Date:         Mon, 13 Aug 2012 23:37:27 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Poor gas Mileage
Comments: To: tom ring <taring@TARING.ORG>
In-Reply-To:  <5029B26A.32403.85DC432B@taring.taring.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 10:05 PM 8/13/2012, tom ring wrote:
>I forgot to say this is a manual.  I can get as low as 150 or 160 a tank, but
>that's in traffic.

Mileage per tank isn't much use without knowing how much it takes to
fill the tank, eh?

As a 40-50 y/o whippersnapper I used to drive my '84 manual no power
steering skinny tires Westy around New England with a bunch of junk
in it most of the time and a fair percentage of the time at 85 on the
highway, and I seem to remember being unhappy when it got at little
as 17 mpg in mixed driving (not the kind you're talking about,
Tom).  And yes, it did wear the engine out faster than a more
reasonable speed would have, but otherwise it was perfectly happy.

With my 2.1l automatic power steering skinny tires White Star I can
generally hit 19 mpg on a straight highway run if I keep it to 60
(and I seldom drive over 70 any more), but I don't want to talk about
what it gets in town.  All right, I'll say it - 15 +/-, 14+ in the
winter.  I've always driven rather gently and smoothly even when
driving fast, and I'm not satisfied with those numbers - I don't
think the engine control is working totally correctly and I'm very
gradually chasing things.

A lot of people get numbers over 20 with 1.9l Westys, but I have the
idea that most of them are not at sea level.  That's impression, not
real knowledge.

Yours,
David