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GM Engineers Say All Cars Should Have Gas Mileage Displays

ecomodder.com — Unfortunately, even though it would improve gas mileage, the decision is up to the marketing people.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 15, 2008

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  • billywest, on 05/15/2008, -7/+57I'd like the talking straight-shooter version. You know, the one that says, "Is this trip really necessary, *****?"
  • MetroMPG, on 05/15/2008, -5/+52Toyota and Nissan have announced they'll be installing fuel consumption displays in every model. GM should follow suit.
  • Konrad9, on 05/15/2008, -1/+21My Mazda3 has one.
    Well, the software is there but it wasn't turned on when I got the car, had to push a few buttons and what not.
    Apparently they removed the software on models that weren't supposed to have it enabled on the 2008 line... nice job Mazda!
  • fiatlux, on 05/15/2008, -3/+26This makes absolute sense. It would be nice to know how much fuel is being consumed and how much it is costing me for my commute or trip to the grocery store. This should be mandated on every new car manufactured.
  • 48snickers, on 05/15/2008, -0/+22You can add a third party gas mileage gauge to your car. The one I'm familiar with is called "ScanGuage". It plugs into your OBDII port, which any car built in the last 10 years supports.
  • bicyclethief, on 05/15/2008, -4/+19The hate is strong in this one.
  • TheMidnight, on 05/15/2008, -0/+15Most GM cars I've seen keep a miles per gallon average, and if you have a nicer GM car, they have instant, miles left on tank, and so on.
  • OaklandNative, on 05/15/2008, -0/+13Even my 1987 Cadillac has instant and average gas mileage. All cars definitely should have this. It certainly makes me drive more efficiently (as efficiently as is possible in a 1987 Cadillac). If you gun the engine, you can see the money flying out of your pocket.
  • griz, on 05/15/2008, -1/+13Just got one. It's amazing how different I drive knowing my gas mileage. Also awesome to see how efficient it is to drive downhill. I find myself costing into stops from long distances rather than touching the gas and brake unnecessarily. My goal is to raise my average MPG by 5% over 6 months. That's all I need to pay for the investment in the scan gauge at the current gas prices and with a 90 mile round trip commute.
  • kick, on 05/15/2008, -1/+14My 25 year old BMW has one. Yeesh. It's also nuts that I can get 25MPG out of an old german tank and newer cars often struggle to do that.
  • stix213, on 05/15/2008, -0/+10"Hello this is OnStar - We've detected you went to Safeway already yesterday, and have determined your current travel destination to be unnecessary and harmful for the environment. OnStar policy is to restrict your vehicle use to only eco-friendly travel, but please be assured your ignition will be restored before you drive to work in the morning. Thank you for using OnStar!"
  • Modestexcuse, on 05/15/2008, -1/+12This seems quite obvious to become an included feature in all automobiles. Navigation and GPS to follow. All of these technologies help with fuel consumption in their own right.
  • Jexie, on 05/15/2008, -1/+10"you still pump gas in your car like a idiot." So you have some sort of secret electric car then that none of us have access to?
  • Hoov, on 05/15/2008, -1/+12My buddy's beater BMW from frickin' 1984 even has a gauge for gas mileage. It's analogue and only displays instantaneous mileage but even that's better than nothing.
  • leecllw, on 05/15/2008, -1/+12It would be helpful to the consumer, anyone in marketing should see that as an easy pitch.
  • Narbo, on 05/15/2008, -0/+12Tips for improving your gas mileage:

    - Use the brakes as little as possible. On the highway, its rarely neccesary to brake if you maintain a couple cars distance. Don't be that guy constantly hitting his brakes and then speeding up again for every little eddy in traffic speed.
    - Accelerate lightly and shift early (if you have a manual transmission)
    - Coast as MUCH as possible. For example when approaching a red light, coast up to it. When your foot is off the gas and the car is in gear and moving the ECU will turn off the injectors (engine will pump air) and you will effectively be using NO gas at all.
    - Best fuel economy will be had at the lowest possible RPM in whatever gear you happen to be in. If you want to take it to extremes you can also drive slower. (who really wants to drive slower though? come on.)
  • linagee, on 05/15/2008, -1/+8Why do you hate it? Driving *is* like counting off the dollars.
  • inactive, on 05/15/2008, -1/+9I just put on in my '08 civic. Like the above poster says, it's had a dramatic effect on my driving habits. I actually tend to accelerate when going downhill now so that I have the inertia to make it uphill without sending the TPS above 25. I was averaging 29mpg in the city and now I'm getting close to 40. Of course, I drive like a slow ***** now, but so do at least 1/3 of the other drivers I see on the road.
  • layzie83, on 05/15/2008, -0/+6Not sure if this is it or not since the service manager enabled it on mine for me but it is worth a shot I suppose.

    http://forums.triplezoom.com/zerothread?id=3337643 ...
  • solarsavior, on 05/15/2008, -4/+10Yes, it makes sense, but give the market a damn chance before thinking another something needs to be mandated.
  • stix213, on 05/15/2008, -0/+7While I would like mpg reading displayed in all cars, the GM engineer is exactly correct. The engineers don't get to decide on everything in the vehicle. If people higher up (including marketing) determine that they would sell more cars without the mpg reading displayed then they need to skip that feature.

