Gas Mileage

I have a 98 4 door Ford Taurus SE. I noticed that I am getting around 300 miles on a tank of gas during highway travel. I am getting less than that during city travel. I do however have a slight lead foot. I tend to gun the gas pedal when taking off. Can this effect my gas mileage a lot? Or is there something wrong with the engine that I need to have looked at right away?

Yes, driving the car hard WILL affect your gas mileage adversely.

Additionally, you have given no indication of what your actual gas mileage is. Since you don't run your tank empty, "300 miles per tank" is a useless measure. You also have not told us which engine your car has, which will make a difference in your mileage.

All Tauruses have four doors. There is a sedan and a wagon. The wagon is heavier and will further reduce your mileage.

I have a 98 SE, with the teccy in it. I recently went on a long drive, down to oklahoma, and back, and I adveraged 21-25 miles per gallon on highway for my car.

its got 105,000 miles on it as well.

hc, Next time you fill up zero out your trip meter. When you fill up again tally up the mileage, divide the # of gallons into the miles and report back............

97 sedan w/duratec, 24 mpg, mostly hwy. I Tend to lean on it too. Town driving will kill the mileage, and don't forget that warming it up when it's cold gets you 0 mpg.

99 taurus se, v6 vulcan.around 24mpg...whats the deal with only using motorcraft sparkplugs mentioned in this forum?I never knew cars were brand specific.Does it really matter which brand to use?

99 taurus se, v6 vulcan.around 24mpg...whats the deal with only using motorcraft sparkplugs mentioned in this forum?I never knew cars were brand specific.Does it really matter which brand to use?
Yes it matters but not to the extent some people claim.

Stay away from Bosch in your Taurus as there is a good chance it will cause problems. I've heard of rare issues with Champion plugs, too. But Motorcrafts are fine, Autolites are fine, NGKs are fine, etc.

Thanks for the response about the plugs.

I have a 98 SE too. I went to Oklahoma recently, and got about 28 mpg. Not too shabby, eh?

damn, 28... thats 3-4 above what I adveraged. either you have a light foot, feather the accelerator, or something is admiss in my car. Might need to check the condition of some of my parts.......

99 taurus se, v6 vulcan.around 24mpg...whats the deal with only using motorcraft sparkplugs mentioned in this forum?I never knew cars were brand specific.Does it really matter which brand to use?
We did a test, Motorcraft versus Champion in 100 Crown Vics. We installed 4 of each in the car. Champion needed replaced at 25k miles and Motorcraft lasted 70K miles. So Champion needed to be replaced 3 times to Motorcraft's 1.

sniper:
I don't gun it like a madwoman. I've taken rather good care of my car, as I do with any car I've owned. I usually will treat the engine every couple of months with a gasoline additive to clean the injector and whatnot. I've had the car for 4 years now, and have put 80k miles on it already without any major problems *crosses fingers*.

I have a '96 taurus. I use the 300mile per tank rule...i generally get between 21-25 miles to the gallon. Recently, i have noticed that my mileage has dropped off substantially, then resumed normal, then dropped off. I put a lock on the gas tank and now i am again averaging about 300 miles to the tank. :screwy:

I have a 99 SE with the Valcun in it. I get about 18-20 City and 30 highway.