V6 vs. V8 gas mileage

[absolute yota]

All B.S. aside, now that I have all of the extra weight of the wheels and tires, rack bumper, winch and skid plates, not to mention the extra wind drag due to height and the rack and the wide open front end, I wish I had a V8. Not that the truck is slow, but my mileage is crap and I have 130,000 miles on it now. I didnt expect it to be great, but I bet if I had the V8 it would handle the weight better. My on board computer is off by a bit because of the large tires (it reads 14.4 all the time) I need to do a GPS calc on miles but I estimate im in the range of 16 or so. Mostly backroads and city with quick 10-20 min highway trips . Its not bad I guess but thats being easy on it, im always easy on the runner and reserve the lead foot to the Tundra. MPG is at least still better than the 5.7 TUndra which gets 11 MPG the way I drive(fast but not crazy) with my normal loads and ladder rack. Although I did a granny driving experiment and got 16 out of her by staying out of the gas pedal. Its too hard to do though, that V8 power is too nice to drive slow !

 

[truckmike26]

I'll speak for myself in that my athletic 4th-gen. encourages "spirited" driving which keeps my fuel numbers higher (more expensive) than they could be. Oh well. And, once again, just to annoy V8 owners, V6 4WD 4th-gens are approx. 250 lbs. lighter.

 

[Atlanta_man]

A skinny little guy but he's carrying only 95% of the load...

 

[JungleJim]

Driving style affects mpg more than anything else. I knew a couple who each had the exact same model of vehicle. The husband was consistently getting 2-3 mpg more than his wife. They did an experiment when they traded vehicles for two weeks. Guess what happened....the wife's vehicle magically got 2-3 mpg more with the husband driving it, and vice versa with the husband's vehicle.

Many people who have V8's refer to the "1-2 mpg" difference, even though it is more than 1 mpg. You see the same thing over on RAV4 forums regarding V6 vs. I4 models. The larger engine has two extra cylinders that injectors are supplying with gasoline....more fuel is being used.

If you want better mpg, get a V6.
If you need more power for towing and can take the hit on mpg, get a v8.

 

[xxaarraa]

Not that anyone is reading this after 9+ pages of good info, but thought I would add my 2 cents.

08 SR5 4x4. 265x70x17 General Grabber AT2 tires. FJ coils and Billies all around, front set at 0.85. Spark plugs, t-case, diff fluids all changed within last 15k miles to Mobil 1. Synthetic oil used since I have had it. 70k miles on ODO.

If I lay off the gas and drive smoothly, on my 30-70 city-highway driving, I can consistently hit 19.5/20 mpg (user calculated, computer says 21 or 22). If I am not easy on the gas, I get 17.5/18 consistently.

VERY happy with these numbers. My previous 09 Tacoma 6 speed got shitty mileage because of the way that manual gearbox was geared. Moving to the T4R, my mileage has gone up significantly.

 

[LittleMulePepe]

2006 V8 Limited

I keep track of mileage religiously, call it OCD. My V8 is stock in every way. The first year I got 16.48 MPG over the course of about 10,000 miles of driving, which included commuting the five miles to work on a regular basis, highway driving around town, and a few trips to CA. If you take it easy on the highway (75 mph or less) you can get 17 MPG. The best I've managed so far is 17.3. Just last week, I put in a K&N filter and did the carbon filter delete. We will see what difference that makes.

 

[4runner423]

I have a 2006 V6 Limited. On a commute that is 50% city and 50% highway my computer is reading between 21 and 22 MPG. In reality it is between 19-20. That is taking it very easy and trying to get optimal gas mileage.

 

[rcdeppen]

16 in town 17-18 on the highway if I keep it below 73mph. V-8 2wd with stock sized tires

I'm quite content with this considering I came from a wheezy 3rd gen that was noisey and rode like ass.

Extra TQ and silly quiet? I'll trade that all day long for a measly mpg or 2 from the v-6 faithfull