Improving on 12mpg fuel consumption

[duffbeer911]

Hey all - I just went through my first full tank on a 1998 T4R V6 3.4L (88k miles) and got 12mpg. Obviously much lower than what others get on here ... but I wanted to see if this was ok for my driving conditions.

I'm in Sierra Leone daily driving almost always on dirt roads ... max speed is usually about 40mph but there is just as much crawling over rougher roads. Occasional 4x4 just up some of the worst roads. I don't use AC. Should I be getting better consumption?

The tires are pretty worn so I am getting a new set plus alignment tomorrow. I hope this will improve things a bit ...?

Thanks in advance

 

[krmccour]

That would seem expected imo. I get around 16 if I do primarily city driving, even with a manual and conservative starts. I would imagine the crawling drops it quite a bit. New tires should help it though.

 

[duffbeer911]

thanks for the fast reply. that's good to know. Even on the sealed roads here it is constant stop/start through crazy traffic ... I'll see if the new tires improve it a bit.
Cheers

 

[shadow247]

That sounds about right for that type of driving. I drive 8 miles a day, and average about 13mpg. When I go on weekend trips I am getting almost 20mpg, even with about 10-15 miles of low speed sand crawling.