Fuel mileage is too low, even for a V8 mustang!

[5.0Torx]

the fuel gauges suck. on the highway driving through a long right hand curve, you can watch the gas gauge go up. left handers make it go way down. same for uphill/downhill. uphill makes it go down. downhill makes it go back up.

however, just to give you a reference, my 93 has a 5 speed and 3.08 gears. My absolute worst mpg to date has been 16, and thats because my car hates winter weather and i only drive for about 5 minutes to get to class, so my engine never gets warm enough to start running lean. Absolute best was 31, windows down highway 70 mph. I usually get about 20 mpg in town, 25ish on the highway (summertime).

again, dont use the gas gauge. i actually get kinda angry when non-car enthusiasts use the gauge as a reference. but then trying to explain to them that the gauge is designed to be imprecise is not worth my time. i check my mpg every time i fill it up. i zero the trip meter everytime, and i fill up every time (that HAS to happen for it to be accurate - dont do the calculation if youre "just going to throw $10 in"). Then when i go to fill up i just enter the trip meter into my cell phone and divide it by what comes up on the pump. No pens and papers to keep track of. just enter it into your phone

 

[mavmavv]

Of the 2 Fox bodies ive had, both of them sucked gas really bad around town, on the freeway they were fine though.

They got like 12ish around town.

 

[LiquidGT]

Idling is the killer for me. If I drive it mileage is ok, but if I idle for a long time, forget it. My friend with a 4.6 sohc told me the same thing about his car.

 

[svtpower]

same

I get around 12mpg in town with my fox too. I beat on my car daily though so I'm sure I could do better if I gave a crap about mileage. I drive it to have fun and if I drove it like an old lady it would defeat the purpose to me.

I bet that the new ignition and pulleys I'm putting in will help boost that to around 14 or so though.