Gas Mileage with my 2009 Yaris Sedan

[chai]

I'll let you guys know how an '09 AT sedan is with the gas once I run my first tank empty... might be a while since I *just* hit 5/8 with 178 miles driven.

[perfecto]

Hey guys, new to the forum and to getting good mileage! That's why I bought the Yaris! I bought mine a week ago and half of the tank was spent without a scanguage and included some speeding on the highway, the other half was around town in 40mph areas with a few number of lights spread around. That first tank netted me 40mpg assuming that the dealership filled it 100%. (409 miles and 10.025 gallons).

Currently I've had some trips in the 50's and today I managed a trip back home at 61.1mpg! A large part of this is due to timing the lights properly and being able to use the DFCO while coasting to red lights that I needed to take a turn at.

Congrats to the OP on a solid first tank! I strongly suggest the SCANGUAGE II because it has honestly made a difference in my driving habits and I hope to continue with some nice numbers. Once I have to do some highway driving, however, I'm sure my average will drop, but I'm hoping to get this second tank of gas into the 50's if at all possible. I deliver pizzas on the weekend and sometimes during the week as well, so if time becomes an issue at work it is unlikely that I will be able to P&G my way to a customer's house.

[BailOut]

You're off to a great start, perfecto. It sounds like you researched some of the FE techniques before you purchased.

As for pizza delivery, I know time is a factor but no shop gives a timing guarantee anymore, and hypermiling adds so little time to most routes that I bet you could still rock the MPG.

[YarisOwnersDad]

OK, my gas mileage has leveled off and has been very consistent over the last four tanks. I'm still hoping for higher numbers after break-in, but right now it looks like my normal driving is going to yield between 37 and 38 MPG. The range for the last four tanks has been 37.0 to 37.8, with an overall average of 37.3.

I'm still very happy with this little car, and it is a joy to drive.

Tom

[dccurrent]

In tried to relax my driving with my last fill up and yet I am still getting 29 mpg. It's 90% city driving, but I thought I may have been able to do better with all you guys hitting such lofty numbers.

[Cosworth]

29 mpg in the city seems pretty darn good to me... especially in NYC! :)

[YarisOwnersDad]

Originally Posted by dccurrent

In tried to relax my driving with my last fill up and yet I am still getting 29 mpg. It's 90% city driving, but I thought I may have been able to do better with all you guys hitting such lofty numbers.

I do practically zero city driving. My normal tank of gas is run out about 90% on two lane country roads going to work and coming home.

Tom

[dccurrent]

Originally Posted by Cosworth

29 mpg in the city seems pretty darn good to me... especially in NYC! :)

You would think I would be happy, especially since Toyota themselves listed the Yaris at 29 mpg for city driving, but because I have been hearing these massive MPG accomplishments on this forum I feel like I am either doing something wrong or my car has a faulty part.

Originally Posted by YarisOwnersDad

I do practically zero city driving. My normal tank of gas is run out about 90% on two lane country roads going to work and coming home.

Tom

I wish I had a commute like that. I spend about 120 seconds on the highway each weekday and then it's all local from there. I probably do even more than 90% city driving. But it's never really bumper to bumper, just a lot of lights, which makes me a little disappointed in my numbers.

[YarisOwnersDad]

Well, DC, I hope you will learn to be satisfied with that 29 MPG or that you will figure out some way to improve it. That really is not a bad figure for city MPG at all.

I hope you get a chance to get out of town and see what that puppy will do on the highway.

Keep us posted.

Tom

[daf62757]

Originally Posted by dccurrent

You would think I would be happy, especially since Toyota themselves listed the Yaris at 29 mpg for city driving, but because I have been hearing these massive MPG accomplishments on this forum I feel like I am either doing something wrong or my car has a faulty part.



I wish I had a commute like that. I spend about 120 seconds on the highway each weekday and then it's all local from there. I probably do even more than 90% city driving. But it's never really bumper to bumper, just a lot of lights, which makes me a little disappointed in my numbers.

Don't worry DC, you are in the norm. I too tried to get the 50 MPG but I am a normal person and I don't hypermile. If you get 29 MPG, you are doing good. The people here who are getting over 45 MPG are not driving normally. That isn't to say they are driving wrong, but they are using techniques that take more attention and if you are the normal commuter who drives an auto with cruise, you will never be able to get their results.

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by daf62757

Don't worry DC, you are in the norm. I too tried to get the 50 MPG but I am a normal person and I don't hypermile. If you get 29 MPG, you are doing good. The people here who are getting over 45 MPG are not driving normally. That isn't to say they are driving wrong, but they are using techniques that take more attention and if you are the normal commuter who drives an auto with cruise, you will never be able to get their results.

Anyone can break 50 US MPG in any Yaris if they drove 95% hwy, didn't use the A/C non stop and didn't go over 55mph.

If you have a MT you can go faster and use more elaborate techniques, but having an AT precludes me from using any techniques besides driving 50-55 mph and not using the A/C unless I have passengers.

If I drive city stop & go, traffic jam, rush hour over 25% of an entire tank it's virtually impossible to break 50MPG with an AT.

This last tank I drove about 20% city, but didn't get stuck in any jams and barely broke 50 MPG.

