"With all the discussion about weight & such I thought I would ask:
What have you done to improve your mileage on your vanagon?"

What I did was change the equation formula. I bought a '96 Passat GLX Wagon
and use that for almost all my commuting and around town driving. I now only
use the Van for trips. I'm on one now at my daughters in Aurora. I got a
little over 20 mpg for the 570 miles in 7 hours. Alot of time in WYO at 80.

The formula I now use is miles driven to time owned for the year.  Whatever
you do .... don't start thinking or using logic or reasoning, or you wind up
with a confused, twisted, knotty-gut, frustrated condition developing during
the computing process.

It's a similar formula many of us use to rationalize buying these in the
first place. In my case, I just like it and don't really care what kind of
mileage I get, as long as it's reasonable and tells me the van is
functioning well. I feel very fortunate to have been able to drive my van
comfortably from Salt Lake to Denver at about 80 mph most of the way, and
with no incident's. A real pleasure. I made two gas stops and still have
1/4-1/2 tank left.

Taking an alternate on the return (was going to be thru Glacier) and head
for Durango and Fruita for camping and biking.

Yeee-haaaww.

Bob Stevens
'87 Westy Syncro ..... fully loaded for a week-long + trip
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