improving my ride as well as mpg...I hope

I just bought a used 2000 xe 4cyclinder. I've had it for about a month or so. I found out so far that the gas mileage could use a little improvement. Maybe a lot . My boyfriend wants to change the stock filter to K&N. But from reading the thread, I would prefer one that can be cleaned with just air. Plus I live in san diego beach area, so there is a lot of dirt particles in the air. I"m switching the oil to all synthetic. What type of oil should I use? It does get pretty warm around here most of the year. The shifting seems a little rough too. What would you guys suggest? Anything else I should do? There is a little over 115K on it so far. I'm also getting all new stock tires from bfg. I read earlier it is best to have them at 28 psi, but then read later to have it close to tire recommendation for best ride and mileage. Which is it? Also, it seems to take a while to get up a hill. Kind of sluggish. Is this normal for such a big vehicle running on 4 cyclinders?

sounds good...

now duck...trust me

uuum, welcome to the club recomendations would be that if you want to improve gas mileage get a prius (however you spell it), second of all the forum gods dont like double posts, post in one forum and it will eventually get answered. as far as oil, there is a search button that does miracles...have a nice day

Yes...a four thousand pound truck with a hampster pulling it is sluggish.



I'm wondering why it wasn't sluggish when you test drove it though...that, is odd.



The X is a sturdy beast...a work horse, not a race horse.

It has a real frame...not a unibody like the station wagons dressed up to look like SUV's like the Ford Escape, etc...and you could crash it into stuff, and it might survive...its tough.

With the 4, it will never be quick...and, as its rated for about 17 mpg...you have to be patient with it...if you floor it away from every light....the gas needle and the tach needle pass each other quickly....and you will get less than the high teens for mpg.

If you accelerate gently, and go with the flow of traffic...you can get the mpg into the low to mid 20's....high 20's on the hwy for long trips.

BTW - ALL of your questions were asked already...there's a search button on the top right of the forum...if you wanted to, you read an awful lot of threads discussing this issue....and get essentially hundreds of second opinions.

Some people even do the search first, read the answers, and sometimes don't even need to ask anything...but, normally, they find that there's ANOTHER question that was raised in their minds, by what they read, etc....and they do it again, etc.