Hi all,

I bought a Caravan SXT 2012 in December, and the salesperson show me the gas consumption stats (found here) , he spoke of a 12.2 L / 100km for City, and a 7.9 L / 100km for highway.

My caravan averages in city driving with the Economizer always on, at 17.9 L / 100 km...My friends Ford F-150 pickup has better gas consumption than my minivan!!

I have 4,209 km done on it, and the dealer is telling me you have to have done at least 20,000 to start benefiting from the real gas consumption ratios...Is this normal??

Has anyone else experienced such poor performances from their 2012 Grand Caravan SXT?

 

I'm not sure what the conversion factor is, but on our 2011 we average about 18.5 miles per gallon, city in the winter with auto start being used. With only 2000 miles on it we took a cross country trip and saw as much as 29 miles to the gallon a couple times, all highway of course. Hope this helps. If anything, I would wait to see what your warmer weather consumption is...I'm sure it will be better.

 

Seems low, converted it to 13.8 MPG. Our new 2011 Mainstreet model (bought late Dec 2011) gets about 17-19 MPG around town, and it has less than 1800 miles on it now. Around town is a mix, not just a long string of block to block traffic lights and long sitting in traffic. I don't think the fuel economy has changed much since zero miles.

We did consciously break it in by driving it in frequently varying rpm ranges for the first 1000 miles or so.

 

I also have a new 2012 and have been watching the mileage a bit. I'm tracking at about 13.5 to 15.0 l/100 km (or 21 to 18 mpg) per fillup for combined driving with econ off.

 

Hi Joe;
I bought my Garnd Caravan a month ago and use it daily for my catering company. a day would involve about 3 hours of stop and go in the city (Toronto), combines with 40 minutes return by highway.
At first I noticed the gas mileage was horrendous! (about 16 L/100km). My vehicle is equiped with an Electronic Vehicle information (EVIC) so once I monitored the consumption, with alot of effort I changed my driving habits. I now get 13 L/100 km. Still not what they promised when they sold me the car.
I often wonder how they arrived at their data or if it's just a selling tool for the consumer to et hooked. !

 

I just picked up my crew plus yesterday and since then ive gotten between 9-12 L/100 km with the Econ button on I assume it will get better as it only has 207km on the engine. Also I've only done maybe 5km of highway driving

 

Getting good gas mileage and rated gas mileage takes a special way of driving. You really gotta drive for economy. I get 18.5MPG city with my 2002 and it can drop off quick if I drive even slightly aggressively. I have to make a real effort to maintain my mileage. I have seen 26MPG on ling highway trips too.

The way they do the ratings is somewhat deceptive.

 

I am getting just under 12L/100km so far, have under 3000km's, and on my only highway trip the computer went from an average of 12l to 9.7l, so it must have been getting pretty decent mileage. I have tracked with an app on my tablet also, best tank so far (part highway) was 10.5l per 100km, and worst was 12.3l/100km - 2012 SXT, and I don't have the lightest foot either (usually fairly heavy acceleration) however I do drive the speed limit.

 

I just rented one last week for a 1111 km run (Chicoutimi Qc Canada to Montreal and back) and was in fact impressed by the excellent mileage. I averaged 8,55 litres/100km..really trying to force feed more fuel into the tank to be sure.. ...turns out as 33 miles/imp gallon or 27.5 miles/USGal.
This includes an over ONE HOUR inching at 8 km/hr in a traffic jam..the rest of the trip at 110-115 km/h ..easy foot on acceleration and using A/C sparsely.
I consider this extremely good and convincing . The car had 12,000 km on odometer.
(story about waiting 20,000 km to see better performance is a hoax).
By the way, here are the figures available at www.fueleconomy.gov , which are worse than mine.
Regular Gasoline
11.8 litres/100km Combined
13.8 litres/100km City
9.4 litres/100km Highway

 

Boy has Chrysler ever come far over the years...remember when I was in high school.....had 1952 plymouth cranbrook 4 dr....no overdrive , no electronic ignition,no platinum plugs ...flathead 6 still made20mpg on carbed engine....lucky if I can make that on my 2005 3.3L.Oh yeah could do 60mph on gravel roads..easy.Somebody is filling their pockets buy telling us we need all these electronics.Somebody should go and tell them K.I.S.S.