Date:         Thu, 21 Apr 1994 9:51:07 -0400 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Jonathan Dove - VAX Master <JDOVE@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu>
Subject:      Re: thread on underpowered?

>From: Gerald Skerbitz <gsker@lenti.med.umn.edu>

> I'm not quite that obsessed, but I do write down my miles and my gallons and
> the cost whenever I fill up the tank.  I've gotten 22 mpg on a mix of 
> highway and 17-19 mpg on just city driving.  I'd like to know how to 
> improve that.  25 on the highway would be nice.  I also KNOW that if I drive
> it a little hard in the city, the mileage goes down pretty quickly.  I drive
> real conservatively.

When I drive the Vanagon I get about 17-20 mpg for local driving and 22 mpg
on the highway.  Other family members get 20 mpg for highway.  I once got
24 mpg @ 55 mph for about 2 1/2 hours.

What about mileage range?  When I fill up when the guage reaches the red
area I get about 250-260 miles.  I then fill up putting in about 12 gallons.
My question is how far can one go on a full tank?  I know that it has a 16
gallon capacity.  What's with the other 4 gallons.  It it a safety margin?

My point is that once I tried to see how far I could go on a tank of gas.
I kept driving when the guage got in middle of the reserve area.  Well, I was
in the middle of no where on an interstate and started to get desperate
because the next big area was 20 miles away and the gauge was already on
empty.  I pulled off on the first exit that had a gas station where the gauge
was below the reserve area.  I filled up and put in 14 gallons.  I still had
2 gallons left!  Has anybody had an experience like that?

Jonathan

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Jonathan Dove   jdove@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu
82 Rabbit PU, 83 GTI, 85 Vanagon, 87 Golf
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