Fuel Economy on a 98 v70?

[Volvo_240_Atari_2600]

Just out of curiosity... What is the average MPG a 98 v70 should have?
About 170k
Non-turbo
AT
in Florida

My wife drives the car so she has a lighter foot than me.

She works not to far from me, so her commute is a 21-mile stretch at 70 mph each way. She does take my son to school and pick him up on a typical suburban road with about three stop lights and some stop and go traffic.

Her car gets about 21-22 MPG
Should this car be able to bet more?
Granted if it were my car, I would probably get less than she's been getting. I get the same on my 240 non-turbo wagon.

Current circumstances will not allow us to car-pool as it would save us quite a bit of $$$ each month.

Thanks

[MadeInJapan]

Any city driving tends to kill the mileage you get on the highway. At least that's been my experience. With a non-turbo you should be able to get about 30 on the highway and low 20's in the city. You're not too far off but you could do some things to improve your mileage. A good tune up (especially spark plug gap at .028 (use Bosch copper and don't go for any fancy stuff) and take any extra weighting things out of the rear of the car and make sure your air filer is clean or new. Grade of gas might also make a difference along with making sure you have no trouble codes (or check engine lights on). Another trick is to set your trip computer to instant display for MPG and watch it like a hawk. It will teach you to drive most efficiently.

[greasefingerss]

Fuel economy is on many peoples minds lately with the abnormally higher price of gasoline.

Religiously change the spark plugs, cap, rotor, & wire set every 30,000 miles. Maintain proper tire pressure. Replace the air filter at its required interval. These are the simple and common things for every motor vehicle.

For the 850, at least, check to see that the valve in the air box is not stuck on the hot air only position.

O2 sensors can drift. This will not set a code until it goes off-scale. Some last 60,000 miles and some last more than 100,000 miles.

I have been experimenting lately with different grades of fuel. So far I get 25 mpg with both Regular and Plus. I drive 400 miles/week getting to & from work, so my driving habit is constant. Mixed hwy & city. I do not use it on weekends as I own 4 vehicles. My data is from two months of driving (Jan & Feb) Soon I will start using Premium & Plus. I will alternate between two grades of fuel each week for comparison.

The engine calls for Premium. I guess this is because of the higher compression ratio? If you choose a lower grade of fuel then pinging may occur but you will never hear this as the knock sensor should detect this before you can, and it will retard the timing. So the only real problem with this is that you will get the max power from the engine. I can not feel the difference between any grades of fuel.

I will be interested to see if the mileage goes up during the month will using Premium. Of course it will cost a lot more than Regular (about 30 cents/gallon and will probably not be worth it?)

[Volvo_240_Atari_2600]

Any city driving tends to kill the mileage you get on the highway. At least that's been my experience. With a non-turbo you should be able to get about 30 on the highway and low 20's in the city. You're not too far off but you could do some things to improve your mileage. A good tune up (especially spark plug gap at .028 (use Bosch copper and don't go for any fancy stuff) and take any extra weighting things out of the rear of the car and make sure your air filer is clean or new. Grade of gas might also make a difference along with making sure you have no trouble codes (or check engine lights on). Another trick is to set your trip computer to instant display for MPG and watch it like a hawk. It will teach you to drive most efficiently.

I did the complete tune up from FCP Grotton back in October right after I purchased the car.

I did not gap the plugs because they sent me in the tune up kit, the VOLVO plugs that have that three point metal thing on the tip.

I did the seafom thing tonight... Lets see if that helps any.