29.9 mpg in 1997 Chrysler Town and Country

[jared1970]

My wife, our three kids, and I took her parents out for lunch last weekend for their 40th wedding anniversary. We had just purchased a 1997 Chrysler Town and Country minivan a few weeks ago and I wanted to see what kind of fuel mileage it could achieve on a somewhat long trip.

Without the aid of a scan gauge or anything, all I could do was calculate by hand based on odometer reading and fuel used.

We took them to a restaurant about 40 miles away. I don't remember the actual miles, but I have it written down somewhere. I topped off before we left and reset the trip meter. With 7 of us in the minivan, I crawled along at 45mph the entire way. Upon returning, I topped off the van and calculated the mpg (miles/gallons consumed) and got 29.9 mpg.

Although there could be some error because of inconsistencies in gas pumps and how they stop fuel flow; I was pretty impressed with the results for a fully loaded minivan.

[UltArc]

I am guessing this is a miscalculation.


It seems the highway estimate is 22 mpg highway, the best was a 25, according to FE.gov
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Fuelly says the best ever was 33 mpg, but it seems like a miscalculation, too, as all their pattern of fill up (time wise) didn't change, their miles were completely in line, but a 2 was replaced with a 5- the rest were around 15 mpg. Of 62 tanks, it was the only higher than 19.2, so it doesn't seem like steady improvements in aero/driving.
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It seems very unlikely the vehicle is performing that way, from my personal experience and research on the net (not that you couldn't get it there!).

[ksa8907]

Nice work, is that the 3.3 or 3.8? Wonderful engines with nice torque. You should keep a fuel log on this site, its in the garage section.

[elhigh]

I'm not going to say you didn't do it, but I will say this: short fills are notoriously optimistic. I'd say you've made a great start, now keep it up through a full tank and let's see how you do.

There's about a hectare-and-a-half of really appalling underbody mess down there, you could do a mountain of very easy belly pan that would have an immediate and significant effect on your fuel economy, with the added bonus of being completely invisible to mere mortals.

Start a fuel log, I'm curious to see how it holds up. My '91 basic Caravan never did better than 25mpg, and that was with the 4-cylinder 2.6.

[Fat Charlie]

It sounds optimistic, but I think it's really close to what happened- it was under really good mpg conditions. It was just one run, which got rid of all the messing around with parking, etc. that pile up over a tankful. It was also at around 45 mph, where you're going to see better results than at real highway speeds or in an EPA test.

Great work, especially without instrumentation. Just don't expect it to be normal.

[Vigo]

A couple of points:

For one thing, i had a 96 chrysler van (same body style) that would randomly add mileage to the odometer! For a while i thought the van was AVERAGING 25mpg. It was not.

Second thing: I have put a lot of miles on a 94 3.8L Town and Country (different body style, smaller frontal area but worse aero, probably ~200lbs lighter) and it actually does surprisingly well on the highway when driven kindly (no hypermiling at all). I have been able to do 26mpg sustained on the highway with that van, bone stock.

So, i do not think this is beyond the realm of possibility. But i do think it is unlikely. If you can back it up with future measurements, well, that would be cool.

[101Volts]

I know 30+ is possible in minivans for highway trips, I've come close to doing it myself.

[Vigo]

My 1990 2.5L/5spd caravan, which i still own, would get 33mpg at 55mph and averaged 27mpg driving more normally, which for me was 80%+ highway, and highway around here is 100% 70+mph.


That thing had pretty much the highest utility to economy ratio of all time.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by Vigo

My 1990 2.5L/5spd caravan, which i still own,

Crap, you found one with the manual!?

Yeah, I wouldn't get rid of that either.

[jared1970]

With my wife hauling the kids around town with little or no highway driving, it usually averages around 17-18 mpg. I was just really impressed with the 29.9 mpg I got on that one trip with such ideal conditions.