horrible gas mileage

My girlfriend recently bought an 04 intrepid. Very nice, clean, smooth, all that crap, and just over 88 thousand on it. But it gets horrible gas mileage- i read its suppose to get around 17 mpg? and hers is only getting 11 at the most. I replaced the air filter which was pretty dirty and im thinking ill do spark plugs? not to sure. any suggestions on what to look at or replace? thanks!

Noticing that you live in Michigan would tell me that it's winter time there just like it is here in Pennsylvania. She's probably starting the car and letting it run for a bit to warm up a little in the cold, and driving on snow is not exactly a fuel efficient way to get around in any vehicle.

My 96 LHS is averaging 12.5 right now so I feel her pain, the mileage will be back come spring. Though changing the dirty air filter will help too.

yea i was thinking the weather was a part of it but i didnt think it would make that much a difference. but the filter being replaced actually gave her about 3mpg difference so far so that put it at like 13mpg thankfully. but yea i was going to wait until spring to do anthing else just because id be the one to work on it in the cold heh and just hope that the cold was to blame for the rest. but thanks for the reply!

I have a 2004 and live in Il. so I also have the cold winters etc. In town I get around 19-20 miles and on the road 24. I also have the 3.5 engine-of course I'm the one with the problem of the car just dying out of the blue. Decent gas mileage-bad dependably. CAn we ever win? :cwm27: