when i bought the car it had 38000 miles and the guage read 22city and 28 city... now its down to 16.7 city and 19 highwy...... please assist me getting it back to 22 city and 28 highway... what is causing the reduction? thanks in advance

 

weigh reduction will help..strip everything on your car...ac, heaters, sparetires, interiors, seats...you will achieve nirvana

 

I'd start by giving her a service - injector clean, air filter change, spark plug replacement, etc.

 

Don't go by the gauge.
Do an actual mileage test. Meaning, fill the tank, run until your next fill, fill up and divide miles by gallons. Do this over a period of time to get an actual mileage.

 

buy a prius

 

Change your driving habits

 

get a Prius.

 

Turbonator

 

Walk

 

The gage is actually pretty accurate. Reset it next time you fill up, and also do a manual check as someone mentioned above. By FAR the biggest improvement you can make is changing your driving habits. If you recently made some modifications to your car, you may want to review what was done and if that could have impacted your mileage. There are a few changes that will improve your mileage, but that would be in the order of <10%. I had a thread here a WHILE back that described my efforts with mileage - I eventually gave up. My combined mpg is around 25.