Wondering why people complain that Yaris' cant get good mileage?!

[Zaphod]

Originally Posted by daf62757

I have often wondered how so many can get such fantastic mileage yet I still get slightly under 40MPG. Makes me wonder if there aren't some tall tales told here!

Stop and go can really hurt your mileage. When I'm doing city driving, I do a lot of compression braking (manual transmission), I time the lights and maintain constant speeds wherever possible. Engine braking with your foot off of the gas shuts off fuel completely so it's even better than idling in neutral! Of course knowing that, you can start off with more of your friction brake earlier to stay in compression braking for longer ;)

When you think about it, if you just reduce the number of times you even need to accelerate, it's even better than accelerating slowly. Very few people drive like that, if you're like the other 90% out there you just follow nose to bumper, mimicking the car in front of you with very little space or time to do anything different.

So knowing that, you should always be paying enough attention to what's going on in front of you to know when you need to start gliding in neutral to slow down, or when you need to start engine braking, always keeping things as smooth as possible for any cars behind you. As a rule of thumb, one should very very rarely need to use friction brakes on the highway. Thinking ahead, paying attention and driving more proactively is the key here, which is actually safer then following bumper to bumper and reacting.

You have to remember that your mileage really starts to drop off after 55, so I like to keep it between 50 and 60, in fact when there's no traffic behind me, I like to make it a point to allow the car to drop to 50 at the crest of a hill, and speed up no faster than 60 at the bottom, making small adjustments to that accelerator pedal where necessary. If there are downhill slopes that allow me to maintain the speed limit at 60 in neutral, I'll do it. And of course I'll use less gas on hills approaching areas where I know I can actually gain speed in neutral. And of course I'll even throw it in 5th gear and use DFCO when I know it will maintain it's speed, essentially using no fuel at all and holding the speed limit.

For me the real limiting factor for my fuel efficiency is that my trips are usually too short to allow the engine warm up enough. Heck, if you're mostly doing short trips like me and you do a lot of city driving you might be right on.

It's really all up to the individual and their driving conditions, but I can tell you from 1st hand experience it's very easy to achieve 50mpg on long trips if you can manage to keep the speed down.

[daf62757]

Originally Posted by Zaphod

Stop and go can really hurt your mileage. When I'm doing city driving, I do a lot of compression braking (manual transmission), I time the lights and maintain constant speeds wherever possible. Engine braking with your foot off of the gas shuts off fuel completely so it's even better than idling in neutral! Of course knowing that, you can start off with more of your friction brake earlier to stay in compression braking for longer ;)

When you think about it, if you just reduce the number of times you even need to accelerate, it's even better than accelerating slowly. Very few people drive like that, if you're like the other 90% out there you just follow nose to bumper, mimicking the car in front of you with very little space or time to do anything different.

So knowing that, you should always be paying enough attention to what's going on in front of you to know when you need to start gliding in neutral to slow down, or when you need to start engine braking, always keeping things as smooth as possible for any cars behind you. As a rule of thumb, one should very very rarely need to use friction brakes on the highway. Thinking ahead, paying attention and driving more proactively is the key here, which is actually safer then following bumper to bumper and reacting.

You have to remember that your mileage really starts to drop off after 55, so I like to keep it between 50 and 60, in fact when there's no traffic behind me, I like to make it a point to allow the car to drop to 50 at the crest of a hill, and speed up no faster than 60 at the bottom, making small adjustments to that accelerator pedal where necessary. If there are downhill slopes that allow me to maintain the speed limit at 60 in neutral, I'll do it. And of course I'll use less gas on hills approaching areas where I know I can actually gain speed in neutral. And of course I'll even throw it in 5th gear and use DFCO when I know it will maintain it's speed, essentially using no fuel at all and holding the speed limit.

For me the real limiting factor for my fuel efficiency is that my trips are usually too short to allow the engine warm up enough. Heck, if you're mostly doing short trips like me and you do a lot of city driving you might be right on.

It's really all up to the individual and their driving conditions, but I can tell you from 1st hand experience it's very easy to achieve 50mpg on long trips if you can manage to keep the speed down.

When you have to drive on Interstates, driving slow is dangerous. I drive to Chicago once a week and I am lucky to drive 75 MPH without being run over. At 75MPH, I usually get around 35 to 38 MPG. I wish I could get 50 MPG, but for me, that isn't a realistic goal.

[DevilGirl]

Originally Posted by daf62757

When you have to drive on Interstates, driving slow is dangerous. I drive to Chicago once a week and I am lucky to drive 75 MPH without being run over. At 75MPH, I usually get around 35 to 38 MPG. I wish I could get 50 MPG, but for me, that isn't a realistic goal.

Agreed. Local turnpike (toll road) that I drive daily for approximately 54 miles out of my 100-ish mile commute, the posted limit is 65. I don't dare go much under that for fear of being run over (it's nearly happened a few times).

But even doing 65, I can easily average around 38mpg (occassional 37, or 40).

Not as great as what others can get with their Yarii, but truthfully, it's certainly good enough for me! It's better than most any other car out there performing under similar conditions (ex. prior car was a Mitsu Lancer ES; averaged 27mpg).

[sailbob]

Originally Posted by Zaphod

Stop and go can really hurt your mileage. When I'm doing city driving, I do a lot of compression braking (manual transmission), I time the lights and maintain constant speeds wherever possible. Engine braking with your foot off of the gas shuts off fuel completely so it's even better than idling in neutral! Of course knowing that, you can start off with more of your friction brake earlier to stay in compression braking for longer ;)

When you think about it, if you just reduce the number of times you even need to accelerate, it's even better than accelerating slowly. Very few people drive like that, if you're like the other 90% out there you just follow nose to bumper, mimicking the car in front of you with very little space or time to do anything different.

So knowing that, you should always be paying enough attention to what's going on in front of you to know when you need to start gliding in neutral to slow down, or when you need to start engine braking, always keeping things as smooth as possible for any cars behind you. As a rule of thumb, one should very very rarely need to use friction brakes on the highway. Thinking ahead, paying attention and driving more proactively is the key here, which is actually safer then following bumper to bumper and reacting.

You have to remember that your mileage really starts to drop off after 55, so I like to keep it between 50 and 60, in fact when there's no traffic behind me, I like to make it a point to allow the car to drop to 50 at the crest of a hill, and speed up no faster than 60 at the bottom, making small adjustments to that accelerator pedal where necessary. If there are downhill slopes that allow me to maintain the speed limit at 60 in neutral, I'll do it. And of course I'll use less gas on hills approaching areas where I know I can actually gain speed in neutral. And of course I'll even throw it in 5th gear and use DFCO when I know it will maintain it's speed, essentially using no fuel at all and holding the speed limit.

For me the real limiting factor for my fuel efficiency is that my trips are usually too short to allow the engine warm up enough. Heck, if you're mostly doing short trips like me and you do a lot of city driving you might be right on.

It's really all up to the individual and their driving conditions, but I can tell you from 1st hand experience it's very easy to achieve 50mpg on long trips if you can manage to keep the speed down.

The ScanGuage supports your statement exactly. If I keep the speed down under 45 on level ground with little stop and go (country road) I can actually obtain a little over 60 mpg. However accelerating to 70 and no regard for pedal control mileage drops to 32 to 35 and with an opposing wind 28 mpg. The a/c drops it another 10 mpg.