does anyone have real world Suburban mpg info?
 

What mpg is typical of a 2WD Suburban doing soccer-mom duty with minimal highway use?

Thanks,
Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

12/14 mpg.....EFi fuel system.... according to my customer.

Sixto,

I see 11 and 15, the wife on the other hand regularly comes in at 9 in town :eek:. This is on a '93 2500 with the 454.

Wow, that reminds me of my 1972 Olds Delta 88 with a 455 ... it would get 9 mpg in town, 11 or 12 highway, 13 mpg tops. At least the Suburban probably runs ok on regular... the Olds needed premium to keep from dieseling at shutoff.

My mom once got over 19 mpg once keeping the cruise set a 48 mph once, but most people don't drive like that...

I know someone with a 1995 Tahoe 4WD with the small block Chevy 350 V8 and she gets about 12 mpg if she drives gently.

Jeez, 9 mpg... were those 455s even that fast?

a brand new 2wd suburban should average 16-17. My Avalanche averages 17 everywhere I go and other Av owners say the same thing. My wifes 4WD Suburban averaged 15 but it had the towing differential.

The Avalanche is a Suburban with the back window cut out.

Note: these are '03 and '05.

My '93 K2500/7.4/4.10 sub gets 10 for combined on a good day. 11-12 for most highway. Best I ever got was 13.5 in Texas doing 73mph with cruise on, windows up, air on. Keep in mind, this truck weighs over 6800 lbs with just me in it (and I'm not THAT fat). Towing my 27' travel trailer is awfull. 5-7 on the expressway. Hot weather is really tough. I try to keep it over about 72 mph to keep the torque converter locked up. This helps keep engine/trany cooler and actually helps with mpg even though the wind resistance losses go up. Still it does seat eight people and their stuff. 4x4 is a necessity where I live since we can't always count on the highway dept to clear the roads real well (and they are only about 2-3 miles away!). 92-94 subs are kinda oddball. Only made them like that for three years. 95 was the start of the Vortec engines. More power but torque at higher rpm. Old 7.4 (454) had torque at 1800 rpm. I like that, but then I like diesels too. Would love to get hands on '99 sub like mine but with diesel engine and rear air for a good price. They get much better mileage solo or towing and have only slightly less power. 7.4 subs are built to last a long time and run at WOT (wide open throttle-max power) for a long time. I have >210k miles on mine and the heads have never been off.

Thanks everyone!

Mike,

I lost track of your 240D project. How goes it?

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Sixto,
Alas, the 240 threw the chain just as it was about to fire up :(. So close.

As we approached October, with surgery scheduled for November I made the decision to sell it. Roy Hunter just happened to know someone in need of a project and the deal was made for exactly what I had in it. Still upset, because that would have been one heck of a story, resurrecting one in a field and driving home.

Still keeping my eyes open though. There is a local (MI) 75 or 76 115 240D, very clean 47K miles but the seller wants an arm and a leg. Looks nice, no visible rust seller claims never winter driven but I feel the miles, although claimed to be documented, are way too low...probably true mileage but I can see that causing plenty of problems as these cars were built to drive not sit.

After 19 months of the Great White North I am working on heading back to Califastlan, currently on two promotion lists and waiting for a known lateral vacancy to open. I like it here but do need to get back to the family.

Well, back in its day, I clocked 0-60 in 9.4 seconds with a top end of 120+ indicated.
Not super fast, but this is in a 4500 lb / 225 inch long American land yacht.
I finally got rid of it as the cooling system kept going into cascade failure, not to mention that about half of my income at the time was going towards gasoline... :eek: That's when I bought a 1983 Nissan Sentra. 42 mpg, an ok car, except if you had to accelerate... or withstand a crash...but that's another story

alright...another 455 story
 

I wasn't going to reply, but since we're hijacking already... 8)

In about '85 my friend bought a ski boat .. 19' Mastercraft, about 2500# + 1000# trailer. Our wimpy company cars of the time wouldn't pull his boat. Living near Chapel Hill, NC he bought a lovely '73 Olds 88 with a 455 from a college student heading home for a whopping $500. On ski days a crowd would usually go along with my friend to the lake on pretty afternoons. This day there were 6 guys and all the usual ski crap along. They were on the way home and stopped at a traffic light near Chapel Hill. Some un-informed underclassman in a 4 cyl Mustang revved up his engine and challenged the Olds + carload + boat to a race. The Olds won the 0-35mph race and the Mustang just turned off and hid. Torque is a wonderful thing.

Chuck

Those V-8's are great for off-the-line torque.
But, like a former classmate used to say when he'd get his late 60's Pontiac small block to move off the line, "that just cost me 50 cents..."
yes, he was cheap

no such thing as typical. my '85 gets horrible mpg (10 or less). however, i recently bought a 1989, loaded it up good, and towed my 300sd across country and actually averaged 15 mpg! this truck had been taken care of and the good mpg reflected it.

If you found a pre 1990 one with a 6.2 diesel and an overdrive trans with mid to low 3.XX series gears they can will get from 18-25 mpg with 20+ highway not unusual...city miles I have no idea.

But they are far less cushy than the newer ones.

Do the 92-99 turbodiesels have the same 6.2? Diesel Suburbans are hard to find and command a premium. Many say "IP replaced." Why? The SDL has over 270K on the IP and it's only needed resealing. I had it calibrated while it was out for resealing but only because it was out.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL