Poor gas mileage, engine dies, rough idle, 98 JXI

My Sebring Convertible JXI, 1998 at 71,000 miles was getting 20 MPG, would die occasionally, (happened twice), had sluggish power at excelleration, and would idle rough. I drained and removed the fuel tank then replaced the $23 fuel filter that was located above it. It got 26 MPG on the new tank of fuel and runs great. No more hesitation at excelleration, it goes.
It has the original spark plugs, distributor and rotor.

Update,
It sputtered again several times and then I drove it around 100 miles without stopping or incident. When I got it home I changed the spark plugs and the transaxle filter and fluid. It ran fine without incident for several trips. It finally failed again and would not restart until the fourth try. All the dash idiot lights came on when it failed so the computer finally recorded and error. It was the crankshaft positioning sensor. With that replaced it again runs great and shouldn't need much for the next 100,000 miles. I had a dealer put in the sensor and do recall work that keeps the transmission from going from part to drive at idle.

It has the original spark plugs, distributor and rotor.I changed my wifes plugs around 80,000 miles so it may be soon before you have to change all that stuff also.