I've been reading a lot of articles stating "my tC gas mileage sucks" or "i get 37 MPG in my tC at 128MPH on the Interstate in Siberia with temps of -40F"...etc. Thought I would post some actual data. As they say, the data doesn't lie...but sometimes liars use data.

I've tracked my fuel economy since I bought my tC. Every time I fill up with gas, I record the miles driven and the gallons of gasoline added to refill the tank (until the pump kicks off automatically). My stats are below:

Total Distance Driven: 7880.3 miles
Total Fuel Consumption: 294.547 gallons
-->Average Fuel Economy: 26.75 MPG
-->Min Fuel Economy: 23.16 MPG
-->Max Fuel Economy: 31.50 MPG

And if you're into statistics, the standard deviation of the population of my data was 2.27 MPG.
--> This means that I got a fuel economy of (26.75 +/- 2.27 MPG) for roughly
68% of my full tanks of fuel.

Driving habits: 1) Probably about 70% Interstate and 30% city driving.
2) I tend to have a bit of a lead foot at times...hard to resist in the tC.

 

i seem to get about 26-28mpg at every fill up.

 

I havent plugged the last few months into my spreadsheet yet (I record them on the fuel receipts and enter them later), but for the first 32,000 or so I average about the same. My best on the highway is 32 mpg or so on a 600 mile trip and my worst is about 21 in the city. So overall right in spec with the sticker numbers on the car. People complaining either have a lead foot, an issue with thier car or just expect more than the sticker states.

Mine will dip a slight bit during this part of the year, but when you are pulling in cold **** air, then that is expected. The low today was -1, the high was about 12 and the high for saturday last time I checked is supposed to be be -4... so I wont complain about a little drop in economy during that time :D

 

The cause of poor gas mileage in the winter is the "gasoline" not the cold air. Colder denser air should help combustion. The ethanol or other winter additive just has fewer BTUs per gallon as compared with gasoline; thus, your gas mileage suffers.

 

It is both. Colder, denser air requires more fuel to combust for every cycle. That is why you can produce more power drawing in cold air than hot air.

 

although I have not driven as many miles as you, I get around the same MPG. My max is also 31.XX My min was 25.XX and mix (which is also around 70% freeway) is around 26-27. I do mash the pedal but 80% of the time I drive the same pace as everyone else. I dont have a spreadsheet or anything but I do calculate everytime I fill up so I get a rough estimated average.
Folks that do end up averging in the low 20MPG range probably drive harder and have 70% city 30% freeway.

 

mkchad0... If I charted my MPG #'s, I would probably match about perfectly. Thanks for the info.

 

Although I totally screwed up on a few of my last fill-ups (forgot to write down the milage! I was very angry ), I've started doing it again and it seems ever since I started recording my milages, my average is about 26 (according to Excel).

I was honestly disappointed, as I managed to get 29 on a tank once and have been able to beat that ever since. I think the combination of my multiple cold starts and short town driving probably makes for pretty unspectacular mileage.

I do try everything else to save gas, including setting my tires to about 37/35. I accelerate by not going too far in first, then going near-WOT in all other gears up to 2500 RPM (except 2nd which I take to about 2700-3000 so that it falls on 2k in third). I try to not accelerate from below 2k.

I might just go 38 all around next month or whenever I feel like getting more air, but I know my mileage probably won't increase greatly until I either change to synthetic (faster warm-up times), the summer comes, or I find some other way to do my short commute everyday.

 

26 is perfect for this car in a mix of highway and city.

 

Thanks for the stats!

 

speaking of cold weather.. it is up to 7 degrees out, so I am going to go out and run errands while it is summer out

 

I am so glad I live in Vegas. 67 here today, NO HUMIDITY ever.

My brother has an 06 camry and I have an 07 tc, we both average anywhere between 25-28mpg

 

Considering the RPMs in 5th, it would be awesome if the tC got a 6-spd...or a more optimized 5spd. Could definitely help fuel economy...and the 2.4L is definitely not weak to have to run at such high RPMs in top gear.

I guess the overall tC MSRP doesn't doesn't really pressure Toyota Motor Sales to push for the design of a completely new 6spd....but here's to wishing.

 

^^^^ amen

 

Use 1/4 to 1/3 throttle to accelerate - get out of first and second at a lower RPM - there are lots of losses in the lower gears. Watch your brake use and try to back off the gas sooner instead of braking or pop it in neutral and coast as FAST as possible then brake as late as possible without causing accidents. Coasting as fast as possible allows the most distance traveled at idle (lowest fuel usage) resulting in the most MPG gains. Time the red lights and save as much speed that gets you to the light when it turns green even if you have to slow down way before the light to kill more time to arrive at the light green. Again not blocking traffic behind you if possible.

 

Yup, I think that our ratios should be kept the same (for acceleration purposes), but a really "tall" (the right term? not sure) sixth cruising gear just tacked on, like the Corvette.

For example, you wouldn't normally use sixth gear except for highway cruising. I think something like that would work best while keeping our relatively aggressive gear ratios.

 

anybody tried playing around with skipping gears...

ive read some car reviews (C&D I believe) where the drivers experiment with skipping gears to save fuel...for instance going 1->3->5.

i dont think the tc would like 1->3 so much (probably have to rev 1 quite high to smoothly go into 3). i occaisionally go 1->2->4->5...but i guess that's not really saving much fuel. as stated above, 1 & 2 are the gas guzzling gears.

 

skipping gears can make shift linkage very unhappy.

i, too, average 24-29mpg. just depends how much of a jerk i want to drive like. :D

ive found brisk acceleration and holding a steady reasonable speed makes the best mpg.

 

that may work for a V8 but a 4 cylinder is tough. Going from 1-3 under normal driving conditions to save fuel is not a good idea. Youre going to have to step more on the throttle to get the RPM's up so you wont totally lose power when switching to 3rd.
A possible misconception is that if the RPMs are kept low, the driver can step deep into the throttle and still be saving gas. I dont know about DBW systems but in old throttle cable cars, that wuold never be true.
For my needs, 1/4 throttle is enough for everyday normal driving.

 

Yea, skipping gears is fine if you're driving something like a 6 speed, where you could drive 1-3-5 or 2-4-6 all day and it wouldn't matter too much. With our engines its not really a good idea because of the differences in ratios. You'll be revving pretty high in each gear. Revving high while throttle is down = burning a lot of gas.