Where's my advertised mileage?!?

[amazingarthur]

Gang,

Just got back from a lot of hwy miles and still can't break 24mpg.

I'm not hauling a lot of stuff, I'm not overweight, I am however a bit frustrated that I have only met/bested 26mpg once in the 17k miles I've owned it.

What gives?

Thanks.

[PTGT_Boy]

How heavy are those 18" smoothies?

[mvandale]

EPA mileage estimates have ZERO correlation to actual highway mileage. My understanding is that there is a standardized test for calculating EPA mileage figures which puts the vehicle on a static machine to calculate "mileage" based upon pre-set imputs of strain placed upon the vehicle.
There may be a correlation between actual mileage & EPA estimated mileage, but usually not. I know of very few vehicles that do post the same numbers. The only thing the EPA test does is put all vehicles on the same type of test--supposedly standardizing the results--so that the figures can be compared between vehicles and the consumer can have that as a benchmark.
Those figures mean very little as far as real-world numbers. Sometimes they match, usually they don't.

[amazingarthur]

Oops, meant to post this in general turbo area.

Sorry!

[sakigt]

I get 18-20 mpg...regardless of highway or city. My 18s are LIGHTER than stock [}]

[Mike Radowski]

Take the 24 MPG and live with it. That's about as good as it gets. Our GT is a 5 speed and we have had as high as 27 MPG and a low of 22, but the majority is right at 24 MPG.

Mike

[azptcruiser]

I agree with Mike R., be happy with the 24mpg. Look through a few of the threads that have discussed this and you will find that rarely does one get any better gas mileage than what you are getting.

I get 18-20mpg in town and 21-22mpg "on the road". Now the "on the road" mileage is really regardless of the speed. Same stretch of road that I often travel does not get me any better gas mileage whether I go 65 or 85. And that is using the cruise control.

[ElectricBlueGT]

My GT gets 17 city, 25-26 highway. The highway MPG is obtained through prudent use of the cruise control.

You HAVE to keep your foot out of it in order to get better mileage numbers, oh mighty rice killer

Try resetting the PCM and drive like a *gasp* grandmother for a few hundred miles [I know, no fun!]. Otherwise, you might be getting the best MPG, given your *ahem* rice-killing alter-ego driving style

Scott

[hyracer]

Trade it in for a GT 5-spd. then add Stage 1 and the Mopar cat-back. Keep your speed below 70 MPH. I AVERAGED 28.25 MPG on our vacation this year where we racked up a little over 4,000 miles (no back seats but car was loaded with camping gear, ice-chest, suitcases, fire-wood, etc.).

My mileage dropped at higher freeway speeds. Also some of the cheaper brands of fuel use 10% ethanol to get their octane ratings...ALL my vehicles drop mileage by running those type of fuels. I only run premium grade Texaco/Shell or Chevron.

Deen

[go-vair]

Gotta agree with hyracer, have the same setup as him GT 5speed, Stage 1 and Mopar catback exhaust. Went 5100 miles this on vacation this summer, no back seats, loaded to the roof inside. 1600 miles of it was stop and go down the old sections of Route 66 between Chicago and Gallup, NM . Got 27.50MPG for the whole (5100) mile trip GT's are fine as long as you keep your foot out of it (a little jab every once in a while doesn't hurt) and drive moderately (70MPH).[8)][8)]