1. Black Diamond has asked a REALLY good question, and that is are you sure you are not using corn fuel? Gas with lots of ethanol in it will give you much lower mileage.

2. Re: not having your AC on.Read your owners manual carefully. The AC is on automatically if you have the defrost on, or (oddly) have the vent directed exclusively at your feet, for example. If you have the dial AC, pointing it to one of the choices on the left side is the way to have the AC compressor disengaged.

3. When you say you are babying the car, my research says that meanshaving the RPMin the2500to 3000 range when driving (and not always at the same RPM, as several posters have indicated). If you are keeping your RPMreally low (eg.2000), your engine is 'lugging' and that would be a cause of bad gas mileage. I have the 2.0 engine, which is different than yours, but FYI, I seem to getthe best gas mileage with the RPM between 2750 and 3000.

 

Very true, my four banger (07 Camry) works best in that same range, i usually never really go under 2,000 RPM either. This is not like a V-8 where your average RPM is 2,000. Try revving it a little!

 

I don't know what the official name for "corn" gas is, but I think there are some blends between the standard and E85 that will still run in regular cars but with lower mpg.

 

i started driving more like my usualy driving style. no diference really in gas mileage. like i said earlier im going fill it up at shell tomorrow.

 

[font=californainfb]I was just joking BD.
In the late '70's I had friends that owned a farm in WVa and had a few oil and natural gas wells on the property. Drip-gas is what they called the run off condensate from the natural gas. Even though it was illegal, most ppl used it in their cars, tractors, ATv's, etc. It has a sweet oder when burned, not unlike nitromethane. Your comment simply reminded me of that.