Brand new Gas Mileage way lower than expected

I don't know exactly if they changed the weight in a significantly. I do want to someday scale my tundra to get a better idea of actual curb weight/payload.

3rd Gen tacoma suffered in hilly areas due to the gear hunting and my MPG was alway bad vs EPA numbers in hilly areas but pretty dead on on flatter trips. I think Toyota tweaked ecu logic after 2019 to hold gears more and that probably yield a lower mpg highway while making the driving experience better.

I see a lot of media outlets starting to do MPG assessments on specific loops and I think that gives a lot better insight to the efficiency of the particular truck vs other trucks.

 

Seriously how did you get that mileage? Did you use high test fuel?

 

For some reason in Sports mode it goes over 2000rpm briefly than drops to about 1500. Getting 17 now local driving. I believe possibly each vehicle performs differently. Just my thoughts.

 

Exactly. Can you quote and type your reply before hitting “post reply”, @631johnp? Notice how all of ours (the quote and the reply) are in the same post?

 

And some on the opposite end of the spectrum, too.. "if you can't pay cash, you can't afford it."

 

Words to live buy! My Dad hammered that into my head growing up.

 

No..... could have paid cash, but put $30k down and financed the rest at 3%, pay an additional $75 a month and put the other $40k into the stock market and have seen a $20k+ return.. make your money work for you, don't spend it all

 

So I'm getting 12.2mpg, 90% city driving...

Any obvious issues with my truck could cause such bad mpgy?

 

Nothing wrong with your truck. If you stop and idle much the mpg average on every Tundra ( that I’ve seen) will not be a true reading.
Nobody can explain it and Toyota must not be smart enough to fix it.

 

When you sit and idle, you are traveling 0 miles and still using gas. This is literally 0 mpg. It is being factored in to your running average as your truck consumes gas just like when the truck is moving down the road.

It is still a true reading, whether you travel 400 miles on a tank or you sit and idle so much that you only get 350 miles out of the tank. You’re using the same amount of gas, but idling for long periods of time reduces the distance you’re able to travel on a tank of fuel.

The computer works properly either way. I explained this on page 3 of this thread, too. You must’ve missed it.

 

Ok fine.
But if I reset the mpg counter right before start driving, it still showing very low number... Like 13-14mpg city driving

 

Is your city driving a lot of "stop & go" ? Short distances? If so, 13-14 is pretty common. It's not a Prius.

 

I understand and totally agree with the logic but there’s still something about the way it attempts to average the mpg.
I’ve been very careful to figure my mileage on several occasions the old school way and if there’s much time spent sitting still idling. My mileage results will be better than the dash read out average. This has been the same on 3 different tundras.

 

What I've found so far - just turned 6,000 miles - after 4,000 the mileage started to get a couple miles /gal better. Also, I can now regularly get 19 when I leave it on ACC (the computer puts it in hybrid mode far more often and longer then I can manually, no matter what I try) - and away from stop/go driving and under 75.

 

I just did a 300 mile round trip mostly highway and averaged just over 17. Was a bit disappointed in that. I drive like a little old lady.

 

So I idle a lot, warmup in the morning and cool down when done driving...

I've used Fuelly app which is same as calculating by hand and it's almost exactly the same as the truck computer mpg. So the truck shows correct mpg at least for me

 

I have less then 500 miles. Not baby-ing her but not abusing. 87 oct and showing 19.5. 2023 SR5 TRD

 

How are you hand calculating and factoring in sitting still? Do you have numbers for the rate at which the truck consumes fuel at idle? At startup?

I always thought the best way to calc by hand is to fill up and divide your total miles driven on that tank by the total gallons it takes to fill your tank back up since the last fill up. Not an exact science, especially if you’re using different pumps that shut off the fuel slightly differently, but at least it will come close to accounting for fuel burned at idle. Using this method I get almost exactly the same mpg as the dash readout. I attribute the very minor difference to variations in the pump shutting off. (That is, one full tank may not be the exact same amount of fuel as the previous full tank.)

The truck is constantly monitoring instant MPG, distance traveled, and remaining fuel range, and I think it usually uses these things to paint a more accurate picture. If you have tires that are a different size than stock, you’ll need to do a simple calculation to make your dash readout more accurate.

 

But all that gas money eats into BumperShellz money

 

I'd say resetting the clock and letting off the gas downhill with a good breeze behind ya will do it.

 

My 1794 has 3k on the clock. Gas mileage with a mix of stop and go then a bit of highway is not great.
12.2 -12.4 is pretty common. Have it in normal mode using 87 octane gas.

The other day I had to fill up. So this time I spent a bit more and filler her up with 93 octane gas.
Off the line, didnt really notice a difference. Gas mileage went into the 14's, so that was surprising.
Not really sure the extra money for the higher octane is worth it.

 

89 octane may be a sweet spot with money. As for top tier gas? I do use good gas.. most of the times I fill up at a local mobil gas station. Otherwise Shell etc.
Not a big fan of the no name stations.

 

It rarely goes well to speak on behalf of someone else, but I would guess his comment was born more out of frustration with the MPG threads for 7k lb trucks than an actual earnest belief that no one can afford the truck who wants better MPGs. I doubt anybody on this forum is diametrically opposed to saving money. Particularly on fuel. Averages are averages for a reason. Plenty of folks here demonstrating 20+ mpgs with the 3rd Gens. Some not. I think a lot of people are rather oblivious to their own driving habits/circumstances because of the obvious lack of comparison.

By the way, anyone know what's the largest tire I can fit on my truck?

 

Next time we have you over, and you need gas, head down the Safeway on Sunset. Easily and consistently 30 cents cheaper than the cheapest gas station. It's insane.