34mpg without really trying

[PhotoDu.de]

I got a Yaris last Thursday. First fill up I got 30.56mpg in mixed driving, decent. 2nd fill up got 34.75mpg, which is good especially for more mixed driving and "testing the car out."
I still need to inflate the tires and I don't want to use the cruise control until after I break it in. I don't do things like accelerate when a red light is in front of me, but I also purposely varied my RPM when on highways/interstates to break in the car.
It seems like with even just a little bit of extra effort you can get some serious efficiency in this car. Nice.

[mryaris]

It'll get better as you drive it more. I don't really try hard either and I see 40 MPG all the time. I've had a few 47MPG tanks, but 40-42 is the norm.

BTW....congrats on your new Yaris!


**edit to say that I've only had one 47MPG tank so far with my '10, but hit that twice in my '09 before I totalled it last year*

[STC]

I got a Yaris last Thursday. First fill up I got 30.56mpg in mixed driving, decent. 2nd fill up got 34.75mpg, which is good especially for more mixed driving and "testing the car out."
I still need to inflate the tires and I don't want to use the cruise control until after I break it in. I don't do things like accelerate when a red light is in front of me, but I also purposely varied my RPM when on highways/interstates to break in the car.
It seems like with even just a little bit of extra effort you can get some serious efficiency in this car. Nice.

Nice job... :clap: It only gets better!

Depending on your driving terrain and location you can get into the upper 40's and lower 50's. Albeit, you have to use many driving techniques to achieve this...

Welcome to the forum... :thumbup:

[DebbyM46227]

I have 1400 miles on my Yaris and for the last 2 weeks I decided to check my mileage. (I only have to fill it once every 2 weeks) :smile: It's a 5 speed hatchback, no cruise control. I drive 75% city, 25% interstate, and the A/C has been on 90% of the time. I haven't over-inflated the tires, and I drive normally. I'm getting almost 34 mpg.

[brg88tx]

i got 39.1 on my last tank. great mpg is why i bought it.

[KrazyDawg]

i got 39.1 on my last tank. great mpg is why i bought it.
Flat roads and hotter temperatures help too. :biggrin:

[fnkngrv]

with my 17s, AFE CAI, and NST Crank Pulley I get a steady 34 city driving all the time. If I do the highway thing with A/C and Cruise @ 75 I get around 39 so I am pretty satisfied. that is with 43k on the car now.

[moonlighter6]

I got a Yaris last Thursday. First fill up I got 30.56mpg in mixed driving, decent. 2nd fill up got 34.75mpg, which is good especially for more mixed driving and "testing the car out."
I still need to inflate the tires and I don't want to use the cruise control until after I break it in. I don't do things like accelerate when a red light is in front of me, but I also purposely varied my RPM when on highways/interstates to break in the car.
It seems like with even just a little bit of extra effort you can get some serious efficiency in this car. Nice.

Thanks for an HONEST mileage post. Most lie about TAXES and MILEAGE :biggrin:
In my 2008 Yaris 5-Speed which I drive aggressively 65 percent city, 35 percent hilly highway, I get a consistent 34-35 mpgs. I only use non-ethanol gas, any ethanol always reduces the mileage. I use the exact same pump to fill-up, and record the fuel amount/mileage when the pump turns off automatically! You will probably better mileage experiences after about 20K miles.

[PhotoDu.de]

I wish they sold E0 in the Chicago area. The only places I've ever seen it is in Western Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska.

[mryaris]

Thanks for an HONEST mileage post. Most lie about TAXES and MILEAGE :biggrin:

So....everyone who gets better mileage than you is lying? I regularly get 40 MPG, if you're not then something is amiss. I only say this because you empasized the word honest.

In my 2008 Yaris 5-Speed which I drive aggressively 65 percent city, 35 percent hilly highway, I get a consistent 34-35 mpgs.

Ding! Ding! Ding! There you go. If you were to drive it less aggressively your mileage would improve. I should prefice this by saying that I think you can drive your car any way you see fit, but it is that very style of driving that is causing your mileage to be lower than most people here (myself included). I personally think the Yaris isn't a fun car to drive aggressively (at least in stock form).....I have a fun car to drive (one that I don't care what mileage I get out of it), so the Yaris can just be the commuter it was designed to be. Again, I don't care how anyone drives their Yaris, but the fuel economy is directly related to how a car is driven.

I only use non-ethanol gas, any ethanol always reduces the mileage. I use the exact same pump to fill-up, and record the fuel amount/mileage when the pump turns off automatically! You will probably better mileage experiences after about 20K miles.

