26 mpg is "normal" ?!?

[SchrodingersCatSK]

Originally Posted by why?

That is why they have heaters for both for cold climates. Easier and much cheaper to use electricity instead of gas to warm everything up.

For most people, yes. Problem is, we drive so infrequently that a block heater timer would be useless. I walk to school in the winter, hubby has a truck provided by his job for getting around, so we only use the car for errands. So to run the block heater 24/7 just for the 2-5 times per week that we make a quick trip to the store or an appointment, it would be a huge waste.

Hubby also has a theory that block heaters are unnecessary. The car gets "used to" them and then it won't start without them. We didn't use a block heater all winter on our '97 Tercel, and it only failed to start the one day it was about -50C overnight. Most of the cars that were plugged in didn't start either. *But* I can see your point that by not using one, you're either going to have to pre-heat the car longer or else suffer the poor mileage from a cold car, and either way will consume gas. So that could certainly be another factor here.

Is there somewhere I can get a "checklist" of simple maintenance procedures to improve mileage? We bought the car used, it was previously a rental (only found that out after, when I found Enterprise invoices in the pocket behind the passenger seat), so I'm sure it's never had anything but the bare essentials done in the last 2 years.