The 40+ Club!!

[PNH]

My noble experiment on our Accent just took an interesting twist last week. Our Accent was involved in a collision and the front right corner ended up, um, not there. So we're now driving a 2012 Yaris, and will be for a few weeks until the Accent is fixed. It's too early to really tell but I am going to be monitoring to see how the Yaris gas consumption shakes out vs. the Accent.

[norcalguy]

Well back from a 800+ mile round trip bay area to la on the 5 and I guess I was wrong thinking I was going to finally join the 40+ club. The most I got was between 37-39.8 mpg. I never once saw 40 and that was disappointing being it doesn't get anymore highway than I5 where I might slow down slightly about once every hour and turn the steering wheel about an inch or so in either direction for the majority of the 7 hour trip. Even accounting for the grapevine area up the mountains where RB huffed and puffed I still thought I should have seen 40 at least once! Average speed was like 80 though, maybe that had something to do with it.

[northey87]

Originally Posted by norcalguy

Average speed was like 80 though, maybe that had something to do with it.

That'll do it. Every time I have got over 40mpg my average speed is below 65mph. Any time a drive in that 70-80mph range I get in the high 30's like what you got. Speed is a big factor with this car.

[Lucid484]

Exactly....Right now doing 65 with ECO on in the cold winter I'm getting an average of 35 mpg and get close to 38 in summer. Once I start driving 72 ish then my mileage drops down to 32 winter and 35 summer. Awesome either way you look at it but speed is a big factor as you stated.

[Tightwad]

55 mph = 40 mpg
65 mph = 37.5 mpg
75 mph = 32 mpg

Source: EPA

[jba]

Keep us posted PNH! I gave up on the +40 MPG.

[John_Madison CT]

Originally Posted by norcalguy

Average speed was like 80 though, maybe that had something to do with it.

You're averaging 80mph and you expect to get 40mpg?? Seriously?

I'm amazed your mileage is as good as you said. Drop it to 70mph and you will surely get 40MPG+

[norcalguy]

Originally Posted by John_Madison CT

You're averaging 80mph and you expect to get 40mpg?? Seriously?

I'm amazed your mileage is as good as you said. Drop it to 70mph and you will surely get 40MPG+

Yeah. Well we are all trying to figure out this engine and now that's clear. I think 70mph still might be too fast though. The others seem to think between 55 and 65mph is when you become a member of the 40+ club. I think that sounds reasonable and when you are most likely to see the magical number, but the upper 30's is still good. I just added up my total fuel costs and I'm happy. I've been testing with and without eco mode in my city driving and I'm pretty sure that with eco I get a few extra mpgs which translates for me to around 25 mpg city which is OK, not terrible and not great but expected for a 4 door sedan.

[oneir]

Drive it like a granny and keep your tires pumped up to 32psi, at least, to get best mpgs. Watch tire pressure. Whenever I've experienced a mysterious drop in fuel economy, it turned out to be tire pressure was a little low. (And I thought I was monitoring my tire pressure like a hawk, checking it frequently. Not frequently enough it turned out) It does not take much to make a big difference. It also doesn't take much change in the weather to change the pressure in these skinny Hankooks. I thought the heavier oil put in by the dealership after my first change was dinging my fuel economy, and it may be, but last night I put in a half tank (resetting the MPG avg meter) went for my weekly migration around the top end of Atlanta, and by the time I reentered city streets from the highway and a 45mph boulevard, the mpg-O-meter was reading 50. FIVE-OH-POINT-OH, and that on heavier 5w-30 conventional oil. Obviously that will come down a lot as I do my usual in town driving. But still. The car can get crazy mpgs on the highway if you cruise slowly at, like 60ish. If people aren't shaking their fists at you as they pass you're going too fast.

[Lucid484]

Just got my 7500m service..They inflated the tires to 32 even though the door says 32. Got an extra 1 mpg out of it....They said it was to factory...I dunno maybe because of the colder winter temps, I know the air doesnt expand as much. who knows.