Caravan and gas mileage

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Jim Dompier - 15 Feb 2006 06:46 GMT

Hello Everybody,

I just bought a new 2006 Caravan SXT. This is the 3rd new Caravan for me in
9 years. Its got the 3.3 Liter V-6 engine that's supposed to get 19 MPG
city and 26MPG highway. I figure with the 3/4 city and 1/4 highway that I
drive it should get at least 20MPG. Well, its not! I've only ran 3 tanks
of fuel through it, with only 600 miles on it but I got 13.5MPG the last
time and today when I filled up it was 11.3MPG. This is terrible and I know
something has to be wrong. Is it because the engine isn't broken in yet or
is it something else, like maybe the engine timing is off or something
else.??? What do you think? I sure hope its just because its not broken
in yet or something simple like that. Help please !!

Aloha

Jim

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BDK - 15 Feb 2006 08:07 GMT

> Hello Everybody,
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Jim

LOL, I would bet there is something wrong, you get almost the exact same
milage that my 2003 Ram with a hemi and 3.92 gears gets around town! It
will get better as time goes by though. Is there black soot in the
exhaust pipe?

I had an old Camaro that ran fine, but suddenly began chugging down gas
at an amazing rate. There was black smoke (not much), and soot in the
tailpipe. Just about every sensor on it had blown, along with the CPU.
It was running on the "limp home" mode, full rich.

I was really thankful for the 50K emissions warranty, it would have been
about 8-900 bucks in parts alone. It just cost me 25 bucks for the
diagnostic.

Good luck.

BDK

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Jim Dompier - 16 Feb 2006 04:04 GMT

Thanks for all your posts...

Yea, I agree it should be better and No, its not running rich. It seems to
be running just fine. I'll ask the dealer on Saturday and see what they say
but in all the cars I've had in the past 15 years, they get pretty much the
exact mileage they state, maybe a slightly worse but very close.

Thanks again, Id appreciate more if there is more, and I'll be sure to post
the results back here when I find out what's up. Maybe someones stealing my
gas?

Aloha

Jim

>> Hello Everybody,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>
> BDK

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Gary Glaenzer - 15 Feb 2006 16:26 GMT

'supposed to get'

as in 'EPA Estimate'

as in BULLSHIT FIGURES

face it, the makers have figured out how to run the required EPA tests to
get the best figures out of 'em

if you want to see pissed off people, ask one of the new 'hybrid' owners who
will need to drive their vehicles 15 years with gas at 4 bucks a gallon to
break even.............

> Hello Everybody,
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Jim

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Clay - 15 Feb 2006 21:48 GMT

Indeed. Mileage should improve somewhat after your engine breaks in, but
that's ridiculous.

I have an '05 Town and Country with the 3.3V6. It has about 50K miles. I get
very close to the EPA figures: about 16-18mpg in town and 25-27mpg on the
highway. Before that I had an '02 Grand Caravan with the same engine but got
about 2mpg less than that on the highway.

Agreed on the inflated EPA hybrid numbers. For example, I have heard several
places that 45mpg overall is a real-world figure for the Prius.

> I got 13.5MPG the last time and today when I filled up it was 11.3MPG.
> This is terrible

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RamMan@dodgecity.cc - 16 Feb 2006 02:12 GMT

The dealer gave me an 06 Caravan as a complimentary loaner when I had some
major work done on my truck recently. I drove it 4 days, 159 miles total
and went through 13 gallons of gas. You do the math. Granted coming from
a V8-powered Ram into this very under-powered-feeling Caravan I did have
somewhat of a tendancy to stomp on it from time to time. I even asked when
I returned it if it was a 4-cyl. Nope, it was a 6.

>Hello Everybody,
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
>Jim

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