Gas Mileage with my 2009 Yaris Sedan

[Woody_Woodchuck]

Voodoo is correct again! Except part of “If you have a MT you can go faster and use more elaborate techniques” We can use more techniques but we can not drive as fast, the manual transmission has higher rpm’s for any given speed.

45 to 50 mph is the sweet spot I found, depending on terrain. If it is flat, 45 all the way! At 40 mph you have nothing to accelerate with and need to downshift. If there are rolling hills you will need to press 55 mph at times, bleeding to 45 or 50, to make sure you have momentum to make it over them. 50 is a good all around cruising speed, you can accelerate if needed without flooring it. I have to do 55 on the highway because of traffic and the speed limit is 65 mph.

It took me 23 tanks to break 47 mpg, you are doing great! How have you accomplished that, what are your driving techniques?

A big gainer for me is in the first part of my 30 mile daily commute the back country roads are free of traffic most of the time. I can shift and let the car ‘idle’ along at the high idle 1,500 rpm’s in 5th gear. Within a mile I can be up to 55 mpg but, there are small rolling hills and in 1.5 miles I am around 35 mpg. Accelerating as slow as you can stand is also a big gainer. There is no need to shift to a higher gear and lug it, the SG actually reports lower mpg’s doing that. I can ‘feel’ when it is time to shift, you will notice no more acceleration in that gear without pressing much harder on the gas than you did to get to where you are (the speed you are currently at). Not sure of the rpm’s at each shift, I just go be feel. But, using the SG2 I rarely go over 3,000 rpm’s on any commute.

Sorry to hijack from Tomsters original post. Give it a couple tanks Tom, my first one was way low as the dealer did not fill completely.