tonepad

I found these kinds of threads very helpful when I was first researching the HHR vs other cars so here goes. This was our first Road trip for "Chino" and we loved it for travelling even more than our Subi Forester...as long as we weren't in snow or off pavement. It's quieter and even more comfortable, and the 2.4L ecotec has a bad ass passing gear...I loved dusting the big dog SUV's that would suck up to my tail until we hit the passing lane...Buh Bye Anyway here are my numbers:

1. Around town LA, 263 miles @ 10.59 gals, $3.48 per (91 oct)= 24.84 MPG
2. LA-Buellton CA, 128 miles @ 5.05 gals, $3.49 per (91 oct)= 25.30 MPG
3. Buellton-SF CA, 355 miles @ 14.65 gals, $3.55 per (91 oct)= 24.23 MPG
4. SF-Healdsburg-SF, 307 miles @ 13.14 gals, $3.40 per (89 oct)=23.36 MPG
5. SF-N Lake Tahoe, 322 miles @ 11.04 gals, $3.42 per (91 oct)=29.16 MPG
6. Tahoe-Bishop CA, 319 miles @ 10.00 gals, $3.46 per (87 oct)=31.9 MPG
7. Bishop-LA, 305 miles @ 10.50 gals, $3.46 per (87 oct)=29.5 MPG

All legs involved some hill and range driving and in SF there is a stop sign every block, so you're only going about 20-25 MPH average. Leg #5 climbed up I-80 into the Sierras. On leg #7, I climbed a 15 mile switchback road into the Southern Sierra to 10,000 feet. Most of the trip I kept the average speed to 65, 70/70+ MPH. I tried to never go over 75 except of course to pass and as stated above WOW...the little dude just jumps up to 90 MPH. Of course when I got back to LA it's very hard to keep these moderate speeds since everyone is in a hurry around here. Norcal and Nevada were SO laid back!!!
Hope this helps any Newbs and Fencesitters and the rest of you vets. Finally I'm pretty happy with these numbers as I'm still just a bit over 2200 total miles on "Chino" so it's not even broken in yet...I always consider 2 oil changes as the real world break-in period...though some of you "pro wrench" people might disagree.

Black Beauty

This was a good example and helpful info for vacationers who will travel this year.
Watching your gas milage is something to do, but driving is gonna have a cost, and it`s still cheaper than flying.
Remember, gas is still cheaper than bottled water...

bigallis1

Tonepad, thank you for the detailed info. I can know what to expect on mine when it gets here.
Interesting, on how you did better with 87 octane than with 91. I guess it kinda proves that the higher octane doesn't always get the better mileage.

Black Beauty

Octane isn`t about mileage, it`s the anti-knock factor.
If you don`t accelerate hard, there is no knock anyway, and better mpg..

tonepad

I wouldn't draw too much yet from the octane use...remember to look to the next fill for the actual MPG/octane correlation. One also has to take into consideration, terrain and road type. I basically opted for higher octane when I knew I'd be on the "open" road and/or going up in elevation. I do think that a 91 does help in passing gear power, but around town here in LA I've decided to use 87 for now. Also i was usually filling up at half tank, so some of the 91 is blended with 87 or 89 and therefore not at its' full rating. It's good to know that the HHR is fairly happy running on a wide range of octane. You can see the price per gallon was high in out here in the West and has jump another .20 per since we've returned. One more thing I watch is if I have to use fuel from a cut rate dealer I always get the 91 since who knows how diluted the lower grade is. Gas was so high in SF...$3.65 for 91 that I had to go with a cheap dealer...and it was fine for leg 4 which was mostly around town in SF with a trip up to the Sonoma wine country and as you can see on that leg running pure 91 I only got 23.36 MPG. Boy does that prove the saying "your mileage may vary" !

Goose

Thanks Wilson..these numbers are informative once you break it in you should see the numbers for mpg go up a bit. Since during the week 99.9 % of my driving are highway miles, I would hope to get over 30-31 each tank. My Matrix is rated 28-34 and I usually hit 35-37 in the summer months but barely 30 on winter gas


Goose

Rrailwriter

Very NICE roadtrip!!! We made the same roadtrip last year, but we went on up the California coast after Tahoe, and continued up the California coast and Oregon, then followed the Columbia river as we headed East and through the Idaho panhandle, till we got to Glacier NP in Montana, then we came back the same way, and then decided to go to Lassen Volcanic NP and Tahoe and back to Mt via Craters of the Moon in Idaho. It was great!