Some guy at the barbershop was saying that he gets 38 mpg out of his 4-cylinder Malibu. He didn't say how old it was. He did not mention that it was a hybrid so I'm guessing that it isn't. Is it possible for someone to get that kind of mileage from a Malibu? 38 sounded like exaggeration so I didn't even bother to question his claim but if it's possible then, wow, I'm impressed. That's the new thing to lie about, though, what kind of mileage one gets. I'm starting to hear people talk about it a lot more now. Even a few months ago, most people would shrug and say "I don't know" when I asked them what mpg they got from their cars.
I had a 2001 Malibu and the best I got was 28mpg or so. Haven't seen any Malibu Hybrids in my area yet.
Three years ago I was in a miles per gallon test with a State of maine owned Malibu. It was a brand new car at the time. The worst mileage we gould get out of it was 18 miles per gallon on a 50 mile loop of combined city and highway driving, and that was with spinning tires, late braking, and riding the brakes. The best we got was 36 miles per gallon on the same loop, the same day, with the same newspaper reporter documenting the information. I have no doubt a properly driven malibu could get 38 and maybe even 40 miles per gallon with an aftermarket air filter and a good driver. We did not use any special driving techniques in our test in regards to coasting or driving slowly. The difference in total time for the loop was only a couple of minutes. I know the Maibu we drove was a traditional gasoline powered car.
The use of the word "gets" is always suspect. Odds are, it was just a limited time measure under optimal conditions. Ask for an annual average. Odds are, you'll get a very different MPG value... one much lower. .
I think a lot of it is denial and wishfull thinking on the part of owners. I asked my parents what their Caddy gets. My Dad says 25 mpg. I say.....maybe straight highway but what about around town. Still don't know exactly but I'll bet lower than 25 mpg. My old Saturn SC2 coupe got 25 mixed driving.
my Saturn SC2 (2000, third door) got 32 if I drove it down to empty in the summer. That was the trick with a Saturn SL1, SL2 or SC2, drive the sucker down to empty and the mileage was higher than if I filled it up at a quarter tank. With a Toyota hybrid, it makes no difference if it's half full or a quarter full which is just so cool.
just for everyones information, i wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. i have two corvettes and they get 30-31 mpg on the freeway when i was very careful. not bad for two bad-a$$ machines with hundreds of horses on standby. no hybrid too! that's why they're just once in a blue moon cars now. have a good 4th, be safe people!
It was reported by CNN that Wayne G. can get 50mpg out of a 25mpg car. Driven "right" maybe the Malibu can. I'll believe it if the driver keeps a log, otherwise just barbershop banter.
FYI: My "experiment" was in May of 2005 and a senior reporter from the Portland Press Herald rode shotgun with myself and Maine's former Energy Director. It was published as a front page article in our Sunday paper...
Was that somebody from Canada, reporting the fuel economy in miles per Imperial gallon? A co-worker had a 2006 Malibu, claimed around mid 30's on the highway Apparently the "new" Malibu with the 3.6 V6 does quite well. Consumer Reports got 13 city, 30 highway, out of their test Malibu
i had a 2001 V6 Chevy Malibu and I averaged 32 mpg... i think 38 would be possible with just a little work. however, when my wife took over the reigns (when I got Pablo) her short commutes cut the mileage down to 20...
No, just an American car company sixty-something type, who lives in the past, doing some exaggerating. He also mentioned, as he lamented how so many people were buying foreign cars, that he didn't understand it since he was speeding through the mountains and getting 38 mpg. I'm sure that he perhaps achieved 38 at one point for one tankful somehow under unusual circumstances, but speeding through the mountains and getting 38 mpg all the time? Nope. I didn't know which mountains he was referring to but they aren't in Michigan <S>
38mpg? Maybe with lots of down hill driving. That's like me saying I can get 71mpg / 700 miles per tank in the Prius ... but not mentioning that I have to work at it. The OLD epa wasn't even that high for the Malibu, not even for the hybrid. Here's the estimates for the hybrid Malibu, figured using the OLD epa formula: Chevy Malibu Hybrid Of course, ALL cars do worse under the new EPA calc's. and why did they change the formulas? Because the guzzler's fuel economy looked so bad, when the Prius got a 60mpg rating. So they changed the formula, even though the guzzler's mpg ratings would go down. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
It is possible when a person keeps up on the maintenence like air filters and fluid changes in intervals. I have a 99 S-10 4x4 that has a rating of 15 City and 17 Highway. Combined city and Highway driving I'm pushing 20-21 MPG. It's got the manual transmission in it so that a plus and on top of that I don't hammer on the pedal.
