2012 Yaris LE Poor Mileage

[BigMike]

Hello Yaris World!!

I've been a new 2013 Yaris SE owner since this past April and never knew this forum existed until just today! First post, here goes:

sjo102784,

My brand new 2013 Yaris SE came with a sticker rated for 30 MPG city and 36 MPG highway. I have logged just over 7,000 miles since I drove the car off the lot 5 months ago including numerous road trips. If I drive the car like a grandpa and try to hypermile, as ron3 suggests, I get 34 MPG. So far that is the top I've seen from an entire tank (I think it was 34.2 MPG). Otherwise cruising at 65 MPH on the open road will net me between 31-32 MPG which is very similar to your LE.

I'd like to share important information that I believe is throwing everyone off. Unless you are actually logging the mileage and calculating your MPG firsthand, then I believe we are all receiving inaccurate results. Let me explain.

The LCD screen on my dash also shows an estimated number of miles remaining per tank. When the low light fuel indicator comes on, it claims I only have about 20 miles remaining. I was pretty freaked out when this first happened because I was 40 miles in between cities. I drove a good 20+ miles beyond the point where the LCD said I have "0" miles remaining and when I got gas it took somewhere around 9.5 gallons to top off. I haven't driven the car dry yet, but I assume when the estimated readout reads "0" miles remaining there is in fact somewhere under 2 gallons remaining in the tank.

Therefore, I believe the MPG readout on this LCD screen is not taking into account the additional 1.5 or 2 gallons that remain in the tank when the estimated distance remaining reading goes to zero. Two gallons at 36 MPG is 72 miles. That is a huge difference.

So what I plan to do on my next road trip is calculate the mileage for myself the old fashioned way and then compare that value to the LCD readout.

32 MPG * 11 gallons = 352 miles
compare to
36 MPG * 9.5 gallons = 342 miles

The numbers are close, but again I don't know for sure how many gallons are remaining when the estimated miles remaining reading goes to "zero", so 9.5 gallons is just a hunch.

One thing I don't like about this theory is that if I am correct, why in the WORLD would Toyota do such a thing when the consumer for such a small, economical car is there specifically for economy. Anyone can test drive a Yaris off the lot and get up to cruising speed and note the MPG reading ... compare this across the Fit or Chevy Sonic, etc, and Toyota would loose sales if their number is actually lower than what it is really getting. The one test driving would never think twice and simply move on to another car that "made better fuel mileage".

At any rate, I'll definitely update this once I run a full tank on the open road and calculate the mileage properly!

Regards,
BigMike