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Comments
- If the gas stations start adding 10% ethanol to their gas, should we not expect to all see a drop in MPG across the board (probably a noticeable drop at that)?
- Based on the article I read it should be somewhere close to a 4-5% drop overall MPG.
- I would expect someone that normally gets 24mpg to get 1-2MPG less...
Has anyone noticed a recent drop? Thoughts?
Each fuel has a different energy content per unit mass. Diesel is higher than gasoline and ethanol is lower. For those who are interested, hydrogen has the lowest energy content of any and the natural gasses are close behind. The energy content increases with the number of C-C bonds vs C-H bonds. That is why diesel (C12 avg) is higher than gasoline (C8 Avg). Hydrogen has only H-H bonds and methane (CH4) has only C-H bonds.
We should be buying fuels based on energy content and not mass. That would change the relative costs significantly.
If it REALLY worked, then why stop with powering a car? Why not a giant power plant run on water?
What is being described breaks down to a perpetual motion machine. They are claiming to get more energy OUT of the system than is being put INTO the system.
Again, the laws of physics and the laws of chemistry DICTATE that electrolysis (the act of passing an electrical current through water to break down the molecular bonds between hydrogen and oxygen) will consume more energy than can be gained.
They do make power plants tht run on water. They're called hydroeletric plants.
There would probably also be those opposed to minivans that run on water. :shades:
No, actually hydroelectric plants are run on gravity. Water is just the medium being used to transfer potential energy into kinetic energy.
Actually, I suppose cars could run on the same thing. Unfortunately, the dealerships would all have to be located at the tops of hills; and you'd have to trade in the car when it got to the bottom......
It got 26.6 on one 1400 mile round trip and 28.2 on another 1400 mile round trip last summer.
Your T&C reminds me of a friend's Volkswagen bus that got 11.1 MPG on a 200 mile round trip when driving at 55 MPH. He had to refuel 3 times during that trip and the VW dealer told him there was nothing wrong. :sick:
There WAS something wrong with it: a defective cylinder head temperature sensor and air flow control box. After another VW dealer fixed it, he got over 26 MPG on road trips.
Something is wrong with your T&C but I would have no idea what to do in addition to that which has been done. I think some vehicles of any brand are just a :lemon: .
It's a fact, stop and go driving kills mileage. You can help by looking ahead at the traffic lights and trying to time them by adjusting your speed, so that you can make the light. It may mean speeding up a little, or slowing down a bit. That can be especially important with pressure activated lights. One where as soon as the last car goes through, the light will turn red. If your hanging back a few seconds, you'll never make it.
Taking off from a dead stop uses a lot of fuel. If you take off slower, you'll burn a lot less fuel. If you take your foot off the peddle a half block away from a light you know you can't make and coast up, you'll also save on gas. Try and keep your RPM's under 2,000 and you'll get better mileage. Keep a couple of pounds more of air in your tires will help. I don't do that traveling on the highway, but it shouldn't hurt in the city.
Try using your a/c less will help a lot. Let your fan bring in outside air as much as possible. Keeping the back vent windows open will move the air or a/c better through out your van
Very happy. I was not able to utilize the cruise control as much as I would have liked, and the van is not broken-in yet.. I think the highway EPA numbers are realistic with cruise on most of the way....
We love this van...
The van only has 2255 miles now so hopefully it'll get better as it ages
Not impressed.
My Chrysler T&C LX gets 35 to 36 MPG between Salt Lake City, Utah and Mesquite Nevada but will get 23 or 24 MPG between Mesquite and SLC. (Downhill with a tail wind vs uphill with a head wind). The difference between Mesquite Nevada and Anaheim California and the return trip does not vary so greatly but the overall average for the round trip Salt Lake City to Anaheim and return can be as high as 28.2 MPG on one trip or as low as 26.6 MPG on another trip. :shades:
According to the facts presented in this issue and figures they got when they tested the same vahicles on both gasoline and E-85 fuel, the brave new world of energy independence will not only NOT be the utopia that the champions of ethanol fuel would have us believe, but fuel economy will be about 28% less with E-85.
Oh goody . . . Three dollar per gallon ehtanol and more of it to buy to cover the same distance. I can hardly wait!
I compute my gas mileage by dividing the miles driven by the amount of gasoline used to fill the tank.
City driving, stop and go, winter conditions, and HOT weather running A/C when vehicle is not moving have a most adverse effect on gas mileage.
My Sienna will get 30 MPG on a round trip when it is cool and the A/C is not used much but it can drop to 22.4 MPG in the winter when there is more city driving than highway driving.
My T&C got 28.2 MPG on a 1400 mile round trip but has also got as low as 16.0 MPG in the winter when the driving was almost all city driving. Overall average for my T&C was 22.3 MPG and so far the Sienna is 26.0 MPG.
But, on a trip, we can pull 26 in mixed high speed and local driving.
Weight kills mileage around town, since you spend a lot of energy getting all that mass moving. Not as much of a factor on the highway.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
No, I think I'll follow the advice in message #1568: move from my hometown (maybe to the Polar Cap, where I shouldn't need the A/C much), and while I'm at it, get rid of my two preschoolers to reduce cargo weight. Thanks for your advice, ontop.
We've got a road trip coming up on which we'll get a chance at some real highway miles. I'll reserve complete judgement until we're back.
I do not disagree. We have been babying our EX-L and are getting 18-19mpg city, and close to 25mpg highway. I would expect with summer fast approaching (and the A/C cranking even more) and us driving the van a little harder to see the MPG drop 1-2 easily.. However, if we coasted more between stop lights, drove a little easier, and used cruise control more (VCM automatically kicks in with cruise), I believe we could get close to both the city and highway EPA's.
I was a little scared that we would get worse gas mileage with this van than we are getting. At 18/25MPG I am very happy. I would love to get 20/28, but I like to open the engine up every once and awhile.
It gives me 17 in the city and 26mpg when I did a trip from IL to MI with AC running
A nice smooth acceleration is the miidle ground esp. if you have a series of traffic lights. The transmission will shift when it needs to.
BTW, that FX35 needs to be "worked out" every once in a while. lol
I tend to travel at speed limit to save gas, instead of flowing with traffic since a majority of people here in Southern California do not follow the speed limits. Also, I don't slow down to time the traffic lights to the point where I am crawling and I do not tab the break constantly. I notice people that tailgate usually tab on the break a lot more frequently than others that apply the 3-second rule. I find that people who tailgate is very annoying and they are just begging for a rear end collision.
I drive much differently in town then i do on the highway. In town, I rarely go over the speed limit but also try to keep up with traffic safely. I live in South Centrla PA. Many of our roads in town have either houses or small businesses on it. Traffic is not near as congested as in Southern Cali. I'm always watching out for people jutting out into traffic or the kid who follows the ball outinto the street.
I do not tailgate. seen too many instances of road rage and stupid drivers during my daily commute. I have better things to do in life.
AC was on 100% of the time and the van has around 25k on the odo. Van was 'loaded' with 2 adults/2 kids, and a weeks worth of junk which simply COULDN'T be left at home.....
On the way out we averaged 24.5 mpg and the way back 25.6 mpg. Considering we stopped and did quite a bit of city driving on the way there, and had the cruise set at 80 for most of the trip (all but about 100 miles each way - where the cruise was at about 70), drove in some very hilly parts of Wyoming (bighorns), had the A/C on 90% of the time, had 5 people and luggage in the vehicle (about 900 lbs) - I think that is pretty impressive. Our old Odyssey (the 4-cylinder model) would have struggled to get 22 mpg on the same trip.