# Real world MPG



## Vman1 (Jun 30, 2011)

About 1500 miles in two months. Lots of in city driving with stop and go and with heavy AC use. Flat terrain. Averaging 18 mpg. Did one 250 mile round trip and got 24.8 mpg. Very satisfied.


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## 58kafer (Jun 27, 2007)

17K- 10 Months, mixed terrain, gave up on keeping track.

15 MPG city, 26 MPG best downhill with a tailwind . :laugh:

Only car I ever had that gets great mileage is my 1958 Beetle, almost 30 MPG. No creature comforts, not even a radio.


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## Zambee500 (Jun 23, 2011)

About 2k miles in 2 months since we bought our '09 SEL, and every tank has been 15-16 mpg. Last tank was 16.3 mpg with pen/paper calculation and 16.7mpg on the onboard trip computer. A little over 10 hours of engine time for that tank. 

We do about 50/50 highway and city, and the city driving isn't the bumper-to-bumper rush hour gridlock that kills MPGs, but instead mostly 4 lane highways with 45 mph speed limits and periodic traffic lights. Nowhere close to the 17 city / 25 highway on the EPA rating for the 4.0L engine. Very disappointing so far, although we haven't had a long road-trip yet to see if the highway mileage is more accurate.

I was going to ask for those with the 4.0L engine whether the mileage is closer to the EPA rating using 89 octane gasoline. The specs on the car say 87 octane is okay, but 89 octane is preferred. Just wondering what that "preference" is: Engine performance? Better MPGs?


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

It just so happens that we took a day trip yesterday up the interstate to a popular resort town. The grade on the interstate is 6% in some areas. From the base to the summit the drive one way is 11 miles. It is known for it's accidents and breakdowns along the interstate. A lot of folks take a longer route around the canyon to avoid it. Also the road twists and turns all the way up.

Anyway, we did 13.8 going up the canyon at 70-75 on average. I like the auto stick feature for this type of drive, as well as for pulling. Instead of having the vehicle shift up and down in gears depending on grade at that moment, I found shifting to 5 and then to 4 keep the vehicle in its powerband and kept it from every getting warm or overheating by keeping the RPMs higher. It was a comfortable drive, plenty of power and I pushed it and cranked the A/C. My overall mileage from start to finish (up and back) was 24.

As for everyday driving, my wife gets 19-20 mpg. Mix of interstate and city. On trips we average 25 and have gotten up to 27 loaded with the kids. It does very well compared to our older vehicles (Durango, Ram, Journey), but not as well as my Jetta TDI. If we dont have the four kids or aren't hauling gear, we use the Jetta as much as possible, but the wife prefers the Routan.


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## Zambee500 (Jun 23, 2011)

Steveaut said:


> As for everyday driving, my wife gets 19-20 mpg. Mix of interstate and city.


That's what I would have expected as well for us. Which engine do you have?


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

Zambee500 said:


> That's what I would have expected as well for us. Which engine do you have?


I forgot to list that, we have the SEL with the 4.0. Apparently the 4.0 does better than the 3.8.


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## 71sbeetle (Apr 12, 2002)

Already plenty of threads on this, but anyway, here's our 4.0 Routan SEL Premium .... definitely not as good as others, and we don't drive it hard at all ...
http://www.fuelly.com/driver/71sbeetle/routan


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## tuanies (Oct 16, 2009)

We averaged 25.2mpg going out to the beach (Westport, WA) according to the computer with the Pentastar.


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## JETwagen (Mar 1, 2002)

I've been keeping track during fillups:

'10 SEL 4.0L - bought Nov, '10
Currently 4015+ miles, mostly city driving so far, averaging 17MPG
When I use to watch the cluster average MPG, the highest I ever saw was 26MPG
Best recorded MPG was during a trip to the In-laws over Christmas, had the van only one month and almost all highway - 22.8MPG
Lowest recorded MPG per tank was 15.1MPG

I will try to repost again after a trip to Disney World later this year.

Edit: I would also like to admit that I sometimes am a little heavy on accelerating, but could be worse.


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

I know this is a Routan forum and I already gave you my Routan mileage, but I have to share my Jetta TDI. I just ran the same trip as discussed above and my Jetta got 34 going up the canyon driving hard and 44 overall. Oh how I wish a TDI was in the Routan.


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## Trail Ryder (Jul 18, 2011)

We got 30 MPG on a first trip!!! But 27 MPG is typical for our highway trips. We are also getting between 22 and 24 MPG around town.

2011 Routan SE with the 3.6 Pentastar V6 and about 1,600 miles. I can't wait to see what this van will do after it is broken in.


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## taxman100 (Apr 30, 2011)

I noticed on our 2,000 mile vacation trip that the computer always gave higher than actual mpg. I'm thinking it could be due to being forced to buy ethanol-mix gasoline in the mid-south vs. buying only 100% real gasoline here in Ohio. It did a couple of mpg better than the 2002 Grand Marquis. 

I wish I could track the fuel economy - my wife drives it and she can barely figure out how to reset the tripometers, let alone the mini trip computer in the SE trim level.


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## Zambee500 (Jun 23, 2011)

taxman100 said:


> I noticed on our 2,000 mile vacation trip that the computer always gave higher than actual mpg.


I know w/ the TDIs that the trip computers are typically off between 5-10% (on the high side) for MPGs, and more often closer to 10%. I presume it's a computer programming issue and not a TDI-specific issue, so likely across most of the VW line. My trip computer on my Passat on highway trips, for example, will typically display 42-44MPGs, but pencil/paper calculations are typically 3-4 MPGs lower than the computer display.

With the Routan, I don't know if that's a VW or Chrysler on-board computer that tracks things. With my experience so far, the computer display has only been about 0.5-1 MPG higher than actual pencil/paper calculations. Consistently higher than actual, but not by much.


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## Trail Ryder (Jul 18, 2011)

I could not believe how good the mileage was that trip computer was reporting, so I tested it on a recent trip via filling the tank, zeroing the odometer, and dividing by the number of gallons to re-fill at the end of the trip. And guess what? * The MPG computer was SPOT ON!*


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

I've never had a computer match hand calculations on any vehicle. But they are usually close and certainly indicate an upward or downward trend in fuel consumption. The computer calculated mileage will vary based upon the settings and programming. For example, they may have a reset point, recalculate and adjust constantly, and other parameters that make it read differently than by than tank measurement. You have to view it as a guide and not firm. 

I used to be big into diesel trucks (Cummins 12 valve). I modified it and have friends and family doing mods, like adding aftermarket computer chips. The funny thing there, is when you modify the computer settings, the computer calculated mileage is always way off. It actually goes up quite a bit. But I can't seem to make the owners understand that. One guy I know put in a computer chip (edge), turned it up to full and his mileage jumped like 8 mileages a galon.


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## Zambee500 (Jun 23, 2011)

Agreed. Certainly indicative, as long as the difference between pencil/paper and computer is consistently off by the same amount and in same direction.


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