Fuel Economy

[g man]

I agree Bailout

I had a 1983 Reneau Alliance Remember they partnered with AMC. Anyway it had a 60 HP 4 cyl and we managed just fine with it. You just have to be carefull merging on the highway but it worked.

[Masteraal]

Originally Posted by Bredayaris

What octane number is standard in the USA for example?

Here in the Netherlands for petrol it's 95 and 98, anyway not lower than 95.

US 87 is RON 91
89 - RON 95
93 - RON 98 i think

[petesimac]

My most recent tank: 95% city, 5% hwy = 34.23 mpg!

[alhope34]

In Toronto we get 87 octane as standard, 89 and 91 as premiums, and only one gas station offers more than 91, which is Sunoco. They offer "ultra94" which, as you can probably tell, 94 octane. Has anyone ever tried those octane boosters in the yaris? I've seen some from NOS that say they make any pump gas into 113 octane race fuel. Does that stuff really work? what would it do to our engines if used?

[churp]

Originally Posted by alhope34

In Toronto we get 87 octane as standard, 89 and 91 as premiums, and only one gas station offers more than 91, which is Sunoco. They offer "ultra94" which, as you can probably tell, 94 octane. Has anyone ever tried those octane boosters in the yaris? I've seen some from NOS that say they make any pump gas into 113 octane race fuel. Does that stuff really work? what would it do to our engines if used?

To me the only reason to use it would be if you had a real high compression 'toy' that would require it all the time to run....or a turbo that you wanted to kick the boost up ocassionally.

Otherwise.....+1 with PK198105

[swng]

Originally Posted by alhope34

In Toronto we get 87 octane as standard, 89 and 91 as premiums, and only one gas station offers more than 91, which is Sunoco. They offer "ultra94" which, as you can probably tell, 94 octane. Has anyone ever tried those octane boosters in the yaris? I've seen some from NOS that say they make any pump gas into 113 octane race fuel. Does that stuff really work? what would it do to our engines if used?

Fuel of octane numbers up to 94 are quite widely available in the Greater Vancouver Area. Petrol Canada and some other gas stations everywhere sell them all the time. However, like in Toronto, as you have said, 87 is still the standard (regular) fuel.
IMHO, cars need to be designed to take advantage of high octane fuels in order to really benefit from them. As far as I know, the Yaris is not designed to take advantage of very high octane numbers. I have tried a tank of octane 92 which is high but not exceedingly high and have not noticed any significant difference in terms of mpg. Yet admittedly, a short period of experiment in an uncontrolled environment can hardly be regarded as conclusive. Anyhow, the car's computer, aka ECU will take care of any slight change in the octane number of the fuel. Whether high numbers up to, say, 113 are still within or already outside the computers manageable range is beyond my limited knowledge.
As many of us have noticed, this is a much debated subject (NB: this is an understatement) and I would prefer to leave it here. The bottom line is using slightly higher octane fuel will very probably not do harm to the engine of the Yaris. Honestly, though I cannot remember where, I have read articles/posts saying that a car that requires regular fuel may benefit from a higher octane number when its engine is old and under-maintained, or when it is required to work very hard to carry heavy loads or drive up very long and steep slops.
In short, I tend to believe the two gentlemen above.
Something for further reference:http://en.autos.sympatico.msn.ca/Gui...mentid=5156081
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...OnYourCar.aspx

[alhope34]

Originally Posted by PK198105

its a temporary fix , that does more harm than anything. some of these additives create deposits in the fuel line ,pistons etc. plus the injectors dont like this stuff. its a Yaris not a rocket ship use normal fuel.

Of course I will only use normal gas for the Yaris, just wanted to know what it would do if used. Haha, I don't see a point of buying a can of this stuff for $20. Just curious. And I know with cars meant for premium, it makes a difference. One of my friends has a 1997 acura TL with the 3.2 engine auto trans, he says he sees a 40km difference between a tank of 87 and a tank of 91. Another friend has an '89 mustang GT cobra, and his engine gets real bad knock if he uses anything except 91 and 94 octanes. Even my own experience when I had my 94 Probe GT 2.5L MTX, I would see about 50kms less on a tank of 87 octane and there would be a noticeable loss in power and the engine would bog down sometimes with 87 if I put 100% throttle from a stop. The one thing I don't like about buying premium is the mark up in price. I was reading an article somewhere saying that 91 only costs the gas stations 2-2.5 cents a litre more than 87, but on average they charge 10 cents a litre more for 91 over 87. But then if 91 was only 3 cents a litre more, I'm sure most people would be buying 91. All in all, from what I've read, cars designed to run on 87 should be used with 87, as the higher octane won't get power worth the cost over 87.

[landrym28]

On average, I can get between 620 and 650km per tank...which works out to be in the 40mpg range...give or take, since It's a 42L tank(roughly 11 gallons)

[swng]

Originally Posted by landrym28

On average, I can get between 620 and 650km per tank...which works out to be in the 40mpg range...give or take, since It's a 42L tank(roughly 11 gallons)

Not bad indeed! The traffic on the beautiful PEI must be quite smooth these days!

[landrym28]

Originally Posted by swng

Not bad indeed! The traffic on the beautiful PEI must be quite smooth these days!

It's pretty good...well, when construction workers aren't working on main highways in the middle of summer! So yeah, it might not be a smooth ride, even in a Yaris.