I have been using E10 fuels (both MTBE & the current ethanol) for 23+ years and the mileage figures on all of my cars has been at or above what the window sticker says it should get (Colorado has been using oxygenated fuels for a long time now). E10 does not affect your mileage as much as people think it does.....I highly doubt that my mileage will dramatrically increase if I were to start using "pure" gas.

I believe E85 is roughly 25% less efficient than E10, so that would roughly translate to a ~3% loss of efficiency from "pure" gas to E10. At 40 MPG that would be ~1.2 MPG. To me the difference between 40 MPG & 41 MPG is negligible.....although some may beg to differ.

Just my .02.

[STC]

Thanks for an HONEST mileage post. Most lie about TAXES and MILEAGE :biggrin:


I don't lie about this car's fuel mileage... :smile:

When I bought this car in December of 2009 my first tank I only got 27 MPG (look at my fuel tracking). I was so disappointed with FE. I came across Yaris Forums in early January and started lurking and reading to try to get some understanding to why I got this bad mileage, what others experienced, and what they had to say. I thought people were lying about breaking the 40's and 50's! I was wrong... it can be done. Nearly three months later I joined this forum because I was so excited from my FE improvement. I needed to share and help in what I learned!

It's all about the driver! I learned the driving techniques from a forum member's "BailOut" postings:

http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5979
http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4248

Two great Stickies that are helpful information to increase your FE. You have to really apply these driving techniques and maintain them in order to break the 40's and even the 50's. It can be done!

Cheers!

[PhotoDu.de]

My MPG dropped just a little to 34.59. Moderately surprised since I inflated my tires but I also spent more time in rush hour traffic.

[moonlighter6]

40 mpg consistently? My "consistent" mileage is 34-35 mpg on non-ethanol gas. SC is a hilly state, but on flat level roads without a strong head or cross wind, few stop lights, I could see you getting 40 mpg. Aggressive driving relates to getting up to speed quickly and keeping up with traffic, sorry but see few Yaris' in the horrid stop and go quickly Atlanta traffic.

I am a Department of Energy contract employee. E10 and E85 were first used by us and continues to be used by us. OUR critical vehicles, BOAT engines, small engines, and generators use non-ethanol exclusively. Ethanol absorbs water which is the main problem but can be a beneficial effect in very cold climates thusly reducing fuel freeze problems. Ethanol attacks many components of fuel systems (rubber and plastic), a reason vehicles must be built/approved to use E85. The primary reason for using Ethanol is to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, not increased engine durability and reliability. I presently own five personal vehicles, they run quieter with less problems using non-ethanol exclusively. A plethora of manufacturers have produced fuel additives to address the effects of ethanol in gas for viable reasons.

[fnkngrv]

^ Toyota in 2006 for the 07 models actually had a warning pamphlet that came with my care about not using ethanol in your fuel at all for the reasons listed. The pamphlet went on to say that its use WILL affect your FE.

[BailOut]

The primary reason for using Ethanol is to reduce our dependency on foreign oil
I've never heard that before and it doesn't make much sense. EPA documents concerning the mandatory use of ethanol in some areas is for their "Clean Air Attainment Program". The U.S. uses an ocean of petrochemical fertilizers - made from the same foreign oil that ends up in your gas tank - every year to grow a sea of corn not for food but for fuel (!). When the corn is grown they use only the kernels and "milk" in the biofuels process, leaving behind all cobs, stalks and husks (which represent a much larger part of each corn stalk) as waste instead of usable biomass or compost.

How any of that is supposed to reduce our use of foreign oil in an effective, sane and logical way is beyond me.

[Altitude]

mryaris - whereabouts in Colorado do you live that you can get 40mpg? I ask because I don't think I'll ever hit that mark without some seriously conscious and conservative driving.

[fnkngrv]

^ it has been pretty rare for me in northern Maine as well...I have had much better luck in different parts of the country than here...The only way that I have gotten more than 38-39 in Maine is if I really baby it on I95 and don't use AC or cruise.

[mryaris]

mryaris - whereabouts in Colorado do you live that you can get 40mpg? I ask because I don't think I'll ever hit that mark without some seriously conscious and conservative driving.

I live in the Denver metro area (just north of the city). Most of my driving is on the highway with the cruise on, so if you're stuck in stop & go traffic a lot then you will have a hard time getting your mileage to improve. My mileage may drop as winter approaches and I use my snow tires.....we'll have to wait and see.

