2003 Buick Le Sabre W/3.8L

I bought a 2003 Buick Le Sabre back in October. It had 15000 miles on it.
It was a beautiful clean car. It drives great, but I have been very
disappointed
with the expected gas mileage on that car. It was advertised at 29 Mpg
Highway
and 19 Mpg city driving.
Well we have done city driving which seems to come out at 16 to 17 and
we have
done combined city highway and come out with 19 at the best. And highway
driving
we come out with 22 to 23 Mpg. at 65 to 70 Mph.
I traded a 1987 thunderbird with a 5 liter that had 170,000 miles on it and
it still gave us 19 miles in the city and even 20 occasionally and 27 to
28 on the
highway.
Has anyone out there experienced the same thing with this car or a Chevy
Impala
with 3.8 liter engines? Do I have a dog? Should I be going back to Buick and
see if there is something set up wrong on this car.

Any help is appreciated.
Art

We have a 96' Pontiac Gran Prix with the 3.8. It averages 22 in daily
driving. Drove to Dallas last week and it got 26.


"arossi" <arossi1355@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:4064670D.2070507@earthlink.net...
> I bought a 2003 Buick Le Sabre back in October. It had 15000 miles on it.
> It was a beautiful clean car. It drives great, but I have been very
> disappointed
> with the expected gas mileage on that car. It was advertised at 29 Mpg
> Highway
> and 19 Mpg city driving.
> Well we have done city driving which seems to come out at 16 to 17 and
> we have
> done combined city highway and come out with 19 at the best. And highway
> driving
> we come out with 22 to 23 Mpg. at 65 to 70 Mph.
> I traded a 1987 thunderbird with a 5 liter that had 170,000 miles on it
and
> it still gave us 19 miles in the city and even 20 occasionally and 27 to
> 28 on the
> highway.
> Has anyone out there experienced the same thing with this car or a Chevy
> Impala
> with 3.8 liter engines? Do I have a dog? Should I be going back to Buick
and
> see if there is something set up wrong on this car.
>
> Any help is appreciated.
> Art
>

From several people I know that own your model/year LeSabre, what they've told
me is that you are getting about the right city mileage, but are way under on
the highway side. Your highway mileage should be close to 30MPG.

arossi wrote:
>
> I bought a 2003 Buick Le Sabre back in October. It had 15000 miles on it.
> It was a beautiful clean car. It drives great, but I have been very
> disappointed
> with the expected gas mileage on that car. It was advertised at 29 Mpg
> Highway
> and 19 Mpg city driving.
> Well we have done city driving which seems to come out at 16 to 17 and
> we have
> done combined city highway and come out with 19 at the best. And highway
> driving
> we come out with 22 to 23 Mpg. at 65 to 70 Mph.
> I traded a 1987 thunderbird with a 5 liter that had 170,000 miles on it and
> it still gave us 19 miles in the city and even 20 occasionally and 27 to
> 28 on the
> highway.
> Has anyone out there experienced the same thing with this car or a Chevy
> Impala
> with 3.8 liter engines? Do I have a dog? Should I be going back to Buick and
> see if there is something set up wrong on this car.
>
> Any help is appreciated.
> Art

I rented a 2004 GP GTP 2 weeks ago to go from Houston to DFW area.
Put ~850 miles on it. Got 27 highway at 74 mph and 21 around town.
Much of the around town was spent getting to the speed limit as
quickly as possible (great engine!).

"arossi" <arossi1355@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:4064670D.2070507@earthlink.net...
> I bought a 2003 Buick Le Sabre back in October. It had 15000 miles on it.
> It was a beautiful clean car. It drives great, but I have been very
> disappointed
> with the expected gas mileage on that car. It was advertised at 29 Mpg
> Highway
> and 19 Mpg city driving.
> Well we have done city driving which seems to come out at 16 to 17 and
> we have
> done combined city highway and come out with 19 at the best. And highway
> driving
> we come out with 22 to 23 Mpg. at 65 to 70 Mph.
> I traded a 1987 thunderbird with a 5 liter that had 170,000 miles on it
and
> it still gave us 19 miles in the city and even 20 occasionally and 27 to
> 28 on the
> highway.
> Has anyone out there experienced the same thing with this car or a Chevy
> Impala
> with 3.8 liter engines? Do I have a dog? Should I be going back to Buick
and
> see if there is something set up wrong on this car.
>
> Any help is appreciated.
> Art
>

I drive an 01 and we get ~25-27 on the highway and about 14-16 in the city.
Since we hit 30k miles the mileage has been going down, before it was about
31 on the highway and about 17 in the city.