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Hi! Newbie here. I have a gas-guzzling Dodge Grand Caravan, and I'm trying to eke out as much mileage as I can (18/25 EPA stats). I usually get just that due to lots of stoplights and hills in my area. Any hints for increasing a minivan's mileage in the burbs?

Hi Peege:

___First off, welcome to CleanMPG!

___As far as a minivan is concerned; you may have more options then most given the average driver behind, on the side, and in front of you is not expecting a Minivan to be doing 0 - 60 in < 15 seconds or 60 to 0 as fast as humanly possible allowing yourself a bit more leeway. Add what you may learn here and I see the possibility of a 30 + mpg tank coming in the not to distant future depending on how far you want to push it? Hills’ are fine if you can recover the fuel used to climb on the back side but stop lights are a killer for everyone. Rabbit Timing, Anticipatory Focus and Alternate Routes will help with those although there is a limit and you will still get stuck at a few no matter what you do. Our job as well as yours is to minimize the effects and the number that you have to stop at in the first place ;)

___I hope you have had the opportunity to read the articles on the home page - right side. Although they may sound hybrid-centric at times, the theories help a non-hybrid in a similar fashion under similar circumstances. Setup is as easy as pressing up your tires. From there, we can go a bit deeper but I would like you to read what is available here and ask questions about what you may not understand afterwards. Once you get into the swing of things, you will be surprised at how quickly you can improve in not just the Minivan but everything else you get behind the windscreen of as well.

___Good Luck and we look forward to your future questions.

___Wayne