I am going to work on my "lead foot" problem. Quite a few Yaris drivers have told me they can get close to 800km on a tank..which is closer to the 50mpg that toyota lists for the Yaris. For once, I'd like to see my numbers get that high!

[swng]

Originally Posted by landrym28

It's pretty good...well, when construction workers aren't working on main highways in the middle of summer! So yeah, it might not be a smooth ride, even in a Yaris.


I am going to work on my "lead foot" problem. Quite a few Yaris drivers have told me they can get close to 800km on a tank..which is closer to the 50mpg that toyota lists for the Yaris. For once, I'd like to see my numbers get that high!

Good additional info! Keep posting your data as you go, please! Just not sure Toyota says 50 mpg. Must be an all highway number. Anyway, I think amongst non-hypermilers, only UncleYaris (a fellow member) has once posted an mpg number exceeding 50 (refers to Imperial gallons). Forgive me Uncle, if you are in fact a hypermiler or if I remember your numbers incorrectly.
Cheers!

[landrym28]

Originally Posted by swng

Good additional info! Keep posting your data as you go, please! Just not sure Toyota says 50 mpg. Must be an all highway number. Anyway, I think amongst non-hypermilers, only UncleYaris (a fellow member) has once posted an mpg number exceeding 50 (refers to Imperial gallons). Forgive me Uncle, if you are in fact a hypermiler or if I remember your numbers incorrectly.
Cheers!

Yep, it was 40 for city driving, and 50 for highway driving. Usually, i'm about 70% city, 30% highway.

I'm actually leaving PEI and moving to Saint John, New Brunswick tomorrow(Thursday), so I'll drive a little bit slower to get there, to see if I can get any better mileage (The speed limit is 110km/hour, but I usually do 125 or 130...I'll try sticking around 110 and seeing what happens).

[swng]

Wish you all the best for the move!
Safe and happy and ECONOMICAL motoring!

[voodoo22]

I took the Yaris in for an early oil change last week and they lowered my psi from 40 to 32. I put the car to 40 almost right away, so I forgot how much better the ride was at 32. I could tell instantly they had lowered the psi, because the car felt like it was in sand off the start and the cornering was really bad. Tons of sidewall flex. The ride was noticeably better over bumps as well.

I decided to leave the tires at 32psi to see what kind of difference I would get in fuel economy. I'd say it made no difference. I thought for sure it would, because it sure felt like I had to give the car more gas to get going. I put it back to 36psi now as I do not like at all how the car handles around corners at 32psi and I'm also not a fan of the harsh ride at 40psi.

I still got:

5.167 l/100km
54.67 imperial mpg
Or
45.52 US mpg

on over 500kms of driving at 32psi.

My overall average is actually worse than this, but that could also be because the car is still breaking in, but I'm averaging 5.254 l/100km, 53.76 imperial mpg or 44.77 us mpg after 8 tanks and about 4400 kms.

[joyts]

OK, I know, not representative for the time being, because it the first time I have refuelled it...

http://www.spritmonitor.de/de/detailansicht/197750.html

And currently -after 1 1/2 weeks owning the car- my board computer says 7.0l / 100km. But due to the rush hour I mostly drive slow up to 80km/h - just sometimes up to 120km/h.

greetz
joyts

[swng]

Originally Posted by joyts

OK, I know, not representative for the time being, because it the first time I have refuelled it...

http://www.spritmonitor.de/de/detailansicht/197750.html

And currently -after 1 1/2 weeks owning the car- my board computer says 7.0l / 100km. But due to the rush hour I mostly drive slow up to 80km/h - just sometimes up to 120km/h.

greetz
joyts

As I have been suspecting, the Yari in Europe are fitted with an onboard computer, which can help improve fuel economy by providing virtually instant feedback to the drivers so that they can know how do their driving styles affect their cars' F.E.
Thank you joyts!

[Ron]

to give you guys an update, just finished a 4200km road trip from Vancouver to Yellowstone National Park and back. Total overall average was about 6.1km/100km for the whole trip, or 38.5mpg. Not a fantastic number imo, but taken into account that 1/4-1/3 of the driving was done at 110km/h-130km/h (70-85mph), it was to be expected. I drive a 5dr auto liftback, had my fiance and myself in the car with the rearseats folded down and the back packed with camp gear. Even managed to fit a wedding dress in the back on the way home :)

In Yellowstone Park, we saw a fantabulous reading of 405km with the 4th bar of gas just expiring from a regular fill up, on the way to a 700km tank! I usually read about or just under 300km at this point when I am commuting to work and driving about in the city. I attribute this to travelling at speeds of 70-85km/h (~45'ish mph) and longer trips than typical city driving, although we did stop, start and go to see all the different things and wildlife in the park.

This was not my ideal choice in roadtrip vehicle, but her car was in the bodyshop due to an accident. The versatility of the hatch was great, we would have preferred to have the privacy of her trunk though. My lowering springs provided a decent but stiff ride. The only thing I really wished for was cruise control, but life goes on. We found out that it was a great roadtrip vehicle for the future, for the two of us anyways, and came up 20% under our planned fuel budget for the trip if we were to use her car!

[swng]

Thank you Ron for the vivid description.
I believe the 38.5 mpg number you quoted refers to the US gallon. It is perfect to quote mpg numbers in US gallons terms but for additional reference purposes I would like to add that 6.1 liters per 100 km should be about 46.33 miles per Imperial gallon, good considering the load that you carried and all other factors that you described in your above post.
You mentioned something about a wedding dress. I wish to say "Congratulations!"
Also, nice pictures!