Gas Mileage

Little low but need a little more information, transmission? type of driving? hard driving or grandma driving? any check engine light?

On my 05' SXT when it had the auto and mostly 50-60mph driving I was getting about 32mpg, I've since swapped in a manual (out of an RT (3.94) so its gearing is horrid for a DD but fun at high RPMs) and up till it got cold outside I was getting about 28-29mpg.

On my 97', SOHC 3.55MTX when I'm driving her hard she gets about 22-25mpg.

I drove a 2003 Neon with 2.0 liter 4 cylinder and 4 speed automatic for 13 years and typical fuel consumption on the highway was 30 - 32 mpg. So something is amiss and not correct for 8 - 10 mpg less even with hard driving. Connect a scan tool to the diagnostic port and review the short term, long term fuel trim values and the upstream oxygen sensor values. The short term fuel trim should oscillate between a small negative number and a small positive number. Also the upstream oxygen sensor should oscillate with values less than 0.45 volts and greater than 0.45 volts. Any significant discrepancies would indicate the PCM (powertrain control module) is supplying slightly more fuel than necessary which is resulting in higher than normal fuel consumption.

I always run the front tire pressures a little high because most of the weight is biased toward the front. Cold weather will lower all tire pressures and need to be corrected.
Are they the correct Champion or NGK spark plugs?
I had a '96 Neon that I changed from a 3-speed automatic to 5-speed stick. I generally got 23-25 around town. With the stick, highway went from 35 to 42 mpg.
Short trips, cold weather and winter fuel blends will lower fuel economy.

John Croucher said:

The 2003 Neon gets 22 mpg. 86,000 miles. Runs great. Spec's say I should be getting close to 30. Is the lower miles per gallon I am getting normal?

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What is your typical driving environment? City type with lots of stop-n-go or Highway type driving? Is the transmission automatic or manual? When was the last tuneup? All of those play a significant factor.

Sounds too low even for city driving with an automatic. It may need a tuneup, it may have a tiny fuel leak, or an emissions control may be malfunctioning.
What do you get for fault codes?
How are you calculating gas mileage?

EPA rated the car as 22 city, 29 highway, 25 overall with an automatic, about 3 MPGs better for a manual transmission.
Besides the factors mentioned above, driving style is a big factor. If you spend lots of time in stop and go traffic, racing between stops, mileage will suffer.

Neons require 30k plug changes and use a copper plug (at least the earlier ones did) and ran worse with fancier plugs from my experience.

valiant67 said:

Neons require 30k plug changes and use a copper plug (at least the earlier ones did) and ran worse with fancier plugs from my experience.

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+1 for good ol copper plugs. I've always had the best luck with coppers, even in my 2gn. I had platinums in one of my 1gn's and it began to run like crap after about 5k. The plugs looked bad but switched back to coppers and thing ran like a charm until I did my yearly plug change (~15k~)

Disregarding what the "specs" say, has the fuel economy dropped for you while you've had it? The official fuel economy ratings are for comparison primarily, and are based on a specific set of conditions. If it's always been about the same for you then it probably is just a matter of driving style, road conditions and terrain, and time of year.

have had a few friends that got the same low mpgs ,could not find anything wrong with vehicle,could not expain it.beside tune-up and air filter watch for higher ethanol content it kills mpg.