Like I said before.....Colorado has been using oxygenated fuels for a long time now and I have still gotten great mileage out of all the cars I have owned. MTBE & ethanol weren't used to wean us off of Saudi oil, but (at least around here) it was to reduce the brown cloud that hung over the front range. It still exists, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. I think anyone who believes using ethanol will reduce our reliance on oil (foreign or domestic) is deluded. It is primarily done to subsidise farmers by creating an artificial price floor. The costs involved in using ethanol are absurd (as Bailout pointed out), but we still do it because we want to keep farmers farming. I personally think it doesn't make any sense outside of urban areas where the air pollution is high or, like in Denver, temperature inversions create some nasty air in the winter. BTW.....my degree is in economics and I have done several cost-benefit analyses on ethanol and bio-diesel, et. al and from a purely monetary viewpoint it is insanely expensive and innecessary, although bio-diesel *is* fun to make. :)


I guess my point was to say that my mileage loss by using E10 is minute. Obviously there is some energy lost due to ethanols lower BTU content.....I think we all agree on that. I'm only suggesting that if I am averaging around 40MPG on E10 that it won't suddenly rise to 45MPG on E0 or "pure" gas. However, to test this out I will fill up on "pure" gas for the next 4 tanks and we'll see what happens. I believe there is a station about 6 miles from where I live that sells E0, but I will have to double check. It won't be 100% scientific, but if my average mileage for these 4 tanks climbs 5% or higher than my most recent 4 tanks then I will concede and agree that E10 substantially lowers fuel mileage. It would be more interesting (and more scientific) if I could measure the tailpipe emissions as well.....then we could really do one heck of an analysis to see which way is the best way overall (let's face it.....sometimes the best overall choice isn't the one that gets the highest marks in one area....think macro, not micro).

I will need to fill up sometime this week and I will start (assuming I can find E0) a new thread that charts it all out.

[PhotoDu.de]

I've never heard that before and it doesn't make much sense. EPA documents concerning the mandatory use of ethanol in some areas is for their "Clean Air Attainment Program". The U.S. uses an ocean of petrochemical fertilizers - made from the same foreign oil that ends up in your gas tank - every year to grow a sea of corn not for food but for fuel (!). When the corn is grown they use only the kernels and "milk" in the biofuels process, leaving behind all cobs, stalks and husks (which represent a much larger part of each corn stalk) as waste instead of usable biomass or compost.

How any of that is supposed to reduce our use of foreign oil in an effective, sane and logical way is beyond me.

You are a wise man.

[KrazyDawg]

I've never heard that before and it doesn't make much sense. EPA documents concerning the mandatory use of ethanol in some areas is for their "Clean Air Attainment Program". The U.S. uses an ocean of petrochemical fertilizers - made from the same foreign oil that ends up in your gas tank - every year to grow a sea of corn not for food but for fuel (!). When the corn is grown they use only the kernels and "milk" in the biofuels process, leaving behind all cobs, stalks and husks (which represent a much larger part of each corn stalk) as waste instead of usable biomass or compost.

How any of that is supposed to reduce our use of foreign oil in an effective, sane and logical way is beyond me.
Most people on gasbuddy believe it's to reduce dependency on foreign oil and about keeping money here. There's a number of people that have purchased a flex fuel vehicle and asked for more E85 stations.

[PhotoDu.de]

Most people on gasbuddy believe it's to reduce dependency on foreign oil and about keeping money here. There's a number of people that have purchased a flex fuel vehicle and asked for more E85 stations.

They do think that, because they are misinformed.

Producing ethanol from corn sometimes results in a net energy loss. Even under ideal variables, the net energy gain only goes up to 50% but is normally less then that.

However, sugarcane can produce 15 times the energy used to produce it. Sugarcane ethanol has been very lucrative for Brazil. Other biomass can also be more efficient than corn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050803/news_lz1c03fuel.html
http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/AF/265.pdf

[Altitude]

I live in the Denver metro area (just north of the city). Most of my driving is on the highway with the cruise on, so if you're stuck in stop & go traffic a lot then you will have a hard time getting your mileage to improve. My mileage may drop as winter approaches and I use my snow tires.....we'll have to wait and see.

Ok. I'm on the west side of the springs and have lots of hills that I have to climb if I need to get out to the store etc. I work from home so most of my trips are short and when I do get on the highway it's still not far to go where I need to.

I am glad to see that 40MPG is possible in this state as I have pretty much written that off as a possibility in the area that I live.

[Henry G.]

Tires/tire presure has helped me the most. V-rated tires(stiff) and 42-45 psi I drive the piss out the car and still average 37-38 EVERY tank. The car rides like crap but it did that before just not quite as bad, and cornering is more fun. Try 40 psi, vs recommeded 33 or whatever it is, bet you get 1-2 mpg more right off the bat.