I know what you mean about the mileage. Mine is like a spoiled little kid. It gets what it wants, when it wants.

When I first got my VX it had around 36K on it and I was pleased as it seemed that I always got at least 17-18mpg... really close to 19 oftentimes. Then it just got worse. It has just under 100K on it now and I've tried everything I can think of except the intake gasket. In the past 10K miles, I've gotten anywhere from 13mpg to a best of about 16.9. At its worst I was stone dry at 220 miles. At best, I've gone a little over 370 on a tank, without having to walk.

It's in the shop right now w/ TOD problems & it's getting the valve cover gaskets replaced (under warranty - warrantybynet.com... hopefully this solves my oil comsumption problem), so when I get it back I'm going to check for vacuum leaks around the intake. You might check your brake calipers. In the past 10K miles I've had to replace 3 out of 4 of my stock calipers, due to sticking. You could smell and feel the heat coming off the rotors after you drove only a few miles. I picked up one of those non-contact, point & shoot digital thermometers and found that the offending calipers had rotors on them that were in the 600'F - 800'F range... as opposed to one on a good side that was only around 94'F on the same trip.

Best of luck!
Shawn