Speedo reading has nothing to do with mileage. Odometer reading has to do with mileage. If you break your speedometer, that doesn't necessarily mean that your odometer will accumulate zero miles from then on.

See this thread for more details. When it was last discussed, someone suggested that the xB may be calibrated to the Echo's default tire size (175/65/14) which is smaller than the xB's standard (185/60/15).

 

How timely for me to stumble upon this thread. I have been trying to figure out if I was getting good milage or not. I have been keeping track of my MPG since I got the car a month ago, and somehow managed to put over 3,800 miles on my box already.

Recently, I changed the wheels to 205/50/16 (-1.38% lower reading than stock), but my MPG's went down by -5.74%. The only other change I had was changing the oil at 3k miles.

30.59 AVG MPG With Stock Wheels
28.83 AVG MPG With 16" Wheels and Oil Change (29.24 Adjusted to stock wheels)
34.85 Best MPG (Stock Wheels)
27.85 Worst MPG (Stock Wheels)

 

our cars computer uses the speed sensor to calculate the vehicles speed. It also uses the sensor to calculate miles traveled (displayed on the odometer). if your speed sensor is getting squed data (caused by improper tire diameter.. etc) then your odometer will be equally affected. I totally agree that your speedo can be broken and your odometer will still work, however if your speed sensor stops working, then neither will work. I'll be traveling 5500 miles from WA to TX to FL to VA, so I'l keep everyone posted on my MPG. maybe I'll get better gas mileage once I get to flatter ground...

 

yeah i bet mostly freeway too.

 

yeah doggin it around town i get 26-28...but currently my job moved from 4miles away to 55 miles.... so in a 2 day span i got around 34.5MPG.. not bad even having to downshift a few times to pass some cars and enter traffic plus my average speed was 70-80MPH

 

nice! i dont miss havin to downshift lol. that's why i love my mods!!!!

 

since this thread started, i have drive off half a tank of gas, about 6 gallons right? That got me all of 130 miles. So i am getting roughly 22-23 mpg. This is all city driving too. I drive fast and im sure the hills in pittsburgh dont help, but can anyone give me any suggestions to get some more miles for my buck?

 

You can't really tell what your mileage is based on the misleading gas gauge. You need to track your mileage with the odo and gallons when you fill up.

As far as getting more miles, two generally good rules are don't gun the car off the line and when driving, keep the RPMs between 2-3K.

 

OK it is clear to me that some people are using their gas gauge to try to calculate their MPG. The gas gauge is not calibrated or accurate enough to do that. The only way to accurately determine your gas mileage is to fill the tank, drive, fill up again and calculate using the miles on the odometer and the gallons on the pump.

There are a number of things you can do to increase the accuracy too.

Filling up at the same gas station both times at the same pump will keep the car in the same attitude. That eliminates having the filler on the downhill side one time and the up hill side the other. Having the car in the same attitude is the key issue. Some cars this can make up to a half gallon difference in what you can fit in the tank. When you are only talking 10 gallons that can make nearly 2 MPG difference. Not a huge difference, but clearly several people in this thread would care about that.

As stated by several others changes in tire diameter can greatly affect your mileage (good or bad) if you are far off from the stock diameter. Others have mentioned <3%. That sounds like a good number. The closer you are to stock the more accurate your odometer readings. It can even cause a small (good or bad) effect due to the "gearing change" caused by the change in tire diameter

As others have stated driving styles and driving conditions also have a huge effect on your MPG.

Comparing mileage on similar vehicles using many different methods of calculation and having different tires sizes on practically every one is a little like comparing apples and oranges. It is interesting information and useful to a point. Just don't take the results too seriously.

 

If the radius is larger that means the circumfrance is also larger. This will result in a further distance covered for the same number of rotations. This causes your odometer to read a lower number than actually traveled. Also, you will be traveling at a higher speed.

 

Here is a MPG comp. And that is some nice MPGs.

The Princeton unlim-ited division entry won the competition with over 1653 miles per gallon, a new state record, out of its 3.5 horse-power Briggs and Stratton en-gine and an 85-pound alumi-num frame.

 

i am gettting somewhere between 27-30 mpg. i have tried to vary my driving habits to see if it gets any better, but no. i get the same no matter how i drive.

side note; i have had previous customers calling me to complain about the mileage. i have one guy with an auto who is only getting 24 mpg.

 

I was thinking and complaining to my dealer. What do you tell people that call and complain? f off?

 

First, remember(for those of us in cold climates)that winter fuel is blended for easier starting and greater volatility-at the expense of MPG. Another thing that helps a little for us tightwads is drafting off bigger vehicles to reduce wind resistance (believe it or not, it does work!). One thing I can't understand is the box's super low final drive ratio-if someone/Toyota could raise the final drive to a more intelligent 3.73-1 I bet highway mileage would increase by 4-5 MPG-the last thing I saw geared this low was a dump truck!!!

 

My suggestions to get max mileage is to leave it stock except for a K&N filter, fill the stock tires to 35-40 psi and keep the revs below 3,000 rpms. I've done this and can get like 36mpg on flat lands
When you add performance stuff and larger wheels it all cuts into your fuel mileage. Just my 2 cents

 

i have driven 22k in my xB in the last 9 months, and average 28-30 mpg doing nearly all highway driving. most of this highway driving is 70-80mph, and i have a 5-speed which, as most of you know, revs at 4k rpm at 80mph, a huge difference from the 3100ish rpm of the automatic. i believe in the xB higher freeway speeds exponentially decrease gas mileage, much more so than a more aerodynamic vehicle. i was initially very disappointed in the mileage, as driving the same way in my '97 jetta 2.0 w/ 150k miles on it averaged about 33mpg, when even the EPA highway rating was less than that.

 

So everyone invokes "It has the aerodynamics of a brick, what do you expect?" argument for the less than mind-blowing gas mileage.

Luckily, the xA has essentially the same mechanics & weight, but with apparently better aerodynamics (at least by eye), so I'd like to know what are xA owners averaging for MPG? If it's similar, a different argument is needed.

 

I'm trying to figure out why when Car & Driver ran an economy car test with an Echo(supposedly the exact same drivetrain)they were able to squeeze 40 MPG out of it on the highway. I know the aerodynamics are bad, but I still think the gearing is stupid-I shouldn't be able to run 5th gear at 20 MPH on flat ground(around 1100 RPM)-my lemon Vibe 1.8L had the 2.92-1 optional ratio, and I saw 40 MPG with 4 people and a full load of luggage on vacation running 75-80, a 1.5L should be able to at least get 35-36 MPG at reasonable speeds(70 or so).

 

Just filled up from dead empty. Did not top off last time, did not top off this time, same gas station, 324 miles 9.84 gallons = 32.94 MPG I usually get about this if I drive normal. My driving is a pretty fair mix of city and highway, my oil is castrol gtx 5-30, I change it every 2500, my fuel is usually regular, but every 3rd or 4th tank I put in mid grade. 22,000 miles original air filter, original plugs, bone stock, tires checked regularly.

 

I average 32-33MPG in my xB. No complaints here.

When I was driving from San Diego to Chicago, I even hit 38MPG for 1 tank!!!!