Rep Power: 0

I travel in South California and I rented a car (Chevy cobalt). It was fine. I didn’t like the too plastic interior but the phonic insulation was ok and the rpm 600 rev lower then on my vic for the same 65 mi/h. For the first time I so the information button on board of a car. I checked out. It shows: TipA, Trip B, Outside temperature and odometer, MPG, Fuel left for X mi, Oil life x%, Coolant temperature.
This was the first time I had the opportunity to check out the features.
First I was excited but soon I realise that is just a "playing device" at least for some info.
I tested the MPG feature using the cruise control. First I set the cruise control to 65 mi/h and after about a 1 min I reset the MPG indicator to have better calculation. First indicate 39.1 MPG. Hooo. You try to beat Honda!! Then the indicator just dropped down to 34 in about half hour. Hmm that is more real but how it calculate it?
I tried at 40 for 5 minutes on empty street. The indicator show 58 MPG . I pressed the break to go down to 35 and then slowly up to 40 again (took about 30 seconds) and use cruise control again. The MPG indicators show 30 MPG. Well after another 5 min the MPG indicator didn't recover. So the computer is not doing an averaging. That indicator is useless.
Beside that fake MPG indicator the coolant temperature, outside temperature indicator where fine.
Other question is about the "oil life" indicator. When I was starting the trip was 48%. After a 400 mi trip, the indicator was 43%. If is going down like this then is hell.
I can’t comment on the "Fuel remaining for X mi" indicator. If is based on the MPG then is a joke. If is based on Fuel level in the tank then is imprecise.

Question: Any oppinion? Experience?

 
Rep Power: 255

The mpg indicator is standard equipment on some Honda Civic models, namely, the Hybrid.

The mpg indicator, linked to Trip A and Trip B, give a *fair* indication of your mileage. My Trip B, which I have never reset since day 1, reads 54.5 mpg, over 50K. My Actual mpg, using fuel consumption calculation (by hand) is about 52.7. So there is some inaccuracy.

It is handy to have, and, along with the Instantaneous display (histogram), make useful tools for those (who have nothing else to do) who are fuel conscienous.

BTW, the Hybird (03-05) doesn't have a Fuel remaining guage. I am not sure about the '06.

 
Rep Power: 339

my experience was with a BMW M3. I say in the city, it's just about completely useless. The indicator varies depending on how much throttle is put in.

 
Rep Power: 0

I've got that on my yukon denali. I never use it, as soon as I hit the gas, it goes to 0mpg

 
Rep Power: 290

its not scientific like a temp gauge. its a educated guess, the harder you push the lower it will be.

 
Rep Power: 320

The oil life thing is on the new civic's too. I'm not sure about GM, but Honda calculates oil life based on engine load and RPMs and basically does an engergy balance and applies that to the oil. The problem comes in that if use non-Honda oil, the amount of ware the oil can take is differrent.

 
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I was tinking that the oil life indicator take the data from some photo reading (oil darknes) or something similar.
So honda need some kind of reset after the oil change I guess. Do you know how?

 
Rep Power: 320

Yeah, my '06 has to be reset each time you change the oil init. You have to hold a certian button down and turn the key or something like that, I've only done it once (the car has just over 5k on it now), so I generally don't remember until I've done it about 5 times

 
Rep Power: 813

the stuff in the cobalt is garbage. they just put that in to have a better selling point. not that any of those functions actually work except the odometer hopefully.