I filled up a full tank last Friday and I am currently half way through the tank. Thats right, I only have 100 miles on the tank right now and the needle is at the half way point. That means I am on par to hitting 200 miles to the tank.

Thats AS bad as what I was getting in my 2004 Jeep Wrangler with the 4.0 I6, 33" tires, and heavy ___ steal rims. Not to mention the Jeep isnt aerodynamic.

What the hell gives? I thought these things were supposed to be pretty has efficient? It kinda ____es me off that a car that almost has 100 ft/lbs of torque more than the TC gets the same mileage.

A little about my Scion, I bought a used 2005 with 20k miles on it. It was originally a California car. It has an automatic in it. I really hope no one brings up that its an auto, so expect lower milage, because my Wrangler was an auto too.

Do I gotta drive around town at 2000RPMs to get decent milage or what? Because in town I usually have it at around 3500. I still dont think the gas consumption should make that much of a difference though. Anyone have any ideas before I go crazy here?

 

Are you driving a lot in the city?

Trouble is that buying it used, with that many miles, you have no idea how the break-in period was, or what was REALLY done to that car. The break-in can affect the future mileage enough to be noticable.

As for it being an auto - that's only about 1mpg less than the 5spd tC anyways. And for RPMs, I'm pretty sure there's a big difference between 2k rpms and 3.5k in fuel consumption. Though, I don't think it should be THAT bad...

So your bad mileage may be a combination of a crappy break in, abused engine, city driving, and high RPMs... though we can't really know for sure.

The easiest things you can do to help are to make sure your tires are inflated properly (32 front, 29 rear), get an alignment if you think it needs it. Maybe even get an oil/filter changed if you don't know when it was done last...

 

A crappy breakin period would kill my mileage by almost 15MPG? Thanks for the advice, but I kinda find that hard to believe. It still under the bumper to bumper warranty...can I bring it into a Toyota garage and have them look at it?

And to answer your question, yeah Ive been doing a lot of city driving.

 

Well that's part of what I was saying, a crappy break-in would make a difference, but probably not THAT much, which is why I was saying it's probably a combination of things.

And taking it in for service is probably a good idea... just explain you bought it used (but it's still in warranty) and you're getting terrible gas mileage. They should at least be able to give you some ideas, if not fix a problem.

 

Doesn't the Auto actually get 1mpg better than the manual?

 

The auto does get 1mpg better than the manual due to the aggressive gearing in the manual... I have one of each.

 

If you are turning 3500 rpm in the city, you are either driving over 80 mph, or your car is not shifting into overdrive or 4th gear.

 

yeah my manual supercharged with me getting on it quite a bit averages 26-28mpg... You hammering the car with overdrive off all the time..?

 

The torque means almost nothing. You can change torque for any vehicle by simply changing gear ratios in the transmission and final drive and such. Torque has nothing to do with it.

It sounds like something is wrong with your transmission like others said. Probably not switching to overdrive. However, I would finish the tank of gas and see how many miles is on it. I have found that the gas gauge drops at different rates depending on how full it is. Fun a full tank through and see how your mileage is.

 

i've been having a mpg problem as well... i used to average 26-29mpg, and even got 30-31+ on long freeway commutes. but as of the past 5 or 6 tanks, ive been getting 21-23mpg. its really freaking me out and ____ing me off because i've made no changes to my driving rout or my driving habits. and its not the fault of my intake either, as it did it for 2 tanks before i put it in as well. with gas nearing 3.50/gal here in CA, i certainly dont want to drive around with SUV mileage.

 

you actually dont wanna be driving under 3k all the time... you wanna jus drive normally, dont care if it goes above 3k or what not.. just drive like you dont have a tach, im not sayin floor it, but dont worry to much either. ALSO.. it seems like the only ones with MPG problems are autos.. and theres nothing toyota can do to fix it! i have taken my car in twice, and both times they said that it was FINE.. how can you explain 18mpg out of a 2.4 liter I-4?

anyways... ever since i stopped carin i have gone up to 22mpg... and hopefully with my new exhaust it will go up to 24-25mpg...

 

Any chance it could be the summer blends of gas, or maybe the ethanol added?

Just throwing it out there.

 

Maybe it's time for oil change and/or air filter change? How's the tires condition? Did you turn on the AC? How aggressive are you from stop sign to stop sign?

I notice you can't really use the needle position to calculate your MPG, try a full tank and see how it goes

 

Not a TC driver but I normally average 30mpg, I still can't explain why but for two tanks of gas this winter I got about 24mpg. It is back up to 30 again now... I would blame it on gas but not knowing the previous owner and issues it is hard to say.

 

No. I've been using E10 for years in SoCal, and I've always gotten gas mileage equal to or better than EPA estimates in everything I drive. I've "dropped" cylinder either due to a blown injector or bad ignition in my previous vehicle and still never lost more than 2-3 mpg in a four cylinder engine.

From what I've been reading on this site for the past few months, bad gas mileage is mostly due to driving habits whether people realize it or not.

 

Try some fuel injector cleaner.

 

TQ is THE factor that creates hp when coupled with RPM and is the direct effect of combustion. Yes, you can multiply it to the wheels, but the amount of tq an engine creates at the crank is a reflection of the combustion process and the geometry of the engine. HP is simply a measure of that TQ applied at a given rpm. So, you would expect to use more fuel on a given engine geometry to produce more tq.

BUT, you cannot directly relate one car to another like that. There area lot of factors in the tq an engine produces. The offset of crank to the centerline of the rod is a big one.

It does sound like you are getting some pretty poor mileage, but have you just measured over one tank? If so that tells you little. mileage can vary greatly from tank to tank, so do what others have said and average for a few tanks to make sure. I see about 21 or so in the city and about 30 on the highway. But it can vary a lot.

 

1st thing you should do is make sure everything is correct like air pressure and your air filter is clean. If you havent had an alignment get that too. Track your mileage over a few tanks because it will vary from tank to tank. Buy your gas at a different station. Weather can affect it too. Ive gotten between 23-32 mpg.

 

I won't even try to dig up a post from quite a while back from a guy complaining about poor gas milage in his Scion, who posted later that when his GF dove the car it 'somehow' got about 6-8 MPG better milage. :D

One word: "Technique."

(With my box, if I cruise in a relaxed manner on the freeway I pull 36 MPG. If I drive sensibly around town I easily get 27-28MPG. If I drive it like I stole it, I'm lucky to see 22 MPG... Technique.)

 

i very rarely shift after 3K rpm and i've never gotten more than 312 and that trip was 2 1/2 hours on the highway at 80 the whole time. My gas mileage is crap. I'm not heavy on the pedal at all. My turbo'd mazdaspeed protege got better gas mileage. I've only got 4200 miles on the car and i'm the original owner. i've had 1 oil change thus far right at 3000 when i switched over to synthetic. My air filter is an Injen which is currently setup in SRI "mode" because I can't get the pipe in. I'm hoping that when I get it setup as a true CAI then my mileage will go up slightly. As of now I'm very dissapointed with my gas mileage.

also, my brother has an 06 civic si and rags the hell out of it and he gets 28-32mpg...what gives!