I own a Saturn coupe (shuddup) which I love and adore, and is 60% paid off. When I lived in California, I got gas mileage of at least 30 mpg. On long highway drives, I got as good as 34 mpg. But even in the worst stop-an-go, sit on the freeway for thirty minutes driving, I got at least 29.
Now, in Texas, though, I’m consistenty getting 24 mpg or worse. Yes, it’s residential. Yes, it’s stop and go. But I had that back in SoCal without a complaint.
Is it a geographical difference in gasoline? Does my car need some sort of upkeep or repair? It doesn’t make that big a difference financially, but it irks me to no end. I want my high mpg back!
There are definitely regional differences in gasoline. Most large Texas metropolitan areas are required to have reformulated gasoline, which will give you lower gas economy than standard gas. I don’t know about Californian gas, but it’s entirely possible that they require different gasoline than we do.
One way to test it is to go outside the 4 county area (Dallas, Collin, Tarrant, Denton) and buy some gasoline. Try going to Rockwall or Hunt counties from Plano- they should be the closest non-reformulated gas counties to get to.
It could be gas formula - LA and are is severe, but all of CA is required to use some additive during certain months - with absolutely hideous air quality, I would hope that DFW has similar requirements - where did you buy the car? Auto makers have long made special ‘CA’ versions of their cars for smog control - cars sold elsewhere in the US could not meet the specs, so dealers would routinely tack a few 1,000 to the sticker price because importing a car was impossible - no other would pass the smog check.
Also, is the engine fuel injected? If so, the injectors can foul (easily if it’s getting the ‘wrong’ gas) and fouled injectors would explain your mileage drop.
Count me in as another person who thought this was a question about MPEG codecs… 'cause if that was the case, I’d have some advice. But since it isn’t… um… try different gasoline maybe.
How long’s it been since the car had it’s air filter changed? That can hurt your fuel economy. Any problems with the engine running rough? That would also hurt your fuel economy. How many miles do you have on the car? If it’s over 100K and you haven’t had a tune up (i.e. new plugs and wires), you should do that. Another thing you might want to check is your oxygen sensor (though you should have a check engine light on if the car’s a late model if that’s out) as that could be a possibility. You could also try disconnecting the battery for about 10 minutes, which should reset the computer to the factory defaults, and that might clear things up. Lastly, you can take it to a dealer and let them put it on a diagnostic computer to see if it can find anything.