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Kent
Dodge Dakota
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2/10/2004
20:19:54
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 Subject: Gas mileage??
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I just bought a new 2004 QuadCab 4x4, with 4.7L, 5-sp automatic, 3.55 gears and 265 tires...
I'll be driving it over 40 miles a day to/from work, mostly highway (no freeway) and am hoping for at least 15 or better. I traded in a 1999 Ram QuadCab 4x4, automatic, with 5.2L. I could get a little over 14 in winter, and 15.5 or so in summer -- to give you an idea of how I drive them (not hard at all).
Can I do as well, or better with this smaller truck?
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Alpine
Dodge Dakota
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2/10/2004
20:25:08
| RE: Gas mileage??
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I don't think you will do much better. Do a search here for Gas Mileage. You will find all the info you need.
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hotplymouth
DakotaEnthusiast
2/10/2004
20:32:14
|  RE: Gas mileage??
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I have an 2002 same setup as your I get 17+ if I drive 58 to 65 without a lot of stops
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Kent
Dodge Dakota
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2/10/2004
20:38:05
| RE: Gas mileage??
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Thanks for the quick responses, guys. I saw a couple of posts talking about 12-14 MPG, and it had me really concerned....
Didn't want to be buying more gas for a smaller truck!
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eddy
Dodge Dakota
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2/10/2004
21:07:31
| RE: Gas mileage??
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I have almost the same setup as you, except I got the smaller wheel and tire package and no tire and handling setup.
04 Sport plus,4.7/5spd auto/3.55, 245/70/16s. 5 thousand miles on the truck so far. With my lighter tires, I should actually be getting better mileage than you, all else being the same. Throughout the winter I've been looking at mid-high twelves overall. There was one jump to the high 14s when I really, really babied it for a tank and almost never accelarated briskly. For the most part my driving style seems to make little difference. Go easy for a tank, average 12.9. Be harder on it, average 12.7. That's what I hear people are getting with Hemi Rams.
My absolute best had to have been high 15s when it was still warm out on a 300+ mile round trip that was all highway with the cruise at 65 or so with only occasional harsh accelaration. SO far with 5700 miles Im still at high 12s the majority of the time. This is with about a 60/40 city/highway split, give or take 10% either way depending on the week.
In general, Im impressed with the truck but not at all with the mileage, but I figure you gotta pay to play. It's a common issue with Dakota, people buying it over bigger trucks to get betterr mileage and then not doing any better than 3/4 on extended cabs. In general with pickups, it's usually not a good idea to go smaller for solely mpg unless you're going from one extreme to another like a crew cab dually to a reg cab 4-banger compact. Otherwise if you're downgrading in smaller steps, you'll find the gain in mpg is negligible compared to the loss in space, and sometimes you end up guzzling more gas than you would with the bigger truck with the bigger engine because small engines are always revving harder to move a vehicle around.
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TexasTodd
Dodge Dakota
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2/10/2004
21:37:01
| RE: Gas mileage??
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It seems the 4x4, eats a bit of it too.
I can understand wanting, and having it though. Part of that price to play. If you live at a northern lattitude, I'm sure it comes in handy.
My 01, QC, 4.7, manual, 2x4, 3.55, LSD, tire and handling, trailer towing, yadda, yadda, gets around 20 highway, doing 80, with a/c and a load of family, gear, luggage, etc.
But for a 4x4, auto, mixed driving, sounds about right.
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jeremiah2360
Dodge Dakota
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2/10/2004
21:49:12
| RE: Gas mileage??
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eddy, I get about the same results as you do. Warmed up a little lately, got 13.68 last tank.
Kent you`ll probably be lucky to see 16 when it warms up. Let us know how you do.
03 qc 4.7 auto 4x4 26k
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Tahoe Blue
Dodge Dakota
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2/10/2004
23:58:49
|  RE: Gas mileage??
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I've got a 00 quad 4x, 4.7, 4 spd auto, 3.55's, and 31's.......after 3.5 years and 75000 miles I see 13-14 on average. Best ever 16. Sorry, probably not what you're wanting to hear.
