4 Bangin, Fuel Sippin, Full Tank Challenge!

Fair enough.

On the V6 being better than your 2TR, I think it's not so much that the V6 is that good, but that your particular 2TR was "bad"... based on your driving conditions.

But that's not inconsistent with what some are reporting for their 4wd (and generally with oversized tires).
The thing is that Toyota gears tall. It's good for highway economy at a conservative speed, but absolutely sucks for in-town driving, hilly terrain, and speeds above 65.
Adding taller tires just compounds the issues.
I normally run 24-25.
If I refuel, reset the gauges, and spend the weekend shopping with my wife, I'll be looking at 15-17 on the ultragauge when I get in the truck to leave for work Monday.

 

I drive at a mile plus above sea level and I enjoy all of the benefits of high altitude. Of course an I4 will do better than a V6 in the same tacoma.

 

BHD - no problem. I hadn't realized your Frontier requires the higher octane (assumed incorrectly).

My MDX requires the higher octane but as the manual states, using 89 is an option if temporary and used sparingly (emergency-like). 91 or better and seems to give the best FE on 91 (20-24 hwy, 18-21 cty). Not bad for a 7 seater with 300 ponies.

As you know, the winter here was dreadful; MPGs tanked on my Tacoma dragging down the FE from 22.6 to around 21.1. I had two tanks where I was under 20 MPGs avg (I used 4-wheel a couple of times each for those tankfulls). My commute takes me from the shore up through the valley to Glastonbury so there are plenty of hills but not as significant as the NE and NW corners. I believe you are in one or the other. For the 4 cylinder, I would expect more downshifting (MT or AT) so more spikes and reduced MPGs. I would expect that I'd have tanks where the MPGs were below 19 and with more regularity with my configuration.

As for the better torque assisting your FE given the terrain, maybe. I do notice differences between where the Tacoma will downshift compared to the MDX. But the MDX has a 5 speed AT and programming on shift points different. I see between a 1-2 MPGs advantage though with the Tacoma I4. That said, I'm better tuned into my Tacoma than the MDX (5-10%).

 

Minor panic yesterday, started the truck and the scangauge display flipped out and showed only the arrows on the sides with no data and no response to any button pushes.

Got home and unplugged at the obdii and plugged her back on and everything back to normal.

I don't want to imagine driving without my scangauge!

 

Damn, acted up again, if it keeps up I think I'll contact Scangauge and see if they can't upgrade me from old model to SGII.

 

First time in awhile with 2 tanks in the same month, some miles for work that helped out.

595.2 miles on 18.073 gallons for 32.9 mpg.

Might take a drive from Boulder to Granby CO through Rocky Mt National Sunday, that could make for some excellent mpg. Done right high altitude works great for me.

 

3 tanks in a row 26.2, 26.5, and 26.5.

65-70 in Texas, New Mexico, and AZ with favorable winds.

Unfavorable winds framed those tanks with some pretty pathetic numbers.

 

Pretty happy with the results, 35.5 mpg 197.2 mile round trip from Boulder to west side of RMNP. Planned 7.4 mile hike to Lulu City was a bust, only got about 3 miles total after finding the trails pretty much underwater with runoff to Colorado River headwaters.

 

The MPG king is back!!!!!
More info on the purple Challenger convertible.

 

70 Challenger convertible, originally 318 auto. I've had her since 1993. Bought it with pretty much gutted interior and almost everything needing work, except the paint job and top. Over the years I redid front end, added front/rear anti-sway bars, reupholstered seats and had door panels and dash redone, added disc brakes, new rear leafs, subframe connectors, then swapped the 904 with a rebuilt 727 tranny and 360. Motor is a newer truck 360 with hot hydraulic roller cam, and a magnum r/t heads (oem aftermarket performance ports), edelbrock air-gap intake, dui distributor, Holley 670 street avenger carb, tti headers/exhaust, dynamax mufflers, 3.23 sure-grip rear.

Future plans tremec 5-speed, re-paint along with some frame rail rust repair.

Over the last 5000 miles since the new motor I've averaged 12 mpg.

It will get 16-18 if I put on highway miles, it usually just gets drives up into the mountains and to cruises and car shows, no hypermiling with this one.

