On 3/11/05 8:52, "George Goff" <THX0001@AOL.COM> wrote:

> << The E150 is very lush and nice, has about the same useful room as the
> Vngn, gets 12 13 MPG on the highway and has been mostly trouble free. >>
> 
> Perhaps there has been a quantum leap in van design recently.  This past
> summer I put about 1400 miles through the Northeast in a rental Chebbie cargo
> van.
> I think it was a 2500 series and I think it had a V-6.  It was whatever

There has been massive leaps.  The mpg first quoted is from over 10 years
ago.  They are now routinely in the 18 to 20 mpg range now.  One big thing
to look out for on campers based on that vehicle base is what engine is in
them.  They actually had some carburated vehicles into the 90s.  The gas
milage is massively less on them.

Almost every van in the 80s was lucky to break 16 mpg.  In the early 80s
most were pushing 18 to 22 range with 18 being absolutely low end.  Mid 90s
and it was hard to find a van that wasn�t getting at least 18 mpg.

Also the EPA has finally admitted that their mileage claims posted on
vehicles of current years and going back about 10 years are not very
reliable.  They assume not enough stops for city driving, do not make
estimations for a zone between city and highway, and assume a way to low
speed at highway.  Honda was one of the companies that did some research on
it when they were told what their epa miles were for their hybrids.  Honda
was refusing to use them because they were way to high.  Their own testing
showed as much as 20 percent overstated.  Testing done by some independants
say you get a better estimation of gas mileage if you take 2 mpg off of the
highway and 2 mpg off of the city and redo the equations for the real avg.
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jimt
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Remember that sanity is optional.
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