Hi Joy,

The kind of trips you are doing is what VW terms "Severe Service". You
should expect the drop in gas milage as seen and should also change your
oil every thousand miles. With short trips the engine never gets time to
warm up so it is always running rich.

Greg

Joy Hecht wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm getting exceptionally bad gas mileage on my van of late.  I'm not sure
> if something is wrong with it, or if it's because I have ONLY done short
> urban trips in the past few months - never more than maximum five miles, and
> more often only two or three, and always on streets with lights and stuff.
>
> Has anyone ever tracked what their gas mileage is under those conditions vs.
> under highway conditions?  I'd expect it to be worse than highway driving,
> but not as much worse as it seems to be.  I seem to be getting around 12 mpg
> - compared with 17 or 18 as a rule on highway driving.
>
>
>
> Joy
>
>