I drive a 2007 tC. I purchased the car used with 79,XXX on the odo. It has served me well. I totaled my 1989 Toyota Corolla SR5 Coupe by hitting an SUV. So I bought a new set of wheels that will make me a more responsible driver, and more cautious. Anyway, I have seen SO MANY OWNERS complain about their fuel economy or just wanting to ask how to improve it. If you have a tC that it stock, I will give you some tips and hints all based on thorough research and driving experience myself. Now, I went to from a Corolla to a tC. Although my Corolla was about 25 years old, I was able to get 25 MPG combined. With the Scion, it stayed the same. I commute 45 miles to University and back. 90 miles a day, 450 miles a week, and 1800 miles a month. Over the 8 months I've had the car, it now has 93,XXX miles. Here are some things I can tell you guys about fuel economy for the tC.

1.) Slow down: I believe all tC's have cruise control. Use it well. You should let the computer do all the work for you. If you live in the city, drive the speed limit. Let's say the limit is 40 and you go 50. Drive 45 instead, this way, you aren't spinning the wheels faster. Do you commute on the highway a lot? Try going 62 mph. The tC's sweet spot is 2,500 rpm in the highway, and 2,000 rpm in the city. There was a Civic who drove like a maniac one time and he was rushing. As i took my exit 40 minutes later, at the light was that same Civic! So you won't be late, just calm down and relax, and blast your music.

2.) Brake Gently: By using your brakes a lot, it causes wear right? Hard braking wastes the energy in your car. If it was a hybrid, it's a cycle, which takes that energy back, but the tC is a gasoline engine car! So by smoothly braking, you brake pads and rotors will last longer, and the car will eat less gas. The faster you travel, the more you end up braking hard. Take it easy.

3.) Keep the car's weight down: Only keep your insurance, first aid kit, and the spare tire in your car. Less weight means the car won't be dragged to the floor. If you really want to go above and beyond, use Carbon Fiber to shed your tC's weight, This would include, the front/rear bumper, side skirt, door panels front/rear, doors, and trunk. If you never carry passengers or just have one passenger, take out the rear seat. It will truly become a 2 seater then! LOL.

4.) Maintenance: 7,500 miles passes by, it's time for an oil change. Keep all filters clean. Pretty simple right? Dirty oil=dirty other components that causes clogs, failures, shorten life span of car. Replace anything that needs replacement, and don't fix what's not broken!

5.) Keep the air in your tires: at 30 PSI. During the winter 35 PSI. Cold air makes the matter inside your tire move less, which causes the pressure to go down. In summer, the matter particles moves faster and expand, making the tire pressure high. That's why they say you should put more air in the winter, and release in the summer. Properly inflated tires are crucial. If you have uneven wear, this affects the cars steering as well as suspension, causing the car to drink more fuel. Balance, and Rotate tires when according to the scheduled maintenance.

6.) Say goodbye to Safeway, Costco, FoodsCo, Private gas stations: These gas stations have only 75% gas, 25% fillers. You have no idea what those fillers could be. I used to fill at Safeway, one a whole tank, I managed 330 miles. Tried 76, and got 340 miles. Went to shell and maintained 340 miles. Chevron was the most expensive out of all; this gas maintained 372 miles. Detergents may matter. The needle was at 3/4 right for all gas fuel ups. Pick a gas station that suits your cars mileage.

7.) Do not use any additives: sea foams or something similar. You're wasting money, time, energy, effort, and family time. If you want your car to last long, give it good old maintenance and love and the tC will serve you for 1,000,000 miles.

8.) Bodykit's are irrelevant: It doesn't matter if you gave a five axis kit with a spoiler on it. They're all just for show to make the car look aggressive. Want to improve the aerodynamics of the tC, work with your suspension set ups as well as brakes. Work inside you car, not outside.

9.) Save energy: If you don't use your radio, turn it off. Sometimes, those HID's look good in Blue, Pink, Yellow. Turn them off in the day, it wastes the batteries energy. Maybe not too much, but if you want to make the most out of your mpg, turn those lights off. As for night time, LED tail lights are energy savers. If it's possible, try to find low and high beam LED bulbs for the headlights. Otherwise, you can stick to HID's.

10.) Shift into Neutral: If you know you will be at a red light for a while, shift you car into N AT or MT. This will cool down the Tranny a bit and save wear to it as well. Better yet, if you're going to be idle for a while, lets say over 20 minutes, turn the car off. Between 1sec-15mins, it's perfectly fine to idle. Also, if you approaching a busy intersection at a red light, or if you're going to take the next exit, shift to neutral for both and coast. This way, you can brake more gently, and use less braking.

11.) Fill up at half tank: The more space your tank has, the more air that may evaporate the gas in your car. That's wasted money and gas. For example, at 3/4 to R, I usually get 365 miles. At 1/2 tank, its 250 miles. Add another half tank, and that's 400 miles. In the long run, you save money and use all the gas to your advantage.

This is all I can think of after years of research. If I am wrong on any parts, or if you have more to add, please feel free to post! We are all here to help each other and learn. Currently after following these steps, my tC gets an average of 23 City/ 33 Hwy and 29 MPG mixed.

Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I tried not driving my car and found that really helps save on gas.

 

Not bad, except:

Grocery store gas is the same as other gas. Gas is a commodity, and the gas from Exxon doesn't even have to be made by them. Chevron gas is made Chevron by putting a can of Techron additives into the tanker truck.

Gas does not evaporate from a gas tank. It is a closed system. Filling up your tank just makes you carry extra weight.

The only real way to save gas is to slow down.

 

There's some misinformation in this post. Since you don't want to panic any noobs, here's what I have to say to some of the points:

1)Your HIDs will not decrease your gas mileage. In fact, HIDs use less energy than do your standard Halogens and turning them on will not be invasive to gas consumption.

