Your 600 mile trip would have cost about $9 less in gas if you got 2 mpg better just by slowing down. That's about 10%. Add smooth wheel covers and you would save another 2.5%, grille block can add another 5%, air dam, 2.5% etc. There's another ten percent at least. Keep adding up the seemingly small mods and soon you have a big change. The other thing about aero mods is you can drive faster and get the same or better mileage if you want.
I don't find my van under powered but I'm not drag racing it or doing hill climbs with 8 passengers. I get about 30 mpg in mixed driving with all my mods and about 25 without the major aero mods but I live in a mountainous area. I do load it to the gills and it does just fine. Weight is not a big problem if you drive well.
Techniques and some simple mods can get you to 25, I'm sure, but it's a matter of ignoring the crazy people a bit. Perhaps Canadians are more polite or it could be people are distracted by the mods and forget they are in a hurry but I don't get a lot of grief when I drive. People just pass me and slam on the brakes at the Red... their loss. If you imagine that you are driving like a trucker... who gives guff to a trucker?
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Getting something you can see your instantaneous milage to modigy driving behavior is your only hope for better FE
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Seriously? Have you read any of the success stories here? It's not just Aerocivic or nothing.
If you have some skill you can make nice looking mods and many you can't see. Smooth wheel covers look cool, wheel shirts look cool, grille blocks can be invisible, alternator deletes are invisible. I get lots of compliments on my van. Yeah, there are the jackasses but who cares what they think anyhow?