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Kent
Dodge Dakota
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2/20/2004
20:41:56
| RE: Gas mileage??
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Well, I just checked my mileage on the first full tank today, and thought I'd report back. The truck had close to 3/4 tank from the dealer, and total mileage is approaching 400 miles now...
I went 286.8 miles on this tank and used 19.126 gallons of 87 octane. I manually filled it and topped it off the same both times. That calculates to 14.995 MPG for the first full tank. That includes a little bit of idling to warm up in winter, some in-town driving, a feww miles of freeway, a few miles of 4WD on a snow-covered backroad, and quite a bit of listening to the acceleration of a V-8... i.e. I didn't baby it.
Given this,I think I'll be able to get around 16 in the summer, once it's broken in and I've changed to Mobil 1 ... especially if I try to drive it for better mileage.
Looks like a little better MPG than the Ram Quad with 5.2 I traded in, but a quicker, and a lot more fun to drive!!!
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eddy
Dodge Dakota
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2/20/2004
21:33:38
| RE: Gas mileage??
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YEah Im getting a bit more optimistic too. LAtely the roads have stayed dry and it's been consistently over 40 degrees for a few weeks now. LAst tank I checked I got 14.5 and it looks like Im pretty much on track to equal or beat that slightly next week when I check again. That's almost a full 2 mpg better than my normal average in the 4 months or so since I got the truck, and it's not even spring yet. Im sure its a combination of me beign easier on the gas, warmer weather, and the engine being more broken in at 6 thousand miles.
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mrsbaddakota
Dodge Dakota
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2/21/2004
13:08:39
| RE: Gas mileage??
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This topic of gas mileage is so all over. I have 67000 miles on my 02 Dakota 4x4 4.7 3:55 gears, and I check mileage on a regular basis, My husband and I comute into Las Vegas three days a week over the same mountain pass, same roads drive some days 60 MPH, sometimes 65-70 MPH etc., and we have never managed to get the same mileage, driving the same speeds. We get as low as 12.8-19.2 MPG We will go two or three trips getting 14.7 then the next trip it will jump to 17.4. We have used four different stations for gas, one seemed to give us a bit better mileage so we thought lets stick with that station and the next thing, we have dropped a few MPG on their gas. So I give up, and what is crazy is my husbands 86 F250 4x4 460 built gets between 9-12.8 MPG and you can take it to the bank 9-10 in-town/9.5-12.8 highway never changes.
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Armyman
Dodge Dakota
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2/22/2004
00:28:32
| RE: Gas mileage??
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Would the gas mileage matter if you had the NP233HD or NP244HD Transfer cases, because the 233 is part time and 244 is full time?
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WipLash
R/T
2/22/2004
00:59:54
| RE: Gas mileage??
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MrsBad....
I know what you mean... I don't think it's as bad since they went to the OBII computers. I know my 92,93, and 94 was so irradict on fuel mileage that you could not ever predict what it was going to do. I would drive my 92 4X4 5.2L like a pussy/cat and it would sqeak out a terrible 13.5mpg. I would get so pissed! The next tank of gas I would take my frustations out on the truck and drive the living hell out of it and it would get 17mpg. I would then back way off. I was thinking like if it would get 17mpg driving the SH!T out of it that I could BABY it and get 20mpg. NOT! It would get less mpg everytime.....
It is the adaptive computer Dodge puts in these things. The harder you drive them the more it backs off on the fuel and ignition curves. The easier you drive them the more it pumps everything up. Try driving the truck real hard for like 3 days or a tank of gas. You probably won't be able to make the tires break loose after that. Then drive it like Grandma for 3 days or a tank of gas and get on it. After you have driven it real easy for several days the computer readjust for your new driving style. Now punch it and watch the tires go up in smoke! I played with this for years and it worked everytime. If I knew I was going to go to the track, I would purposely drive it for a week ahead of time very easy so the computer would jack all the parameters up to the max. Of course, what all this means is, you can't adjust your driving style to make these things get better gas mileage. It sucks!!
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