c2vette

I have already gotten the evil eye 3 times from CHP and the palm down motion once, so I am not gonna push my luck any further *laugh*.

Eaglesnest

3200 miles mostly hiway at 75-80 26MPG

Has anyone else had someone call you SS CUTE. It makes me want to tie them to the roof and give them taste of cute.

itsallu

~800+ miles, 2nd fill up. Dash read 26.4 mpg. After the pump I calculated 29.38. I went 432 miles prior to filling up. This was with me pumping the throttle a little more than before and cruising about 80 when on the freeway for a 105 mile roundtrip commute. With this performance in both gas and power, I may to exchange my silverado for another one.


One other note - rpm floats at 2.5k between 80-85mph. Pretty nice considering my old s10 wouldve been nearly 4k+ rpm.

Used 89 octane.
Automatic.

Bad09SS

This is a great thread for me! It would be really helpful if you guys would specify automatic or 5-speed. My wife is considering an automatic HHR SS, but isn't too keen on having to use premium. If I could convince her that she'll average ~26mpg (60-70%highway), she'll still go for it. Thanks for the help.

waloupis

Regular gas is fine and Super is recommended for OPTIMAL performance. So your wife can use regular and every so often you can treat her to a tankful of Super.

Nebulous1

Section 5-5 of the owner's manual says you can use 87 octane.

“If your vehicle has the 2.0L L4 engine (VIN Code X) or the 2.4L L4 engine (VIN Code P), use premium unleaded gasoline with a posted octane rating of 91 or higher. You can also use regular unleaded gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher, but your vehicle’s acceleration could be slightly reduced, and you might notice a slight audible knocking noise, commonly
referred to as spark knock.”

I'm planning to run 87 or maybe 89 octane after break-in, since conditions to put all 260 ft-lbs on the road through the front tires are limited anyway. There's so much computerized ignition and valve timing stuff I'm guessing there won't be a noticeable mileage reduction. But I plan on watching the mileage for a few tanks of each grade to see if there's a noticeable difference in mileage anyway. My 2001 A4 said use only 91, and said there would be a mileage reduction if using anything less. I never tested it though, just paid extra at the pump for 7 years to run on 91.

87/91 * 260 ft-lbs = around 249 hp and ft-lbs, if the output correlates to the octane rating and still ignites fully. I have no idea whether or not that's true with the ignition electronics, but I'd love to hear thoughts from anyone who does...

c2vette

5 speed, I drive pretty hard, easy fast commute, settled in at 25.5 mpg (still) last post, since I doubt this will change. As far as "cute", I was with a friend in his $335,000+ Ferrari 599, and an attractive young woman called it "absolutely adorable", so consider the source and don't worry about it (i.e. with girls, "cute" is definitely good). Bottom line for me is that EVERY 16 year old+ male that has driven or ridden in mine thinks the HHR SS is "amazingly fast", "very cool", or "awesome". My StingRay will always be tops with my wife though.

Old Lar

I was averaging ~30.4 mpg in '07 using regular in my 2.4L auto. I switched to 93 octane the start of '08 and averaged 30.2 mpg for 5 tanks of gas. I'm not looking at a high performance ride so I'm back to 87 octane.

I did notice that when using 93 octane, the car did seem to accelerate quicker, but seat of the pants performance is not a real indication. I don't do much light to light drag racing, so don't worry about fast acceleration.

I figure that 93 octane was not worth the 20 cents per gallon extra.

Nebulous1

Thanks, Lar!

Razinhell

I would like to know what SS owners are getting more in the everyday city driving. I get 15+ in my 350hp Dodge Charger driving to work everyday. but i get 25mpgs driving highway. So a SS getting 26-29 isn't much, but if it gets mid 20's driving the SS to work then all is good. My 350hp GTO was getting 28mpgs on the highway, but that was with a really low 6th gear manual.