Im pretty sure this is the place to post this. If not, im new here, sorry
. Ive browsed a few times, im just not a big forum poster.
Anyway, I have a 2003 Dodge Neon SXT automatic. I got it...July? Wow, I completely forget. Well, I definitely got it less than a year ago so the only way I know im getting low mpg is by reading the official specs (and not experience driving it). I get an average of like 20-22 mpg and live in a suburb type area. Not quite city style driving (constant stop and go), but way too many stop signs to be highway style driving. 3 days a week I travel about 35-40 minutes on the highway to and from college though. I think its rated for 22 city, 29 highway, so im barely making city mpg even though im not driving purely in a city-like environment. There are people who are apparently getting around 30 average, even more. Ill try seafoaming my engine before I get my next oil change, but I have a feeling it wont really make much of a difference. I will also someday upgrade to an aftermarket cold air intake and a performance exhaust, so that should help by a little. However, I want to fix this problem first before I do that. I shouldnt have to buy aftermarket stuff to bring my car up to factory specs.
Here is as much detail as I can give you guys:
-MPG manually calculated by dividing miles driven by gallons put in.
-Careful driving, rarely hard accelerating.
-Tires are 195/60R16, inflated to 40PSI.
-Front tires will probably need changed after or before the winter, but the rear ones are nearly as good as new.
-Unknown condition of spark plugs/wires as well as fuel injector and alternator.
-Intake filter seems a little dirty, but not enough to need changed.
-Transmission kept sticking in 2nd gear about 3 or 4 months after I bought the car, but new solenoid seems to have fixed it.
-Oil is currently in good condition with maybe around 1,600 miles on it.
-Odometer reading of over 106,500 miles.
-No holes in exhaust that I could find.
-Using mid grade gasoline (89 octane maybe?) and filling up to full (around 9 gallons) each re-fueling.
Hopefully the problem is just a simple matter of catching up on maintenance. However, if what im getting is what im
supposed to be getting, then how the heck are people getting a lot more with little to no modifications? Im not the best eco-driver in the world, but I still try. Accelerating steadily, keeping foot off the accelerator pedal on down-slopes and whatnot. Ill floor it at stop signs/red lights maybe one or twice per tank (I know, I know), but is that one or twice really making that big of a difference in fuel economy?
Oh, speaking of hard accelerating, I think I should bring this up. I tested my 0-60 time once on a chilly night and got 10.5 seconds. I
think its factory rated at 8.1 seconds, so im obviously losing some power (and possibly efficiency) somewhere. The question is where. I know those couple hard accelerations are affecting my mpg to some degree, but that loss of power is raising some red flags. I have the philosophy of, as long as all the parts are either replaced or kept in good condition, a car should perform just as well as if it were brand new. Power and efficiency dont just disappear out of nowhere.