Austin gets its own "new and disimproved" formula (one of the 20-odd blends stupidly mandated in various parts of the country), which changed about a year ago. The new stuff smells like kerosene and promptly dissolved an old plastic air cleaner spacer on one of my carbureted cars, but really doesn't seem to hurt gas mileage (on either the EFI or carbureted cars0 as much as the "winter formula" gas that we got prior to this latest re-forumlation.
I've got about 1200 miles on my 300C and can give you the following report:
Around town in Atlanta, I am averaging ~15 mpg.
I recently took a trip down to Auburn AL, (about 150 miles away), and set the cruise at 78, with cruise control on, the MDS gets to take maximum effect and my mileage improved to 22 mpg.
I expect mileage to improve more when no A/C is necessary, and if I cruised a bit slower.
Bottom line though, if you put your foot in it, you automatically give up any decent gas mileage.
It's pretty cool to watch the gas mileage on a recent reset after fillup on the road. On level ground you can see the MDS kick in, (but don't feel it), as the average mpg begins to tick up. When you begin an uphill pull, but before the cruise applies more power, you can see the MDS kick off and the mpg begins to tick down.
And after it has a chance to wear in a little more after a few more miles.
Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")
Glad to read your post as my magnum with the hemi engine is getting about same mileage around town. But here in Rancho Cucamonga, California I do a lot of uphill driving.
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