Love my 2023 Tundra Crew max limited, non hybrid, but Cali livin at $5 a gallon... Not so much!

I am a Toyota guy - own a 1984 FJ60, a 2007 Fj with a 6-speed manual transmission, and now this 2023 Tundra. I love the truck and everything about it - except for its horrendous MPGs. I am getting 10mpg city/ 14hwy. I didn't go huge on tires but do have 285/75/17 Open country A/Ts.

I'm putting $150+ every 3 to 4 days. Insane amount of costs to drive this thing. My wife is from DE and I am here now as I write this - $3.00 per gallon. If I lived here, I'd never sell the truck. But I don't. I live in San Diego... GMC is offering some legit discounts and with their new diesel I'd be getting 24+. I like the Rivian but not sold on electric.

ugh....anyone else having second thoughts due to MPGs?

 

Coming from a boosted and mildly lifted Tacoma - no, not at all. I get better mileage overall. That said, NM gas prices are a bit lower.

If MPG are a concern Toyota trucks aren’t the best choice - never have

 

You can find an older Prius for decent price, makes days that a truck isn’t needed better. That’s what I did.

 

Here in TX, my neck of the woods, I paid $2.69 the other day and passed by a station for $2.49/gal.

 

Pay is relative to location

 

Yeah Tex we got it good here. I was in California for Thanksgiving and had to hand over $5.50 a gallon and we were driving my Gladiator (pushing plywood). I filled up in Parker Az and enjoyed the last bit of (relatively) cheap gas till I hit the first fill up in country there. $175 later and I was able to get the tank topped off in Parker again on the way back (to Las Cruces) home. The Tundra is actually better MPG than the Gladiator so next time (gone dragged kicking and screaming) we'll take the Tundra.

 

Shop at Safeway with a club card, normally I get .20 off a gallon at chevron, last week I got 1.00 off per gallon

 

One question: Assume you corrected odometer for the increased tire size? If not, that will be messing with your mpg calculation. Still doesn't help with the actual cash spend on gas, though.

I got nothing helpful to say, other than sorry about your situation. Perhaps returning to stock size tires might help a little? Sounds like a lot of stop and go and/or hills. Not much you can do for that even with another manufacturer's diesel. I think it's still gonna be spendy on gas unless you go with some sort of economy car.

 

I’m averaging 19.5 on my basically stock Tundra. It a good feeling knowing I could load it to the gills and go 500 miles without stoping as long we have a coffee can and Gatorade bottle. There isn’t an electric anything that can do that.

 

Voting has consequences

 

Sub $3 all over Colorado right now

 

Las Cruces I’m a bit further north but NM true!

Would you care to compare/contrast the Gladiator vs the Tundra? The Jeep is allegedly superior off road but beyond the slightly shorter wheelbase and easy fit of 37’s - why own both?!!?

 

You will not save money getting a diesel. The maintenance and the issues with the emissions controls will cost way more than your fuel. Go back to stock on the Tundra and you'll save money over buying another vehicle.

 

Living in CA costs a lot more than just money...

 

I get about 16 average in the city but no regrets here. Highway I’ll get around 20-25 mpg. According to Fuelly I’ve spent around $1500 on gas using 478 gallons (mix of premium 93 or regular 87)

 

What town?

 

Nope

 

I feel ya man, I'm stuck in Cali too. Last year I was spending $800/ month in gas to work in the tacoma until I found a little civic for commuting. Having said that, you modified a full size truck with bigger tires and that's going to drink more fuel on any truck. Going back to stock tires you'll save a little but sounds like you have mostly city driving which will also take more fuel anyway.

I have never worried about mpg's in a truck cuz it's built for a certain purpose. My tundra gets the same at worst but mostly better than my '20 Tacoma did. Bottom line full size trucks are not meant for fuel economy, if that's your main concern buy a prius and skinny jeans.

 

How much did you spend on your civic? It's tax, title, tags and maintenance?

 

Got lucky to find a broke down one for $900. Spent maybe another 600 to get it going. Older early 2000's so I have that for commuting and tundra for man shit.

 

$4.09 here at SoCal Costco. Hybrid truck gets 18mpg on CA piss gas.

NO RAGRETS. I love my truck!!

 

So this is a round about way of telling us you can’t actually afford a new truck?

Got it, sorry it’s eating your disposable income in fuel bills to the tune of $1,125-$1,500/month in fuel. Since it’s not making you money as a vocational vehicle, and you drive quite a bit each month you should probably buy something more logical. Like a Prius.

Take this expensive lesson to heart and don’t do stupid shit anymore like buying a $70K truck then putting big heavy tires on it and daily driving it in the land of self inflicted $5.00+/gallon fuel. Particularly if you drive enough to fill up every 3-4 days. That’s just stupid unless you can afford the fuel bill and not even think about it.

 

That's another good point the winter gas in Cali is much worse on fuel economy. That's also why prices went down recently, that and turning back up domestic fuel production.

 

That's the way to do it! So many people will go buy a $10K-$15K commuter that gets 5 MPG more, and then some how they think they are saving money. Or, they trade for something altogether new that gets 10MPG but they take a bath on depreciation and either extend the loan they've paid on for 2 years back out to 5, or they take on a payment vs keeping a vehicle the own outright. How in the world they can do the mental gymnastics to believe that is has somehow saved them money is absolutely retarded. It's on par with this new satire trend of "girl math" that I see being lampooned. Absolute stupidity is required to think it's a financial gain.

 

Haha well said. I just got lucky someone who didn't know how to fix cars had a broken one. In my, I mean "this" state, idiocracy is certainly a documentary.

 

OP if you haven't already try keeping track of your mpg's in an app during each fuel up for better accuracy. I still have stock tires and my real numbers are usually 1-1.5 better than the truck says. Other things you can do, drive slower if highway/ freeway, use the auto start/ stop, eco mode, and no idling or remote start. Biggest impact is going back to stock 32.5" tires rather than 35's but lookin sexy costs money.

Lookup the gm 3.0 duramax engine issues, I almost went with that till i heard of all the issues and maintenance/ def costs.

 

Try an app like CarScanner and a OBD Bluetooth or WiFi Transmitter. I’d monitor if your torque converter is slipping for fuel economy on highway switch to eco mode this will give more resolution in the low end with throttle angle and you’ll find the sweet spot where the transmission locks up in 9th gear this has gotten me the most mileage while floating around 65-75 mph depending on elevation change key is keep the torque converter locked as long as possible. Luckily this motor is really efficient at building torque at low rpm due to turbo ar ratio and manifold cross sections and after the TCU and ECU learns your behavior it’ll adjust to spool turbos as early as 1500 rpm you should be at ~400 ft•lbs. according to Toyota’s HP/TQ curve for non HV V35A-FTS plenty to climb grade and most of the time TC is locked so you aren’t wasting torque and at this point you should keep your pedal angle the same the truck will add boost when it’s needed and you can get into boost with TC lock and still be efficient. I have no problem breaking above 20 mpg following these rules which keeps me happy.

 

I'm getting about 11mpg city driving smooth and slow, and 17mpg on highway if I don't drive above 80.

Stock tires...

Mpg is certainly disappointing on this new Tundra

 

I am stupefied, another fricking thread about poor fuel mileage on a truck.