On the real cold days sustained my daily MPG of short trips drops from 18MPG to 15MPG. It seems like only 3 mpg however as a % higher. Also your trip meter is likely really mucked up. As I remember you pontenially have two MPG.
One over the entire span of a gas tank the other I believe when you reset it. If you follow the self reset you likely getting MPG of driving it out of factory, onto ship/train, onto truck, off truck and then excessive idling when dealer is clearing snow and moving about the lot.
Give that thing a chance,but sounds to me like another type of vehicle would probaly be more suited to your commute and yes cold weather knocks the bottom out of your gas tank(seems like it takes a gallon to start the Dakota in this weather) things will get better in warmer weather-Kevin
Bottom line is, you haven’t been actually calculating your mileage, and you haven’t even had the car for a full tank yet. Forget that instant mileage thing on the dash, manually do the math to get your MPG.