How is the gas mileage for a: 2005, 4.3 litre, 6 cyl.,automatic, 4x4, 1/2 ton, standard cab,8 foot bed, Chevrolet Pickup? It would be nice to hear from an owner who has driven and figured highway &
in town mileage. I plan on driving highway mostly. I will use four wheel drive once in a while, and pull a small trailer occasionally.
You don’t have much going for you to put the truck in the “good mileage” section. You can put faith in the EPA figures, are you hoping for more than what the truck is EPA rated? It will only get worse with the trailer and the 4X4 engaged. So take the EPA as the absolute best and work from there.
Had the 4.3 in an Astro van…one of the best intermediate power plants they have every made but would be woefully underpowered if you tow much weight. I found mileage was good till I tried to use it hard, in towing then it was worse than the next size v8. As a commuter with light loads it’s the best mpg they have to offer and pulled well behind van.
Astro 2wd would be too difficult to compare to your newer truck but this was little over 20 mpg highway, very sanely (60 mph or less) driven. Expect bigger than normal v8 drops during hard use. Under your use though, not too much 4x4, it should be fine and may be the best for you if you don’t try to drive too fast. Then the real drop begins.
Overall, if you use it very hard like a truck, the v8 would actually be more economical as the 4.3 should only be offered in 2wd IMO.
Sorry for the bad news. BTW It should still be in their Colorado and the engine of choice instead of that stupid five.
For what it’s worth, the EPA rates it 13 City, 17 Highway, 14 combined. I find that on my cars I usually get the highway rating under the old system (which in this truck is 1mpg higher), so I’d say don’t expect much more than 18 mpg when unloaded doing 55-65 MPH and under highway driving.
In my book that’s still pretty good for a full-size truck. Unfortunately, GM didn’t really work on improving the fuel economy of the V6’s as much as they have the V8’s (the big V8 available in this same truck gets the same as the V6 and the small V8 actually gets better!).
I had a '98 Chev 1500 with the 4.3 and five speed 4x4. It got from 14 to 19 mpg consistently. Never over 19.
I have owned both the 5.0 and the 4.3 engines in Chevy Silverados. The 5.0 beat the 4.3 most of the time in fuel mileage. It was also more powerful. The people at GM who make the big decisions made a big mistake. The 4.3 is cheaper to produce so it won out. The 4.3 got around 18mpg on the interstate. The 5.0 got 20-21mpg on the interstate and it was in an extended cab model. Go figure.