Hey guys I have a 2004 Town and Country with a 3.3 L engine which has about 49000 miles on it. My daily commute is about 95% highway and my average speed is about 75-80mph. I have done the mpg test by measuring the gas used every time I fill my tank. I noticed that I only get 22-23mpg on the highway. Is this normal because to me that is kind of low. I use Mobil 1 5w-30 for my oil and I also have a K&N AIR FILTER installed. Please help me with this because as everyone knows gas prices are going to go up during this summer which is going to kill my wallet.:frown:

That sounds about right. The EPA 26 Hwy estimate is based on a test loop that runs at about 55mph with some surges to 59mph.
So 22mpg at 75 to 80mph sounds OK.
I traveled from Salem to LA (900) miles last year (in one day) and averaged 21mpg. Most of the trip was at 75mph some spots I hit 95mph.

Thanks Neon. I do not know why I was expecting better mileage then this but considering the fact that the car weighs 4300 pounds this is still okay. Thanks for the reply.

As the previous poster said it because you are going 80 mph . It makes a big difference going that fast , if you drop it to like 70 mph it will go up to like 25 -26 mpg . Took ours on a 1400 mile trip , all highway and it never got less than 25 mpg , usually doing 70-72 mph.

96 GC 3.8 ltr gets me 22-24 mpg at 70-75 mph from 90 miles north of LA to San Diego. :2cents:

I've got a 1996 GC LE with a 3.8L motor and 229,000 meticulously maintained miles on it. The "sweet spot" speed on the highway for my vehicle is 61mph. I was able to calculate best real-time gas mileage with the overhead computer. At this speed, set with cruise control, I easily get 26mpg.

Horseman,
Interesting 61mph observation. I have the overhead display in my '00 GC 3.8l and I have experimented with different speeds vs gas mileage since I got it. I too have observed the 61mph "sweet spot". If you do a search of the Forums, you will see that I have mentioned it elsewhere. The readout most often shows 28 mpg at 61. If I do mostly highway driving, the average per tank comes in at 25 - 25.5mpg. If my wife drives the whole time, it gets only 19.5-20mpg.
I recently removed the OEM muffler and replaced it with a 'glass pack' or sorts. It is a oval muffler with a continuous pipe the runs un-interupted diagonaly through the muffler. I left the factory resonator in the tailpipe.
So far, it seems my wife is getting 1 more MPG than she used to. I have not had a chance to drive out a whole tank myself. 1 mpg is about 5%, 5% savings translates to 15 cents per gallon at the pump. It cost $160 parts and labor for the muffler so it will take a little over 21,000 miles to break even, if the 5% observed increase is actual.