I bought a Neon LE from the auction. It's a 2000 model year, manual transmission. My question is, why does this thing get worse fuel efficiency than my 1997 automatic transmission Neon? I've had the 2000 in for an inspection after I bought it and it was given the okay. I've tried using some fuel injector cleaner to try to rectify the problem, but to no avail. I'm only getting approximately 400 kilometers (that's 248 Miles for the Americans) to a tank, when my 1997 was getting up and over 500 kilometers (310 Miles) to a tank. Any ideas what might be giving me my problem?

 

I just bought an '05 SX 2.0 with 5 speed and I'm disappointed that I am only getting 37mpg(Can) and I drive 90% hwy and try to shift around 2500rpm most of the time when I am in the city. I have yet to take it back for my first service but will be asking them to check into it as it also idles rough. So much for Transport Canada's rating of 35 city/48 hwy mpg(Can). I've read on this forum that the 2nd gens get worse mileage because of gearing. I'm at 2500rpm at 110kms/h in 5th gear. What are you rpm-ing at 110kms/h?

 

Believe it or not, my car didn't come with a tachometer so I have no idea how many RPM's I'm shifting/running at. I do it all by the sound of things. A few members on the forums are telling me that the 2nd generation of Neons have "tall" gears and that I should be shifting at a higher RPM than I would otherwise. That really sucks. I wonder if I can just re-tool the gears to work around this problem....

 

I haven't read on-line that you should shift at higher rpms. When I looked in my manual it says to shift from first to second at 23km/h, 2nd to 3rd at 37km/h, 3rd to 4th at 47km/h and 4th to 5th at 72km/h. It doesn't show rpm shift points, only mph and km/h. I've tried doing this and I don't think it has made that much of a difference, in fact my first gas fill-up was at 39mpg(Can) and has settled at 37mpg(Can). Maybe I should be shifting at higher rpms

By the way I checked your profile....see your in my neck of the woods. I live between Spruce and Devon. Go Oilers Go!!

 

I'm going to try shifting a bit differently to see what kind of mileage I can get out of this thing. I bought the 2000 Neon because I was happy with the gas mileage that my first gen neon was getting, but alas it was stolen. The only good to come of that is that my insurance company paid me $3400 for it and wrote it off. I'm not very happy with the mileage so far with the new Neon, though new shift points might just do it for me. Anyone have any other tips/tricks I can use to get higher efficiency? With gas prices where they are, I don't think I'll be able to afford to do as much driving as I'd like to, though I've cut down quite a bit in the recent month.

P.S. I'm SOOO glad to see hockey back in action. Go Oilers Go.