well i dont visit this forum much but one of my friends is in need of a car and is thinking about a V6 thirdgen. i did a quick search and found out most of these cars get horrible gas mileage. is this a normal thing?? by horrible i mean around what my 350 thirdgen was getting last time i checked (around 16 mpg). we were thinking of going import but it'd be great if she can get a thirdgen but not if its getting those kinda #'s. thanks.

also is there anyone whose gas mileage has drastically improved and if so what parts did u replace. in case we do end up getting it and we have to do some work to it.

 

yup.. mines pretty bad.. Fill up $20 every 3 days or so. I mostly do city driving and dont speed too much..

 

I get close to 25 on the highway in the city i get about 19.

 

LOL that was my mileage before I got 4.10s. with them now I get about 22 highway/19 city.

 

well you have to keep in mind that a 2.8 only has 135hp and a 3.1 has only 5 more and these cars weigh 3000+ pounds. so if its on the highway it gets considerably better gas mileage but around town i have found it uses more than my dads 3/4 truck that i drove before i got this car. its not a verygood one for start and go cause it has so little power for its weight but for crusing on the highway it does awsome i sometimes if i keep my foot out of the gas get 25+mpg but the best i have seen in town was 15mpg. keep in mind half of my electonics dont work and i have a VERY heavy foot. Another consideration is that these cars are between 13 and 23 years old so you would need a realy good tuneup, new tires, an alighnment and gobs of other stuff to bring it back but if you did i bet you could match or beat any of the newer halfway sporty cars on gas mileage.

 

thats a good point xplane. i never took the weight into account. the car wont be driven hard and will be on the highway mostly.

 

well i tend to be a bit heavy on the throttle but i get 16or so city driveing

26-28 freeway


so i guess getting the factory rateings isnt bad even when your hard on the go pedel like me lol

when i was doing easy driveing i got 18 city and 30 highway

ya i had to calulate my fuel usage from gas receipts

 

During the summertime I was getting 28avg (city, highway, and freeway combined). I did a 100 mi round trip 99%freeway driving one day and it came out to 33.6mpg. I take off like grandma, hold my speed around corners (when they aren't blind corners) and occasionaly "get on it".

My car has been sitting now for awhile while I'm in Iraq. When I get home I'll have to give it a tune-up again, and fix the exhaust manifold leak if I don't hurry up and find a 3.4. I plan on getting a TA though so I might just leave the 2.8 in it.

 

well just today i filled the tank drove 280 miles and im just below a 1/2 tank so apperently my car is even better then 28 freeway

 

like i said if ya fix one of these back to stock you can match or beat a import in MPG and still hang with most of the STOCK imports in a race. which aint bad considering these cars are so old.

 

25-28 MPG city, though my city is 40-50MPH everywhere, long country blocks.
I don't drive on the Eway but a few times a year. TO much construction.

 

thanx for the replies. actually now we started looking for 2 specific cars. a V6 thirdgen and an S10 pickup truck from the same years. both cars i know pretty well. dad's got an S10 right now and my current Formula is my 3rd thirdgen.

 

I get around 16-17 mpg city and 25+ on the highway. thats with lots of mods including a 3.73 rear end.

 

I got a 2.8L with a T-5 and 3.42s in the rear. I get about 25 mpg.

 

250 miles to the tank is what I get - rock solid every time. Thats all city driving. I've never put more than 13 gallons in on a fill-up. (and from what I gather my tank is 15.5). So maybe my gas gauge is fuxxored. Knock on wood I never ran out of gas.

19MPG city. MAF unplugged so its suboptimal.

Last big trip I got 250 miles per 3/4 tank or so. I figured for the whole trip (2300 miles), I averaged 27 mpg.

 

I get ~20mpg on my car. Driving like an ***, or a grandma. Then again Im not known to be in 5th gear on the freeways unless Im just not trying lol

 

For MPG, I would actually look at the RS LO3 305 TBI/T5/2.73 combo. There are some guys on the TBI forum that were getting mid 30s on the highway. The L03 has ample torque that in normal driving you don't have to get on it as much.

My stock carbed 3/4 ton van (175 HP 305 HO, 700r4, 3.08s) converted to TBI would get over 20 MPG on the highway and about 15 in town with a moderately heavy foot.'

For comparison my 2.8 TBI powered S15 Jimmy 4x4 was a complete slug and could only get 14-16 MPG, even on the highway. Was so underpowered it spent much of its time in the lower gears.