Since our xB just clicked past 10,000 miles, I stuffed the mileage records into Excel and crunched some numbers.

This vehicle is driven primarily in suburban service, with speed limits from 25 to 55 mph and a moderate number of stoplights. It sees very little freeway driving. It has been on four roadtrips, which account for about 20 percent of the accumulated miles. This vehicle is completely stock, running on stock tires and wheels.

This data has been corrected for the odometer error, (5% low, measured by GPS).

Overall cumulative mileage has been 28.63MPG. The cumulative mileage has varied from a low of 27.94MPG to a high of 29.44MPG over the 10,000 mile interval. The vehicle did not show any significant change in mileage during or after the first 3000 miles. The cumulative mileage curve has been almost flat. There doesn't seem to be any difference between summer and winter, odd considering the expected effect of the air conditioner.

Mileage between fillups has varied considerably with conditions. High milages of 39.05, 34.11, 35.08, and 38.59MPG were all recorded on highway trips. A low of 20.13MPG was recorded, perhaps due to not filling the tank completely as the next reading was 32.17MPG. This error would not affect the cumulative mileage as it is dependent only upon total miles and total fuel used.

Overall, I am satisfied with this data. We probably operate our xB in the worst mileage conditions possible short of urban traffic. If we did more freeway miles we would probably average better than 30MPG.

George

 

your average is about the same as mine 28mpg....we must both have a heavy foot...

 

I don't think of my foot as particularly heavy. I normally don't accelerate at WOT and tend to stick pretty close to the speed limits. I think that any xB driven in a reasonable fashion in suburban conditions will get about 28MPG.

Remember also that the odometer (mine at least) reads 5% low, so the corrected value is 1.4MPG above the figure calculated using the odometer reading.

A lot of people tend to remember the high mileage numbers and forget the lower ones, This makes them think that they are getting better mileage than they really are. I'd expect an xB in freeway service to get mileage in the low 30's.

George

 

I did some calculations too and found I get about 28-35mpg depending on driving conditions. If you have cruise control, you can get even higher mileage.

 

great info george...interesting to see how that all worked out...i hope to get better mpg soon..im not even to the 27 mark..i am getting on avg around 300 miles to a tank, with 11.5 gallon fill up..for the record that is 26 mpg, and we barely take it above 4 g's rpm wise... :?

we drove 4+ hours str8 to West Palm here in florida, at first at night with no a/c , except maybe 100 miles of the 300 total miles, still avg just above 27mpg, WITH a/c on III the WHOLE way back, milage only dropped .2 mpg.....yes that is POINT .2 mpg..so a/c doesnot affect it as much as we would all like to think...these figures are at constant speed (avg 70mph) w cruise on..ONE stop each way, MAYBE 3 miles TOTAL city for both tanks...only to get off expressway to the hotel and back to the expressway...

 

Great info on the mileage. The difference in AC use is something I noticed as well. I have yet to get the first refill on gas with my xB :D but I noticed very little tug when the AC is turned on. In my Saturn SW2, there was a noticeable lurch when I turned the AC on while driving, made me fear it would break something... So Scion/Toyota must haveit set up nicely I guess. Being in the hot-humid midsouth, I have my AC on about 95% of the time so far.

 

well we all kno the ac system is a piece of $hitacti but i do htink that it would affect your gas milage a bit :? humm puzzleing

 

Another interesting thing about the data is that the mileage between fillups had a lot of variation. Out of 38 fillups, the milages fell into the following ranges this many times:

MPG No.
15-16 - 1
20-21 - 1
24-25 -2
25-26 - 2
26-27 - 6
27-28 - 6
28-29 - 4
29-30 - 5
30-31 - 1
31-32 - 3
32-33 - 1
33-34 - 2
34-35 - 1
35-36 - 1
36-37 - 1
37-38 - 0
38-39 - 1
39-40 - 1

The message here is that you can't read too much into the data from a single tank of gas. The mileages are all over the place despite my being very careful to fill the tank the same each time!

Violating this message immediately, here is another data point:

This week I added 140 miles of 65-70MPH freeway commuting to my normal suburban driving and it had a very positive effect on my mileage. The low fuel light came on at about 315 miles and I filled up with 11.44 gallons at 350.2 miles on the odometer. Figuring the odometer correction factor of 1.045 into this, the true distance was 366 miles and my fuel mileage was 32.0MPG. Not too bad!

 

i have YET to bust over 27 mpg , yet alone a tank over 310 miles..i truly hope to do so soon

again, your info has defiantely given me some insight as to the MPG expected on the box, and your facts are greatly appreciated as well as VERY helpful

THANKS doode!!!!