Gas Milage Chart 2010 Double Cab V6

i've since upgraded to a 2012, but wanted to share my milage chart from the 2010 that i had. i kept track of milage on every fill up that i made. in general, the peaks correspond to highway driving, the valleys correspond to city driving. this represents roughly a year and three months of driving beginining in july 2010, ending in october 2011, starting at 0 miles and ending at ~30,000 miles. the general "trough" between fill up number 25 and 45 were winter months in SD, december through march. there was a marked decrease in milage during the winter months, clearly visible on the chart. and you can see that the second summer shows a slight but overall increase in milage, assumbably due to engine break-in. MPG is on the left side, the bottom numbers are just the fill up number (first tank #1, last tank #89).

 

Very interesting. It's nice to see enough data to go over a few years and to see the patterns. I am hoping to have the same someday.

 

Wow. Interesting!

 

Keeping track of gas mileage on a fill by fill basis is a good way to check up on the overall health of the truck. If it falls off FAST, you should start looking for problems like plugs, sensors, and even tire air pressure.

 

I obsess over miles per gallon too, I have issues.

 

I keep pretty good track of my mileage too....well maybe not that good....

 

yeah, i have a problem, too. my girlfriend rolls her eyes every time i fill up the tank and get my little notepad out.

 

I've got a similar graph for my 2010 Access cab, but mine is on my iPhone where a handy little app takes my fill gallons, miles and $ and turns it in to one of these. Also, unfortunately shares a $/gallon graph if I am interested, but that's going no where but up.

Here in this section of PA on top of the generaly less efficient burn of any gas during the winter, our legislature has deemed we ought to have oxygenated gas. Gas refiners love them, they give is poorer gas, and charge us more for the inconvenience of doing it.

 

What configuration was your old truck?

 

i assume that question is for me... it was a 2010 DC V6 4wd SR5 auto.

 

you know, this just occurred to me... some of the "winter driving" i spoke of between fill ups 25 and 45... i was likely driving in 4wd some of them time. also need to consider that fact when looking at the "winter trough" on the graph.

 

i'm guessing those two tanks at 13/14 mpg were very cold periods with snow, and i was likely using 4wd off and on.

 

That will do it .

 

this just occurred to me... i suppose the winter gas blends could also be affecting the winter gas milage. hadn't considered that before- just thought it was the cold temps.

 

Of course

 

what is it exactly with the winter blend that decreases milage? and why do 'they' do it?

 

I also usually check my millage on fill-ups although I don't write it down. I usually average between 17 and 20 mph depending on what kind of driving I do. I also think it's a good way to keep track of the general condition of the truck.

 

In the Winter months, smog is more likely to form in the cities. The cities, to control the smog, and to keep the EPA from imposing harsher regulations on them, enforce that ethanol be added to the gasoline mix. Ethanol is an alcohol that burns, but it has less energy per gallon than regular octane. This lowers the smog, but lowers your miles per gallon.
As far as gasoline 'octane', octane is one of many hydrocarbons that the refiners use to make gasoline. There is methane, heptane, etc... In a perfect scenario, 100 octane means that the gasoline is made from 100% octane, and octane is much more resistant to detonation than other hydrocarbons.
What really takes a bite out of our mileage is the combination of the ethanol, cold weather driving that keeps the choke on longer, which makes the fuel/air mixture richer, driving in the snow/mud/wet which increases the resisting friction, and the fact that Toyota de-tunes their engines and keeps the fuel/air mixture high to maintain longer engine life.

 

explains why our Shell gas station got ethanol in December...the gas usually has NO ethanol at that Shell station.

 

what was the 30k mile average mpg?