2) Properly inflated tires are crucial for having good gas mileage, but as far as suspension and uneven tire wear affecting gas mileage? I'm not sure that is true unless you have some serious alignment issues.

3) Change your oil at 5K. That's the factory recommendation, I don't suggest going 50% farther especially w/o protective characteristics of certain synthetics.

4) Don't fill up at half tank just because of that whole gas escaping theory. Gas does expand, and you will technically get more gas for your money if you fill up in the morning as opposed to the afternoon on a hot summer day, but pretty sure gas won't be escaping your tank. And in fact if you drive around with less gas in your tank, that validates one of the first points to improving mileage - and that's weight.

As far as I know, these were the only points I didn't personally agree with. Everything else seems like sound advice. Oh yeah, clean your car too if you drive often. If you're driving around with a massive turd on your car, resistance will come into play and lose mileage as well :-P

 

Yep. Gas is gas. The gas stations at Costco/SAMs club/etc would have the first shortage of gas if there ever is a gas shortage. Why? Because they buy the extra gas that stations such as Exxon Mobil or any other chain gas station has.

I've heard slowly filling your tank helps get more gas and less air bubbles. Buy gas in the morning as said before.

 

you could have just said dont hammer on it...we all know that saves gas

anyways i have 2 issues, first fill up your tires to 40 or 45 psi, my tires are rated for up to 53psi so im not stressing them at 40, i went from 27 highway driving like a jackass to 29 still driving like a jackass and having a good time

second, seafoam is a miracle worker and if you think your wasting your time with it do a little experiment... go 150k miles regularly putting seafoam in your crankcase, gas and vacume line every 10k miles... crack that engine open right next to brand spankin new engine and have someone that doesnt know what their looking at to tell you which one is newer...i bet they will tell you they look the same, all of that carbon buildup and old broken down oil causes resistance and leads to power loss and less MPG so your not wasting your time there

 

The verdict is still out on that seafoam stuff. I personally never use it, never will.

 

I read in Car and Driver that skipping gears (manual transmission) when accelerating improves MPG. For example: going from 3rd to 5th gear.
I don't know how true that is.

I recommend installing a scangauge or similar OBD meter device. it shows real time MPG and engine load.

If you're really hardcore about MPG, get some 16x6 wheels from a corolla/matrix/celica/prius and put some narrow 185 tires on. reduces your rolling resistance, but also reduces the visual appeal level LOL.

 

dunno about skipping gears, but i can see it working depending on different acceleration scenarios.

for the most part, slowing down and maintaining a lower speed not only helps improve mileage.. but the key aspect i have seen is accelerating to that speed.

scangauge or any other real-time mpg readout equipment will show that your mileage is worst when you're accelerating.. and it makes sense.

with regards to braking.. it doesn't matter how quickly you slow down, jamming on the brakes or slowly and smoothly pushing down the pedal (because the car isn't a hybrid anyway).. will achieve the same effect in the end.. HOWEVER, knowing when to time your braking in city streets will help a lot.

for the most part, imagine if your car didn't have brakes at all. you'll obviously want to drive slower and allow more space between yourself and the car in front of you.. the nxt thing is accelerating from a full stop uses more fuel than if you were already rolling.

not to advocate rolling stop signs.. however when you're approaching a traffic light that's currently red.. allow yourself to slow down early so that when the light does turn green, you'll still be moving. time your traffic lights. learn them.

best way to get better mileage? drive like a snail and don't hammer down on the pedal.

 

well your missing out on some good preventative maintenance for your engine, i have experience with it but i have no pictures for proof so ill just keep quiet...its one of those things that you have to see to believe

 

They just did a show on this on mythbusters. It's called hyperymiling, heres a link, and not many of your tips are mentiioned.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/my...ypermiling.htm

 

at least for me.. if you have not heard of the name Wayne Gerdes.. you do not know anything about hypermiling.. he is the guy who coined the term.

also.. different cars have different speeds to where they run most efficient..

read into Wayne's techniques.. some are basic, and some are completely outrageous... but as far as getting the most miles out of a tank of fuel... he knows what the hell he's doing.

 

very helpfull

 

11.) Fill up at half tank: The more space your tank has, the more air that may evaporate the gas in your car. That's wasted money and gas. For example, at 3/4 to R, I usually get 365 miles. At 1/2 tank, its 250 miles. Add another half tank, and that's 400 miles. In the long run, you save money and use all the gas to your advantage.


You should fill up the other way around; only maintain a half a tank or less. Carrying around all that fuel weights the car down. By only driving on the bottom half of your tank you save weight which increases MPG's.

Evaporated fuel isn't going to go anywhere, the fuel system is closed until you open the fuel cap. At that point you shouldn't be overfilling your tank anyways.. when the auto stop clicks... stop filling up (if you choose to fill up full tank).

 

Good post. Thanks.

 

Thank you all for your responses!!! yea, i figured i may had some information wrong; but, like i said, we are all here to help each other!!! Honestly though, i have been told gas is gas. For some reason, iI had better luck with Chevron Gas. Maybe it's just my car or me. I'm pretty sure i'll end up trading in my tC for an iQ soon just because i love small cars... LOL... Anyways, thank to all of you for clearing up all the info!! I truly appreciate it!!!

 

Also, DO NOT SHIFT TO NEUTRAL WHILE COASTING!

While coasting in gear (engine braking) the car is using ZERO gas as the fuel is cut-off. If you shift to neutral, your RPMS drop and your car keeps the engine idling while it is coasting which actually uses gas.

Also, some states actually have laws that say while being operated, the car has to always be in gear. MD for instance does.

 

This thread was useless. THATS all common sense.... and to only fill up 1/2.... is stupid. Sorry.