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Fuel Economy


Journeyman425

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My (now ex) wife would complain about mileage and blew off my observations about how it is about the driver, more than the vehicle. She also ran through brakes like they were made of balsa wood. 5,000 miles a set . . .

She kept saying it was the vehicle, yet when we traded, she killed my mileage and my brakes and I got great mileage and 30,000 miles (before I traded) from the pads she had already half burned through.

After that vehicle pairing (we always had 2 of the same in the driveway) I made it a point to switch with her halfway through the ownership, fuel economy was a lot worse and brake life a lot shorter during her term with whatever vehicles we had.

Think about it.

She is very good with her vehIcles. Her first set of brakes went around 14000 miles, considering it sat for most of a year. Chrysler called back and said we want to follow up on this since the first time we were waiting for some info from the dealer and they never provided us with any info we requested. WTF? The guy was super nice said he would do some research and call me next week. I also mentionned i go to a different dealer and asked if i wanted to go to the one im going now and i said of course. Hopefully they find a solution.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am about to take the Journey on it's first road trip from Dallas, TX to Disney World in Orlando, FL. I am hoping to get the high estimates of 28/29 MPG. I have a 2014 3.6 SXT with about 20,000 miles on it. Two adults, two kids and luggage. Will report when I go the second week of March.

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I am about to take the Journey on it's first road trip from Dallas, TX to Disney World in Orlando, FL. I am hoping to get the high estimates of 28/29 MPG. I have a 2014 3.6 SXT with about 20,000 miles on it. Two adults, two kids and luggage. Will report when I go the second week of March.

Have a safe and good trip. We did an 8400 mile road trip last year and our 3.6 2013 SXT was a dream on the highway. Enjoy!

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raise your tire pressure to about 36 psi cold and will help get a little better mpg as when they get hot it will raise to about 38-39 psi that is what i ran in my 2011 with 17 inch tires and got 70k out of them tires and still running the same in my 2014 19 inch tires and just turned 15 k and they still look great....

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Most of my driving is in town. I keep the small screen in the center on MPGs. Last fall I was running around 17.5. Now, in this cold weather, it is in the middle 14s! It's like I'm driving that Nitro again. But, I still love my Copperhead Pearl Beauty.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So the journey is at the dealer, dealer is saying that the sticky winters and remote starter is what's contributing to the excessive fuel economy. I told him that shouldn't cause it to burn double the fuel that is mentioned on the window sticker unless Dodge played with the numbers. He also said that my battery voltage is low. It should be around 12.2V and it down to 10.95. He says it's causing the alternator to work harder and for it to work harder the computer is leaving the injectors open a bit longer to run the alternator harder. I wasn't sure if he was pulling my leg so I asked one of the techs at my job (Ford dealer, no comment) about the possibility that the battery can cause a fuel economy drop and he said it's possible because when the battery voltage is low on startup the computer could reset itself and when it does that it tends to run the engine rich. Your thoughts...

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I guess I would like to have a "rough" idea what my car was getting:

Me currently

14,6 mpg - US Gallon

17.6 mpg - Imp. Gallon

16.1litres/100 kms - Can.

This is an overall average mileage for almost 5 years of very varied driving both in an urban setting and on the highway, it takes in to account very cold driving (where mileage is poor), idling or 'warming' up the car in winter, city and highway driving.

Best:

29.6 mpg - US Gallon

35.5 mpg - Imp gallon

8.0 litres/100 kms. Can

All this can be verified by going to the My Fuelly site in my signature. As you can see my mileage is all over the map, it really makes a difference summer vs, winter, regular vs,premium, city vs, highway. Just my thoughts.........

Terry

Edited by Windancer
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So they did nothing. They found everything was normal. They did an all city test and the mileage was 14.6L/100Kms. When I got in to pick it up it was up to 16.4L/100kms on the EVIC and got to 17.2L/100kms when i got home about 7 kms away. I don't know what to so. I bought this car looking and having confidence in the fuel economy numbers on the window sticker(13.2L/100kms) I even ADDED 5L to that number figuring i would average around 18-19L/100KMS. Anyone want to buy a 11 RT with 31000kms and a gold 7/115K kms warranty?

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To Defender007, I know this is a hassle but did you ride around with them to verify this? Can you trust the dealership? Have you taken your "your problem" and presented it to another dealership? I'm pretty sure Dodge Cares can intervene and possibly dig deeper into this problem. Have you contacted Chrysler Canada regarding this? There has to be a reason for this poor mileage......did they fix the battey? Did they fix the charging system including the alternator?

I have a 2010 Dodge Journey R/T AWD and while it doesn't get as good a mileage as others have claimed, I am satisfied nonetheless.

Terry

Edited by Windancer
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Well, I learned something this week. I had never reset the AV MPGs to 0. When I filled it up Tuesday, I reset A trip meter as I always to track my mileage for the week. I reset the average MPG to zero and it immediately jumped to 24 as I drove out of the station. Now it is staying between 17 and 19 again.

