My 97 neon gets 40 mpg highway no lie, so i dont think its unlikely.

 

I get in the low 30s with a mix of city and highway driving. About 60% city/40% highway. When I go up north I take back roads which are 55mph, I set cruise control and I usually get right around 40mpg. No joke. Last year I hit almost 250 with half the tank left.

 

My sxt varys from time to time lowest Ive gotten is 25 in city and its always in the 30s for highway.

 

15-16 is awful man. Are you accelerating really fast and stuff? I haven't taken time to calculate. When I take my '02 5speed up in the RPMs I can literally see the change in my gas meter in like 60 seconds. When I shift at like 1600rpms and throw it in neutral down hills I get amazing mileage though. I love it.

 

I have an '04 SXT 5-speed, and I also average about 39-40 mpg on the highway (during the summer)... But 15 mpg geesh, I would check to make sure your CAI is plumbed correctly, maybe try some injector cleaner or swap out your O2 sensor and see if that helps... If everything else fails I'd take it to the dealer shop and have them scan the ECU while it's running. If there is anything unusual with injectors, spark, or any of the sensors, the ECU can monitor it (even if it's not throwing a code).

 

Ever since I installed the new cam I've been getting around 30mpg with mixed driving, which is up from my previous average of 27mpg, go figure...as for your problems, I would check out the O2 sensors, your cat. converter, pull your spark plugs to see if they are fouled, and if so, replace them. Check the air filter and if its dirty then replace it with a good K&N drop-in...dont waste your money on fuel injector cleaner, with all the additives in all of the gasoline sold today, along with the design of modern fuel injectors, its virtually impossible to foul injectors. Aside from that...some more serious issues could be a problem with your PCM programming, but I highly doubt it.

 

Now theres a honest answer from our leader he knows more than anyone on here about engine stuff and he has a 5speed Im sorry I have never heard of any neon doing more than 35 and that was in my 96 hahn turbo. We only have neons be reasonable guys .

 

Its crazy but there are actually 5.7 HEMI V8's that could get better MPG then a lot of Neons...[:@]

 

Get a 5 spd and find what real gas mileage is. If you don't believe me on the 40mpg, go rent one and find out. The worst mileage I usually get is about 25-28 mpg and that is when I do all city driving and I hammer it a lot. Theres a lot of vehicles that can't do that while driving "nice". You must live a sheltered life to never have heard of a neon getting more then 35mpg.

 

Well our leader has a 5 speed and I would believe him more than anyone else on here having a 5 speed he only gets about 30 and he has an r/t better model than a 5 speed sxt. I had a acr srt4 that had the same as my sxt around 27 in the city and 30 on the highway. A neon is a neon now my moms turbo 00 limited edition beetle does 35 way smaller than a neon .