Test Drove 3 2018s - My Impressions

The biggest thing that turned me off the Ranger is the start stop technology. Word is it will have a button to turn that mess off, but I just don't like it.

 

It’s not that bad. If you’re in traffic you’ll save a ton of gas.

 

There’s a button for the auto on/off. Sucks you have to hit it every time you get in. But if you have a trailer hooked up it shuts the system off automatically

 

Buy something else. For real.

 

My daughter lives there (Kihei). We’ll be on the island in a few weeks.

 

Should have a pretty good idea by this time next year.

 

Not in my experience. Maybe 1mpg? At optimal conditions. When you were stopped long enough to offset the extra gas needed to restart the car. But before it would start the car again due to power needed to run the climate control.

It was more annoying than anything else.

 

This is what I'm struggling with. Every time I make this same trip, twice a month, 300 miles on the interstate... this is my average mpg. I don't understand how this is even possible. My 2nd gen wasn't even close to this bad. Ever.

That's what the "current fuel economy" gauge looks like for 4 hours.

 

Is your truck stock? Bad elevation changes? That’s terrible mileage. Check your tire pressure regularly?

 

80mph in 5th gear with the AT?

 

No mods. Bone stock. 35psi all around. Frustrating.
Yeah I run in S5 primarily, but I think it's often running in 4th due to wind and hills.
TRD-OR 4x4

 

Well I have to say it might not be as slow as one thinks. I raced my 2005 F-150 w/ a 5.4 triton headers full exaust tune and cold air intake and my 2018 stock 3.5 Tacoma smoked the shit out of it. Lol.

 

Try 70mph at 2k rpm in s6 a time or two. Aint gonna hurt to try.

 

That’s gotta be the killer. Truck can’t get into overdrive. I always noticed with both Tacoma’s and now my 4Runner these trucks do not like going over 70mph if you want go have good fuel economy

 

Yeah it's much better at 70mph. But I shouldn't have to drive 70 in order to NOT get 12mpg in a $38k truck in 2018. That's my point. And if I leave it in S6 it's constantly hunting.

I shoulda done more research. But when I saw that it had more HP than 2nd gen, I figured there would be plenty of power for interstate driving. This truck feels more like my 2010 4cyl than my 2014 6cyl. I guess the power is there, but there's a sacrifice in mpg. Mostly I just wasn't expecting mpg to be this bad at 75-80mph. All the hype/talk about 3rd gen was that gas mileage was gonna be better. Well, I got a lot better in my 2nd gen. I'm probably in the minority due to my interstate miles.

 

I miss my 2010 4cyl. With the 5spd manual that thing loved to rev. But again highway sucked on it.
Idk what is it with these but like you said to loose 8+mpg by driving 5mph faster is little weird

 

Yea, at the PDC. They couldn’t put the 2.7 in, just not in the budget to design and homologate everything for a completely different engine configuration. I agree it would be awesome though.

 

Wife’s ram still gets better gas mileage.. getting old minus well have got a 4 banger

 

I’ll send you a 1/2 so we are both only down 2.5. Least I could do for a brother.

 

It's not 8mpg loss at 5mph faster. If I drive 70, the mpg's probably bump up to around 16-17. Ive never gotten over 18.1mpg on my trip meter in the 3k miles I've had the truck. City or highway, any distance, I've never seen over 18.1mpg. Is this abnormal? Sure seems to be from what I read here. I see some people here getting +20's and it boggles my mind. And I'm seriously a conservative driver. Just a typical driver that's generally not in a hurry.