Date:         Mon, 10 Apr 2006 11:27:36 +0100
Reply-To:     Niall Mac Caughey <nmacc@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Niall Mac Caughey <nmacc@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      MPG
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Hi folks, I'm a little late catching up on this thread.

  I've had my 86 2.1 Digijet Westy for about 18 months, but I've only just gotten around to checking the mileage.  It wasn't that I overlooked it, more that I was afraid to find out how bad it really is.  The results were interesting.

  On normal day-to-day driving including short highway trips at 75 or so, I got 21.4 mpg; that's full-fat Imperial gallons, not those wimply lo-cal US ones.  It would be about 17.1 to the US gallons.  I had to make a 220 mile trip on Friday over two-lane blacktop with no highway mileage.  For a change I planned in advance and left myself plenty of time for both legs of the trip.

  Assuming that the brick-like aerodynamics of the Westy were a large part of the problem, I kept it under 60 for most of the trip and resisted the temptation to pass all the little old ladies and farmers I encountered.

  I returned 28.1 mpg for the trip (22.5 US).  What surprises me is the improvement: 31%

  For the rubber fetishists I should point out that I'm running 205/60x15 Fulda Carats fitted by the PO.

  Regards all,

  Niall