Real World MPG with 5th Gen?

[cutty01]

Had my best mileage yet a few weeks ago. This snapshot of my Scanguage II shows an average of 20.1 MPG after cruising for 1 hour down the 101 from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo.

Conditions:
- Speed kept at 70 MPH
- No cruise control
- No head wind
- Gobi rack w/ light bar
- BFG 275s.

On my way back on the same freeway, I must have had serious headwind as I was only averaging about 15 MPG.

You can see the 4Runner gauge showing 14.5 MPG which is overall average for the last month of 80% city driving.

 

[jhmoore]

Bad... really bad... only a couple weeks into ownership so far, but even with a decent number of highway miles on a totally stock 4Runner, I'm averaging about 15.5 MPG. Nowhere near the advertised 18. NOT happy about this.

 

[jron4]

I have found my mpg display to be off. Did a road trip (highway primarily) and got just under 20 mpg. My dash display shows 18.5 for my daily backroad driving, But I need to do a manual calculation when I refill later on this week.

Im stock other running Nitto Ridge Grapplers (which I LOVE)

 

[1jzgte]

Bad... really bad... only a couple weeks into ownership so far, but even with a decent number of highway miles on a totally stock 4Runner, I'm averaging about 15.5 MPG. Nowhere near the advertised 18. NOT happy about this.

if youre the typical california driver that floors it from a stop then slams his brakes last minute then youre going to get about 15mpg

 

[MrGainzz]

2017 Ltd with full time 4wd here. I know I can do better than that because it was 19.6 for the first 6 months after I bought it,then I started to floor the gas pedal when entering the highway.

Overall 70% of highway ,20% of stop and gos in city and 10% of trails.

The key is to drive like a grandma and being able to see the ECO green sign whenever your foot is on the gas pedal especially when you press it.


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[cutty01]

Bad... really bad... only a couple weeks into ownership so far, but even with a decent number of highway miles on a totally stock 4Runner, I'm averaging about 15.5 MPG. Nowhere near the advertised 18. NOT happy about this.

Give it a month of break in then reset your MPG gauge and then see what it says. There a post somewhere by engineer1 that says how many data points it averages out, but it was many.

 

[MidnightOffRoad]

Firstly, you can't use the display outputs to give you anything close to accuracy with MPG.

Even the old school method of using the odometer and the readout at the pump has quite a bit of tolerance/variance inherent.

Using the pump/odometer method, I just took a 10 hour trip.

I have TRD wheels and 265 K02's. At 75mph cruise for 99% of the trip, I averaged 18.9 mpg.

Again, this doesn't account for temperature variances when refueling, variances in when the pump senses backpressure and kicks off, etc.

But anyone who's EVER used the display readouts knows that it's widely inaccurate at times.

 

[jhmoore]

if youre the typical california driver that floors it from a stop then slams his brakes last minute then youre going to get about 15mpg

[MENTION=148166]1jzgte[/MENTION] -- we only do that when we see someone from Utah and we're trying to run them over

 

[1jzgte]

[MENTION=148166]1jzgte[/MENTION] -- we only do that when we see someone from Utah and we're trying to run them over

:gun6:

 

[TwistedJake]

Just fueled up tonight, first full tank with lift and tires. 20.9 MPG.

The tank prior which was over half with new tires was also 20.9 MPG.

 

[jhmoore]

Just fueled up tonight, first full tank with lift and tires. 20.9 MPG.

The tank prior which was over half with new tires was also 20.9 MPG.

I think you and I have the exact same vehicle, right? (except for your lift and new tires) How in the hell are you getting 5 MPH more than I am???

Grrrr....

 

[wittless]

with stock size ko2's, no lift, I get about 17.1 mpg on the dash readout, and goes down to about 10.5 mpg when pulling a small camper trailer.

 

[DKFTPNYC]

amazed how some of you guys are getting anything even close to 20. Took a trip from NYC to GA and back. 100% highway. Constant 80mph (speed limit was 75 and 80 actually put me in the slow lane), fairly flat, no traffic (overnight), no load (just driver, weekend bag, and a set of golf clubs), only 93 octane in my girl since new. I averaged I think 15.5 (or something around there) on the dash readout on the tank that was 100% hwy. Yes, i do have a gobi, an SSO bumper, 3/2 lift, and 275 LT tires. But even when she was stock, I never got anywhere even remotely close to the magic 20mpg number. Don't even recall seeing 17mpg.

 

[MidnightOffRoad]

amazed how some of you guys are getting anything even close to 20. Took a trip from NYC to GA and back. 100% highway. Constant 80mph (speed limit was 75 and 80 actually put me in the slow lane), fairly flat, no traffic (overnight), no load (just driver, weekend bag, and a set of golf clubs), only 93 octane in my girl since new. I averaged I think 15.5 (or something around there) on the dash readout on the tank that was 100% hwy. Yes, i do have a gobi, an SSO bumper, 3/2 lift, and 275 LT tires. But even when she was stock, I never got anywhere even remotely close to the magic 20mpg number. Don't even recall seeing 17mpg.