Is the average the immediate average, or the average over a period of time? If it is the average over a period of time, I will reset it to 0 every time I fill up!

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I have played with this also and believe the method by which the figure

is derived is immediate at reset but more accurate long term if you leave

it alone.

Try resetting it then accelerating hard immediately after and watch mpg

go into the crapper , then let up to say 40 - 50 mph for a short drive and

you can see it averaging out.

I don't know what components are fed to the algorithm that that determines

display/figures but it would be interesting to have explained.

Edited by bigtsr
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I reset it after each fill up, gives me a more accurate view on each tank. I do agree that it does not seem accurate right upon fill up and takes probably 16 kms. or ten miles to 'settle' down to a accurate reading. It was as someone mentioned an immediate reading.

Terry

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am about to take the Journey on it's first road trip from Dallas, TX to Disney World in Orlando, FL. I am hoping to get the high estimates of 28/29 MPG. I have a 2014 3.6 SXT with about 20,000 miles on it. Two adults, two kids and luggage. Will report when I go the second week of March.

Well, it did not do as I had hoped. I reset the MPG before I left and on the way there, I averaged about 24.2 MPG but I was averaging 80 MPH most of the trip. So that is not bad at all. On the way back, I was doing about 74 MPH the first half of the trip and got about 27 MPG. Highest I saw was 27.2. But I got inpatient and bumped it to 82ish MPH and averaged about 24.2.

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Well, it did not do as I had hoped. I reset the MPG before I left and on the way there, I averaged about 24.2 MPG but I was averaging 80 MPH most of the trip. So that is not bad at all. On the way back, I was doing about 74 MPH the first half of the trip and got about 27 MPG. Highest I saw was 27.2. But I got inpatient and bumped it to 82ish MPH and averaged about 24.2.

That's mileage is wonderful for your 3.6 (is that your engine?)

I've got the 2.0 diesel (very efficient mileage supposed), and driving at 74 MPH (almost 120 km/h, speed limit in highways in Spain) my mileage is 33 MPG, not far from your 27 MPG. Don't wanna talk about prices for filling up tank :rant2::rant2:

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Well, I learned something this week. I had never reset the AV MPGs to 0. When I filled it up Tuesday, I reset A trip meter as I always to track my mileage for the week. I reset the average MPG to zero and it immediately jumped to 24 as I drove out of the station. Now it is staying between 17 and 19 again.

Is the average the immediate average, or the average over a period of time? If it is the average over a period of time, I will reset it to 0 every time I fill up!

The MPG rating is based on total average since last reset (there is probably some hidden mileage number behind it for how long it weighs the current fuel economy, but it is at least based partly on when it was last reset). My 2010 T&C does the same thing, though it doesn't have the EVIC console (it has two small panels, one on the tach and one on the speedomoter).

The EVIC on my 2015 has a running gauge that shows real-time economy in digital bar graph form, as well as the average fuel economy (based on the reset, and some formula that I don't know).

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  • 2 months later...

Just as an update, I took an extended trip last weekend, in my 2010 Dodge Journey AWD R/T with a 3.5L engine and according to My Fuelly this is my results. I was pretty much doing 116 kph which equates to 72 mph on a mostly single lane highway.

10,62, 10.71 and 10,99 litres/100 kilometers

22.16, 21.82 and 21.41 mpg (US gallons)

26.61, 26.21 and 25.71 mpg (Imperial gallons)

So as you can see I was very consistent in all 3 tanks and on the highway gas mileage is good IMO.

Terry

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  • 3 months later...

Like many of you, I couldn't get my car even close to the sticker ratings. And now I know why - it's how the testing was done. On the Dodge Canada webpage, the following statement appeared:

"Natural Resources Canada has recently introduced changes to the way they calculate fuel economy ratings. Beginning with 2015 model year cards and trucks, NRCan's new approach will involve a new and more rigorous 5-cycle test method, replacing the previous 2-cycle method."

The numbers posted now are closer to what I have experienced.

see www.dodge.ca/en/2016/journey/efficiency

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I got 13.4mpg on mine, Oh well, the cars are always tested with 93 octane and the perfect conditions and no weight, when you run regular, have the AC on, even one passenger with stop and go/ city driving on hot day you gotta expect it. Every car brand and motor size doesnt get what the sticker says unless you truly drive like grandma.

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I got 13.4mpg on mine, Oh well, the cars are always tested with 93 octane and the perfect conditions and no weight, when you run regular, have the AC on, even one passenger with stop and go/ city driving on hot day you gotta expect it. Every car brand and motor size doesnt get what the sticker says unless you truly drive like grandma.

Are you certain about that statement about fuel grades used in testing? Because running higher octane fuels than the system requires results in lower fuel economy . . . . .

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