Gas mileage: V8? V6?

I have 1300 miles on my V6 and last tankful I averaged 18.6 (using a calculator not the display). I do about 50% highway. My range went up to 386 last tankful and it keeps increasing with each tankful. The range indicator seems to be way more precise than the MPG. But...15 for a V6 does seems very low, unless you have the AC on all the time, or are in 4WD.
 
Since this thread started I've been checking my mileage. All of these miles were around town. I got 15.5 mpg and someone posted about the MPG guage between 2 MPG better than what you are really getting (they are right, mine shows 17.5 mpg). Sounds like the V6 gets about 2 MPG better mileage than the V8. That works out to around a $1500 savings in fuel over 120,000 miles of driving at a fuel cost of ( example $1.50 per gallon ). Now in that 120,000 miles (you needed new sparkplugs 3 times with the V6 and none with the V8) (you needed to service the 4 speed transmission in the V6 3 times and none on the 5 speed V8), so when you look at a total cost to maintain and operate both vehicles the difference might be very small. For me it would workout to around $7.50 a month more for the V8 over the ownership period. Not really something that would impact a buying decision, for either the V6 or V8. The good part is they are both Toyota's. :)
 
I have about 2500 miles on my V6 and average about 17-18mpg in mixed driving around town, never really city but not much highway either. I too, try to keep the momentum going with minimal braking by "driving ahead" and avoiding hard acceleration. For one tankful we had it in 4WD a lot and I noticed it knocked about 1 mpg off the average. My range usually reads 375 miles after a fill-up. Gas here in New York is still very high ($2.19/gallon for 87 octane) even though the price of wholesale gas has fallen about 20 cents in the last three weeks.

Whenever I drive to Florida I notice that, south of Mason-Dixon line, gas prices drop dramatically. I'm anxious to see what mileage I'll get on my next trip down there with my new 4Runner. The "88" 4Runner (V6) did about 25 mpg last time I drove it down to Florida.

Maybe a 4Runner is like fine wine, it will improve with age.:)
 
I just finished a 7000 mile trip across the country and back. My V8 Sport 4WD average 18.2 mpg (calculated). We got a low of 14.1, and a high of 22.7. Head winds seem to make a huge difference, as much as 4mpg ( this thing has the aerodynamics of a brick!). It also seems to get a little beter mileage on premium - don't know if it's enough to cover the increased cost. Average cost per gal was $2.22. We got as high as 12000 ft., west of Denver, and the V8 didn't even breath had - great mountain truck!
 
Pitbull said:
Since this thread started I've been checking my mileage. All of these miles were around town. I got 15.5 mpg and someone posted about the MPG guage between 2 MPG better than what you are really getting (they are right, mine shows 17.5 mpg). Sounds like the V6 gets about 2 MPG better mileage than the V8. That works out to around a $1500 savings in fuel over 120,000 miles of driving at a fuel cost of ( example $1.50 per gallon ). Now in that 120,000 miles (you needed new sparkplugs 3 times with the V6 and none with the V8) (you needed to service the 4 speed transmission in the V6 3 times and none on the 5 speed V8), so when you look at a total cost to maintain and operate both vehicles the difference might be very small. For me it would workout to around $7.50 a month more for the V8 over the ownership period. Not really something that would impact a buying decision, for either the V6 or V8. The good part is they are both Toyota's. :)

Yes but the V6 uses a timing chain, while the V8 is a timing belt that needs replacement. ;):

I'm curious where you found the info of maintenance on the V6/V8 engines. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I would like to see what I'm expecting in the next couple of years/miles. I picked up a prepaid-maintenance program for my T4R so the first 55k miles it is being serviced at the dealership. Thanks for your help!
 
sharp4runr said:
Yes but the V6 uses a timing chain, while the V8 is a timing belt that needs replacement. ;):

I'm curious where you found the info of maintenance on the V6/V8 engines. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I would like to see what I'm expecting in the next couple of years/miles. I picked up a prepaid-maintenance program for my T4R so the first 55k miles it is being serviced at the dealership. Thanks for your help!

It's in the owners manuals. That's a good point about the timing belt. That will cost some $$$. I plan on trading at 90K miles, so all I need to do is Oil/Filter and airfilters. I might do the diff's and transfer case even though it does not call for it. I'm a little nutty on the maintance side.
 
I should have made this a poll so it would be easier to compare....

Still getting 19 with the V8, A/C on, stop and go mostly!!!
 
kullenberg said:
...It also seems to get a little beter mileage on premium - don't know if it's enough to cover the increased cost...

I'm doing an experiment... (thank God for Excel...) I'm trying different grades of gas to compare what's the best fuel/mileage combo for the Ghost... I'm going through 15 tanks of different grades of gas. The first 5 tanks were regular, the next 5 are/will be mid-grade, and the last 5 tanks will be premium...

Findings so far with 6 tanks, mileage has dropped slightly when I went from 87 to 89.. So far all tanks are stop 'n go commuting, AC on, same gas station...

Will post again with calc'ed figures after I complete the 5 tanks of mid-grade...

Not scientific, but it could be interesting...
 
I've been getting between 19.1 - 20 according to the computer. Using a calculator, I get between 18.5 to 20 -- mostly highway and some city driving. I leave the AC on all the time.
 
something wrong?

i live in San Francisco with all the stop and go traffic and i do drive the freeway every other day. i have never seen the trip computer dispayed anything higher then 14.5 MPG. is there something wrong with my runner?

... i have a 03 SR5 V8 4WD.

- Gary
 
i have v8 4x4. I drive mostly in the city.
I get 15mpg :p . When i drive 50% city, 50% highway :driving: , the mileage goes up to 17mpg. Well, i did not expect any other results from a v8 4x4 car. I still love it. :)
 
Re: something wrong?

GRunner said:
i live in San Francisco with all the stop and go traffic and i do drive the freeway every other day. i have never seen the trip computer dispayed anything higher then 14.5 MPG. is there something wrong with my runner?

... i have a 03 SR5 V8 4WD.

- Gary

First, don't go by the trip computer. It's off by about 10-15% or so. Do hand calculations to see a more accurate representation.
 
Just returned from a long trip to Oklahoma, from upstate NY and back. Total of 3,779 miles ( this included a trip from OKC to Ft. Worth one weekend and a stop over in Arkansas on the way back. I reset computer before leaving, and left it until return. It indicated avg MPG of 23.1 for trip. This was approx. 90% highway, averaging 75 MPH. Actual MPG calculation came out to 20.86 for trip. These numbers look to follow the approx. 10% difference others have noted. I used premium (93 octane) for entire trip ( OUCH)).
 
TechWrench said:
Just returned from a long trip to Oklahoma, from upstate NY and back. Total of 3,779 miles ( this included a trip from OKC to Ft. Worth one weekend and a stop over in Arkansas on the way back. I reset computer before leaving, and left it until return. It indicated avg MPG of 23.1 for trip. This was approx. 90% highway, averaging 75 MPH. Actual MPG calculation came out to 20.86 for trip. These numbers look to follow the approx. 10% difference others have noted. I used premium (93 octane) for entire trip ( OUCH)).
Thanks for the update....wish I had known you were coming to Arkansas.
 
jharris2 said:
Thanks for the update....wish I had known you were coming to Arkansas.

It was a last min. diversion. I was in Normal OK for work, and decided to visit an aunt in Mansfield on the way back to NY.
 

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