They're not. That's my point from a previous post. The digital readout information is wildly inaccurate.

The old school odometer/pump method is better, but not infallible either.

The amount of fuel that's in a fill up depends on A) The temperature and pressure at the time you fill up, gasoline is pretty compressible compared to most other liquids we're used to. A 10 degree increase between fill ups results in the same amount of volume with less material, which translates to less hydrocarbons to burn, which translates into less energy, less mileage.

The other thing that's a variance is the fuel blend itself. Additionally, some pumps are very sensitive to backpressure, others less so, so when the pump snaps off, it could mean the difference of a few quarts, depending on how you have the nozzle inserted, whether it's turbulent or laminar as it fills (the more turbulent, the more slosh and bubbles it creates which when it rises to the nozzle, creates the slight backpressure that causes it to kickoff. If you've ever "topped off" your tank, you'll notice that some pumps are very sensitive and you can't stuff more into the filler neck, while others shutoff with nearly a couple of gallons extra capacity to spare.

Long story endless, some of the MPG's quoted in this thread are fantasy and simply not rooted in reality. When you keep track of how many gallons of fuel you buy vs. how many miles you drive, THAT is the more accurate method (but even still has some variance).

 

[thinkxingu]

They're not.
Long story endless, some of the MPG's quoted in this thread are fantasy and simply not rooted in reality. When you keep track of how many gallons of fuel you buy vs. how many miles you drive, THAT is the more accurate method (but even still has some variance).

So what's the most accurate way for drivers to calculate mileage? I'm consistently getting 20-21 on 3/4 tanks (I don't usually wait for empty to fill), hand-calculated to the thousandth. I got one warning light at 50 mile range with 407 miles and needed 20.1 gallons to fill.

Thoughts?

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[TwistedJake]

They're not. That's my point from a previous post. The digital readout information is wildly inaccurate.

The old school odometer/pump method is better, but not infallible either.

The amount of fuel that's in a fill up depends on A) The temperature and pressure at the time you fill up, gasoline is pretty compressible compared to most other liquids we're used to. A 10 degree increase between fill ups results in the same amount of volume with less material, which translates to less hydrocarbons to burn, which translates into less energy, less mileage.

The other thing that's a variance is the fuel blend itself. Additionally, some pumps are very sensitive to backpressure, others less so, so when the pump snaps off, it could mean the difference of a few quarts, depending on how you have the nozzle inserted, whether it's turbulent or laminar as it fills (the more turbulent, the more slosh and bubbles it creates which when it rises to the nozzle, creates the slight backpressure that causes it to kickoff. If you've ever "topped off" your tank, you'll notice that some pumps are very sensitive and you can't stuff more into the filler neck, while others shutoff with nearly a couple of gallons extra capacity to spare.

Long story endless, some of the MPG's quoted in this thread are fantasy and simply not rooted in reality. When you keep track of how many gallons of fuel you buy vs. how many miles you drive, THAT is the more accurate method (but even still has some variance).

I agree that those who are reporting single instance mileage based off just their readout are giving false numbers but....

I'm averaging 21.0 mpg over the entire 2400 miles on my 4runner. I calculate by hand at the pump after each fuel up and track with fuelly.

I reset my readout after my last fuel up and now that I have about 100 miles on that tank the readout shows 20.8mpg at this moment.

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[TwistedJake]

I think you and I have the exact same vehicle, right? (except for your lift and new tires) How in the hell are you getting 5 MPH more than I am???

Grrrr....

I'm going to guess driving style. Drive like the brake pedal costs money at the pump just like the accelerator. I don't floor it from a stop or race around. It's all about maintaining speed.

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[DKFTPNYC]

So what's the most accurate way for drivers to calculate mileage? I'm consistently getting 20-21 on 3/4 tanks (I don't usually wait for empty to fill), hand-calculated to the thousandth. I got one warning light at 50 mile range with 407 miles and needed 20.1 gallons to fill.

Thoughts?

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Damn i only dream of getting that much to a tank lol. I don't think I even broke 300 miles to a tank (actually more like 3/4 since i filled up at an indicated 1/4). And this was from service area to service area, no traffic in between, no idling, nothing. Just saying, I'm genuinely amazed by some reported numbers.

 

[MidnightOffRoad]

It absolutely has to do with driving habits as well.

I'm getting 18.9MPG at 75mph long trips.

Obviously if I drove 55 mph on the interstate for long durations, that number would rise significantly.

Between stop and go city miles and 75MPH long trips, I haven't touched 20 in a long time.

 

[Jeff_DML]

I keep track via pump/mileage via "About a car" on Android.

stock 2018 4-runner SR5 4x4
15,169 miles over 9 months

18.247 Average MPG
MIn 16.117
Max 21.353


Trip computer matches pretty closely to pump/mileage when I look at.