I have repeadly read on dodge sites that the 1st gen cannot get decent mileage because of the flat front. If I can get highway, 20 to 21 out of my 94 318 and 24 to 25 from the 89 3.9 driving habit's has to have a lot to do with it. Back in the day when I was young,rofl, I learned from my Dad and Uncle. We had a small trucking company and hauled coal from strip mines driving old corn poppers, ( International Brand), dump trucks. Anyway if you give it enough gas to get it moving and let the engine rpm build to your shift point. It saves gas as opposed to puttin the pedal to the metal. On those old trucks it was believed that too much throttle with the loads burned valves, and really taxed the drive train. These trucks were 6 cylinder 4 speed's with split differentials and only had 2 axils. They were 10 ton trucks, but the man pratically did not exist so there was a tendency to overload. Dad and I never let them overload but my uncle did. Keeping the pedal out of the metal gave us two trips a day more than Uncle.

 

I've heard stuff like this before. Plus keeping it under 2000 rpms and things like that. Makes sense to me and I've seen good results so can't be all that bad haha

 

Back when I lived in Va I set cruise at 1800 on interstate in the intrest of fuel economy, and no interest in the over cranky state trooper. I found that 2000 RPm kept me in overdrive on hills much better which resulted in maby 1 to 2 more MPG. Dropping the tailgate also helps but Mr. State Trooper frowned on that so I didn't do it.

 

I have heard on Mythbusters the tailgate down did not work

 

It depends on the vehicle, and other factors like tool box and such.

I've also found you burn more gas taking your time to get up to speed. I get better gas mileage when I pretend I'm at the track (within reason, not talking about red-lining it or anything)