[anonymous user]

What is wrong with 29mpg city anyway? Isn't the car rated at 29cty/36hwy?
Just FYI, i drive over a steep mountain daily, have 2deg. neg. camber (raising wind/rolling resistance) and performance tires and can still get 35 mpg. If I drive according to hypermiling techniques, i can occasionally squeeze out a 40 mpg tank. While that may not be spectacular, it blows away the mileage on my other 2 cars i own, and is by far my most FE car ever owned.

[Rick]

Voodoo22,

How many miles between cold-start cycles are you running? I live in the exurbs and commute into the outer suburbs via 2 lane county roads. I'm close to tank averages of 47 MPG but wonder if it can really get much higher with basically a cold-start cycle every 23 miles. As others have noted, the cold-starts are a big MPG killer.

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by Rick

Voodoo22,

How many miles between cold-start cycles are you running? I live in the exurbs and commute into the outer suburbs via 2 lane county roads. I'm close to tank averages of 47 MPG but wonder if it can really get much higher with basically a cold-start cycle every 23 miles. As others have noted, the cold-starts are a big MPG killer.

HI Rick,

averaging 47mpg is fantastic. With numbers like that you don't have much margin of error to gain more, but I'd wager you could get it over 50 at least some times. If you aren't already, try accelerating slower and keeping your speed under 55mph if possible. Supposedly 45mph is the sweet spot. I generally go between 50-55mph on the hwy I travel.

My commute is 52kms or about 32miles each way. The cold start is definitely a killer. I've really put a lot of effort into combining short trips udner 20 kms together or not driving all together when possible. When I recently got my best tank ever of just over 55mpg, I had virtually no short trips that tank, like the 2 km drive to pick my wife up at work.

From what I've read written by people with scan gauges, it takes about 23 kms or 14 miles for our cars to warm up into the optimum operating temperature range.

[Woody_Woodchuck]

Voodoo is correct again! Except part of “If you have a MT you can go faster and use more elaborate techniques” We can use more techniques but we can not drive as fast, the manual transmission has higher rpm’s for any given speed.

45 to 50 mph is the sweet spot I found, depending on terrain. If it is flat, 45 all the way! At 40 mph you have nothing to accelerate with and need to downshift. If there are rolling hills you will need to press 55 mph at times, bleeding to 45 or 50, to make sure you have momentum to make it over them. 50 is a good all around cruising speed, you can accelerate if needed without flooring it. I have to do 55 on the highway because of traffic and the speed limit is 65 mph.

It took me 23 tanks to break 47 mpg, you are doing great! How have you accomplished that, what are your driving techniques?

A big gainer for me is in the first part of my 30 mile daily commute the back country roads are free of traffic most of the time. I can shift and let the car ‘idle’ along at the high idle 1,500 rpm’s in 5th gear. Within a mile I can be up to 55 mpg but, there are small rolling hills and in 1.5 miles I am around 35 mpg. Accelerating as slow as you can stand is also a big gainer. There is no need to shift to a higher gear and lug it, the SG actually reports lower mpg’s doing that. I can ‘feel’ when it is time to shift, you will notice no more acceleration in that gear without pressing much harder on the gas than you did to get to where you are (the speed you are currently at). Not sure of the rpm’s at each shift, I just go be feel. But, using the SG2 I rarely go over 3,000 rpm’s on any commute.

Sorry to hijack from Tomsters original post. Give it a couple tanks Tom, my first one was way low as the dealer did not fill completely.

[anonymous user]

Originally Posted by voodoo22

From what I've read written by people with scan gauges, it takes about 23 kms or 14 miles for our cars to warm up into the optimum operating temperature range.

If this is true, and most of my driving is under 14 miles per leg, then i must say that i'm getting pretty good results. One could only imagine how i'd do on longer trips, and with less traffic and crazy drivers. There are 597 square miles on this island, only about the size of houston, tx. But our population is close to a million! Traffic, congestion, ahh it sucks.

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by Woody_Woodchuck

Voodoo is correct again! Except part of “If you have a MT you can go faster and use more elaborate techniques” We can use more techniques but we can not drive as fast, the manual transmission has higher rpm’s for any given speed.

Thanks for correcting me. I guess when AT's started closing the gap on MT's on the FE numbers it wasn't actually an improvement in the AT technology as much as manufacturers gearing MT's more aggressively.

Thanks for posting such definitive information, it's stuff like that which helps out everyone interested in better FE.

[roxy1]

Originally Posted by voodoo22

Thanks for correcting me. I guess when AT's started closing the gap on MT's on the FE numbers it wasn't actually an improvement in the AT technology as much as manufacturers gearing MT's more aggressively.

Thanks for posting such definitive information, it's stuff like that which helps out everyone interested in better FE.

as i mentioned in another thread, the difference in rpm's between auto and manual yaris is minimal compare to, for example, the honda fit. i think that is more than offset by parasitic losses in the auto. fueleconomy.gov has a good sampling of real world numbers for yaris drivers. for any given speed the yaris manual is alway running ~200 rpm's higher, yet still averages out 4 mpg's higher than the auto yaris. by the time one gets to interstate speeds, i believe overcoming wind resistance becomes a much greater factor than a couple hundred rpm's.