    I can certainly understand why a vehicle like a Chevy Yukon might not sell as well if it constantly reminded you how poor of gas mileage you are getting. I mean, you didn't buy the Yukon for the mpg, but it would sure take the fun out of driving it if every time you look down at your dash you realize you are spending $0.50 per mile. (I have no idea if a Yukon actually displays MPG by the way)

    The article is definitely correct about turning mpg into a game though. I do that all the time in my Prius, and was pretty stoked when I was able to get an average of 55 mpg for an entire tank of gas in commute traffic. (I usually get 47 mpg average per tank when not trying)
  • MetroMPG, on 05/15/2008, -0/+6The irony of most automakers' approach to now, is that they've been putting the displays in the most expensive, least efficient models. The people who bought smaller cars (not counting hybrids) to reduce fuel consumption are driving "blind" (unless they buy an aftermarket gauge).
  • jbird32275, on 05/15/2008, -2/+9I used to work for GM. I drive a Nissan - so does my wife.
  • grumpyrain, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5I have a consumption meter built into the dash of my car. There are actually two consumption measurements. One is for the current trip. This is the main one you look at, but it doesn't change that much. I would be surprised if the number changed even once per minute. The other one is the "instantaneous" measurement, which is pretty close to useless. Even gentle acceleration from standstill on flat ground sends you to 25+L/100km territory (of course coasting is pretty close to 0).
  • skidooer, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5I am intrigued by your ideas. However, I am unsure of how I should generate that electricity. Gasoline engine?
  • joegibes, on 05/15/2008, -1/+9As a GM engineer myself I whole-heartedly agree.
  • sleepykit, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5How about the calculator edition. You tell it where you want to go and current gas prices, and it'll spit out how much the trip's going to cost you.
  • weister42, on 05/15/2008, -1/+7My 98 Deville's on-board computer tells me my instant & average mpg, total fuel consumption, average mph and other things such as voltage and coolant temperature.

    How can this be an argument when it has already been incorporated?
  • linagee, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5Do you only pay for gas when your wife or mother in law is with you?
  • earlycj5, on 05/15/2008, -2/+9Go figure, my European car doesn't either. Gee, not just the American cars apparently. You're point was?
  • dchaffin, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4No doubt, how about putting that extra effort into getting better gas mileage than a useless display of how much money we're not saving.
  • ramprasadh, on 05/15/2008, -4/+13I have a motorcycle with a broken fuel guage... Ignorance is bliss.. :-).. You end up using less gas as a result of not knowing how much you have left.. and as an add on, getting a workout pushing the damn thing to the nearest gas stn..
  • bpotts, on 05/15/2008, -6/+11Great that's just what we need....more mandates from government so I can be required to pay for more crap I don't want. How about letting the consumers decide if it's something they want to pay for instead of mandating it?
  • bbqsalad, on 05/15/2008, -2/+9I have MPG display on my Passat and I hate it.. Might as well be a meter counting off the dollars..
  • wormhole, on 05/15/2008, -1/+10Heh, my 06 Malibu SS has one. It does kind of turn into a game, my highest mpg on long trips is ~23 and my lowest around the city was somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 before I stopped leadfooting it. Most of the time I don't give it a second thought though.
  • theuber1337, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5My 1990 Cadillac has one of these. It displays current millage, average, fuel used, and distance until tank runs out based on average. This is more than 20 year old tech on GM cars.
  • AdamFromMyspace, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5I found the opposite on my manual Accord. If I accelerate and let the car rev to 3000-4000 (onramps, etc.) before I shift, I get an average of 3 mpg higher each tank than if I bog the motor and shift at 2500-3000.
  • super_spyder, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4The Prius is different, it was designed mainly with fuel efficiency in mind, Toyota doesn't do that with their other cheaper cars, or at least it doesn't do it in my Scion.
  • computergod, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4My old moped just had a fuel dip-stick, my never vespa one didn't even have that. I had to look in the tank or tap it to hear how high up it was.

    My scooter now has an actual fuel gauge, and it just feels luxurious.
  • Yankees368, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4I know that, for me, having the current and average gas milage on my MItsubishi Outlander has helped me increase my MPG's to over 22. If I see my current MPG, I am more likely to slow down on the highway and watch the MPG average bump up from 17 to over 24!
  • unpolloloco, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4Don't most (new) cars have this feature already?
  • asspants, on 05/15/2008, -2/+6I work for General Motorts as an engineer, so I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies. Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about.

    But trust me…. You don’t.

    I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you don’t know what you are talking about. This is how bad info gets passed around. If you don’t know about the topic….Don’t make yourself sound like you do.
  • expert01, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4Oh yeah? My 85 has one too, and it displays miles to empty on top of that.

    Although it only displays in liters.

    Although it doesn't work right now because I fried the BCM.
  • YZBot, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4There will be that many more people to dodge on the interstate going way under the limit.
  • richiewrt, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5Best fuel economy is not at the lowest possible RPM in every gear. It is at what ever RPM you car runs most efficiently.
  • griz, on 05/15/2008, -2/+7Adjust your driving habits to maximize the MPG.
  • inactive, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4My Civic doesn't have one, either.
  • ChileanGoD, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4My Suzuki SX4 has intant and average gas consumption gage too and I can assure you that most of the time I play with the gage to have the most fuel efficient driving.
  • skidooer, on 05/15/2008, -1/+5The more you press down on the gas pedal, the more fuel you will use.
  • cawpin, on 05/15/2008, -0/+3Most people don't know that. I was going to point it out but you beat me to it.
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