2004 GMC Envoy SLT from North America - Comments

Nothing.

We absolutely love our new Envoy. My daughter only wants to ride in it and not our other car. I recently took it on our first highway trip about 500 km round trip. I converted the mileage to miles per imperial gallon and it was 21. This is much to my disappointment. A few years ago I owned a 1998 Chev Blazer which got 30 mpg (highway). This Envoy is a much superior vehicle in every way except gas consumption. The web site for GM Canada suggests that it should get 27 mpg, but I am a long way off. To my surprise as the needle kept dropping, the city mileage is not much worse than the highway. Anyway, I guess I will use my Honda Accord for highway trips and use 1/2 the amount of gas. Not sure if premium fuel would help.

I do not care if your 98 Blazer floated on clouds, it DID NOT get 30mpg! I have owned 2 Blazers. A 1998, and a 2000. One was 2wd (2 door) and 4wd (4 door). I used synthetic oil (mobil 1) and drove like a grandpa with brittle feet and after owning them for a total of 4 years and over 100,000 miles logged, the most I ever got was 22mpg (highway/summer). What did you expect for an SUV anyways?

I'm rather impressed with moving 4,628 lbs. of mass around at the mileage I have lately been able to achieve. I have a 2002 SLT I-6 with 55,000 KM. (34,000+ miles.) and was getting an average of 18 miles./gal (Imperial) in city and 24 on highway. After two applications of better fuel injection cleaner (not the cheap stuff, but $10-12/bottle) and two full tanks, I am getting no better than 20 in the city, but 28 to 28.5 miles./gal. for the last three Spring weather, highway trips, in 2WD mode.

I use the Instant Fuel Usage Readout to let me know when I'm too lead-footed, but also the beauty of this weight of vehicle is that once at cruising speed, it will coast more consistently for longer distances than any other vehicle I've owned, even a Suburban Sierra Classic Diesel.

On slight downgrades I tend to let it coast rather than give it gas to achieve the same speed limit. You make up for the 3-5km./L in the acceleration and uphill grades with as much as 40 km./L on the downhill grades. Gravity can be your friend!

I used to drive a 2002 Dodge Caravan 3.3L at stressful, breakneck speeds, achieving 25-26 miles/gal.. Ever since I have driven the Envoy, I'm driving at a more relaxed, comfortable, quiet, safer pace and the gas mileage is better, obviously.

I'm not advocating that one has to drive it like you're on your last tank vapors, but just a small change in driving style can be a pleasant surprise at the pumps even for this luxury beast. And then every once in a while I break stride with my right foot and like to hear it snarl under the hood! (a habit from my muscle car days... long ago!)

To be fair to individual driving styles and preferences on choosing this vehicle and whatever you want to afford... I liked a comment I read on line in a review where an Envoy owner was replying to someone who had commented on not getting great gas mileage and he said "I didn't buy it for the gas mileage, I bought it for everything else!"

Enjoy the Envoy!