Kinda of dark but here's a shot of the engine.

 

Got back yesterday from a trip from Boulder to Yellowstone and back. Took the wife's Element which is rated 18/22. Wife doesn't hypermile or anything, and usually doesn't shift early enough but over 90K she's averaged 23.5 mpg, so I don't bother nagging her.

Anyway, on the way up and back the roads were 65 max and very few cars so I was free to take it easy and drive 55-60. At those speeds and with minimal engine off I got 28.9. On the 2 tanks that were majority in the park with max 45 and a little bit more engine off I had a best tank of 35.6 and another tank of 32.8. Average for the whole trip 30.8 mpg.

Really wish it had a 6th gear, it is geared so it buzzes 3000 rpm at 60 mph!

 

Did a full fillup a few days ago. It was 19.01 gallons in addition to a partial fill of 8.56 gallons. Drove 634 miles, with about 400 miles of hi-speed interstate. The rest of the miles were 3.5 mile trips back and forth to work. Result was 23.0 MPG. Not bad.

Note: Replaced the original Firestone Destination LE 215-70-15 tires a few months ago. Replaced them with the new Firestone Destination LE2 225-70-15. This is the smallest size for the new LE2's. This has perfectly corrected my speedometer error. Roadside portable radar units now agree with my indicated speed exactly. These tires are 4 lbs heavier than the originals.

FYI these tire are not as good as the originals. Impact harshness is my biggest complaint. It took the "technicians" at Firestone, 3 tries to get them balanced to where they run smooth up to 80 MPH. Finally they had to take them to a competitor to use their Road Force balancing machine.

 

Waze is killing me.
I'm taking alternate routes pretty much everywhere I go to maximize my map coverage, which means a LOT of skipping the freeways and instead using surface streets.
While the congestion is overall lighter and the drive actually less frustrating, the stop and go with signals is killing me... down almost 2mpg compared to normal.
Coupled with the summer fuel that has the Ultragauge going pessimistic, it's really a shocker to see numbers below 20mpg on the display and nice to pull into the station and see 22.

 

I pulled into the gas station today literally running on fumes.. and made 372.6 miles on a tank of gas.. But I only pumped 17 gallons (even topping it off)

How big are our tanks? I was under the assumption that it was a 19 gallon tank

 

The tank is 21.1 gallons. The low fuel light on mine comes with about 3 gallons left. YMMV

If you filled up right after the light came on, its working just fine.

 

Decided to take a road trip the other day along HWY 101. Mostly freeway/ Highway once I got out of the city. A lot of twisties toward to outer edge. avg 24.5 mpg.... Best I've gotten so far out of this (mostly) city queen.

 

I am now sold on driving 60-65MPH with my new 2014 2wd, 4cyl auto Tacoma. I went 169 miles on 5.7 gallons. I would have never thought this truck could get the same mileage as my Camry. I will never get rid of this truck. All I have done is put a Tonno Pro Tri fold on it. I did this as soon as I bought the truck so I don't know if it made a difference. I get around 25 MPG if I drive city/hwy. My family has a 95 toyota pickup and a 97 nissan that are both 4cyl 5 speeds, smaller than my new Taco and at best get slightly less MPG.

 

That's 29.7mpg....that's kicking! I'm sold on mine as well. I've managed a two year average of 25.3 which I'm quite tickled with. Way to go!

 

I've had my 2010 2.7 Base for a month or so, it had 20 K on the clock when I got it.
The first time I check mileage it went 305.3 miles on 10.3 gals.
Just filled up today, 414.6 miles on 14.5 gal, not quite as good but I did use the AC some this time.
I'm wanting to get a Access LE to keep stuff dry, it will be interesting to see if it improves the mileage any.
I'm gonna keep reaching for 30+ MPG cuz I can see it happening now.

 

Drove my 2013 2.7 AC with a total of 4" lift and 285/75r16 Kumho Road venture MTs on steel wheels from Kansas to North Carolina and I've drivin a lot now that I'm home and I'm averaging 18mpgs!!? It's never been this good and I'm lovin it, I just started keeping my rpms way low and only hitting 2500 when on the interstates and it's working like a charm.