here tend to use more fuel than in other areas... The S series we had(SOHC/auto) gave us just about 30-32mpg, and liked to be near 3k RPM...

The Chevy Cruze we had(1.4T/6T45) gave us an average of 28mpg, with lots of freeway at 75-80mph

Our Subaru Impreza gives us 31-34mpg under similar driving conditions(that FB20/CVT combo does friggin great), and the engine usually stays between 2-3k...

My L61 powered Malibu(with the 4T45 trans) only gives me 23-24mpg, but I usually drive 5-10 miles over the speed limit(except in town), cross three major hills between home and work, and that poor engine lives between 3-5k...

My SW2 is good for 35 mpg on the highway with the AC off. About 34 with it on.

My 94 SC2 would average 32MPG with A/C on Road trips. State Speed limit 75MPH. But it had to be run in cruise control and it is an automatic. With out cruise I could never get it to average that well.
At the same time a friend had a 1999 5 speed sedan that regularly got in the 40's on the same trips. I never figured the difference out other than the 5 speed was more efficient and probably GM got better at engine management algorithms.

SOHC or DOHC (friend's)?

Both my 95 and 97 SC2's get 35 on the highway w AC. 65mph.

Well, the 95 hasn't been on a road trip in years unless you count 7 hrs rd trip to meet up with Bonestock on the day he wrecked a cylinder on his IRL coming to meet me at a restaurant. And no, I didn't think to check the mileage.
And now it belongs to my nephew.

Though I still have a badly worn key to it and told him if it is ever missing from in front of his house, call me first before reporting it stolen. Was only condition of gifting it to him.
Getting back on topic:
99 was the 1st yr of the 3rd gen of coupes and BCM freed up PCM memory so Unc you may be right. Also, they did something with the MP3 (DOHC) tranny gear ratios that may have increased mpg. It's documented. But not in this post.

I never got mine to better 31-33 mpg on the highway. 80mph doesnt help though lol. I averaged 27-28 between my town and highway driving if i was being nice

It was a dual over head Cam engine.

Father Paul was a priest from Canada, and his wife and Valerie and I did a lot of things together. His Saturn was purchased in Canada and set up to read kilometers rather than MPH. It had a lot of miles on it as he had a traveling circuit in Canada. That was about the time that the indicators that Saturn's were using oil and his had started to use quite a bit. Something else that never made a whole lot of sense. I followed him one day for quite a few miles on the Freeway, mind you state speed limit 75 mph and not the slightest indication it was burning oil based on looking for exhaust smoke out of the exhaust pipe. Thinking back it seems such a long time ago. So much of both of our worlds have changed and along with that he moved to Tennessee and we have lost track of one another. But the real time has not been a lot. It's funny the tricks your memory can play on you.

My 95SC2 consumed over 5 quarts of synthetic blend per 3k mi towards the end of the 1st engine.

Never a puff of smoke on the highway, never a drop of oil in the garage.
Most efficient oil burning car I've ever seen. It tended to run at a higher operating temp so I think the combustion was more complete after EGR. And the cat prob took a beating but kept doin it's thing.

Never failed inspection. CLOSE towards the very end.....but passed a tailpipe test.

I'm thinking the calibration must have been off

When Valerie purchased her 94 SC2 coupe the Saturn must have been successful in Phoenix. There were a number of dealers and the show rooms were busy. The dealer was in Chandler now gone of course. One thing the dealer was not happy about was the 5W20 motor oil recommendation and suggested the use of 10W30. Again, it is hot here and he had already seen engines expiring. Something that was fairly common when using a light weight oil in an environment where the temperature was triple digits 3 to 4 months of the year and hardly ever below freezing.
So that car which had about 50,000 miles on it at the time never saw 5W20 motor oil while we had it.
Fast forward another 10 years as time passed, a blue cloud following a car largely indicated a Saturn was in front of it. The lady across the street bought a SC something sedan for her daughter for her first car so I would see that one every day. Sure enough about 100,000 miles or so it would start up the road with a blue mist following it. It was traded soon afterwards. The act of checking the oil was too much to learn to do in a system with self service gas stations around and no one to check the oil any more.
We still have ours because Valerie and I are both motor heads and her coupe meant more than a car to her, it was the path to taking care of her self, the first car owned that wasn't a used up used car. It has about 100,000 miles on it now, a bit more. The odometer has quit working and I have been afraid to take the dash board apart for fear of breaking all the plastic snap pieces but I have the parts send by the fellow on the forum with the wrecking yard. Still sitting In the box that was sent in.
The thing has never used enough oil between oil changes to add any. When I started taking care of the car for her I started using 20W50 oil which I use in all my engines except something purchased almost new and then I use Mobil 1 15W50 in it.
Although my new Dodge uses variable cam shaft timing something that is dependent on oil pressure to work right and I have not figured out what the tolerances on that system is. Factory recommended is 0w15 and I am not about to use that unless I see snow on the ground.
So I am using Mobil 1 10W30 and my reading says it will get cam shaft timing error codes. I have been too busy to see if my scan tool can read the engine but it runs.
Nothing wrong with 10W30, I just wish that more consistent information was out there that talked about oil viscosity vs temperature vs engine wear.
The factory responsibility ends when the warranty runs out. People reporting engine problems are usually 2nd or 3rd owners driving what is then a high mileage car, those you see on the forum.
The original 1st owners are driving a new car, now a Kia or a Hyundai. GM quit selling Saturns made in Tennessee when they could re-badge a corporate platform designed by Opal, put together by Dawoo and imported with a bag of badges with different brand names on it thus generating Badge Engineered design and the buying public was wooed by clever advertising and good design by Kia and Hyundai. Something that they learned from GM and then GM forgot about.
Oh well, I guess I have lived lone enough to become a Grumpy Old Man who still enjoys his cars.
Before I forget, the only long term problem the Saturn had since we owned it, was running hot. It would get so hot that one point in time there were more error code lights on the dash board than I knew existed. I could keep it under control by watching the heat gauge but it bit me one day making a high speed run on the way to Flagstaff. I watched it like a hawk and got lucky nothing ever got damaged. But I eventually found out the Catalytic Converter was in a failure mode and partially blocked. It passed smog every year. When I found it out I used a generic high flow catalytic converter and overheating problems stopped.
Have a good day.
John