Extremely interesting interview with Mike Sweers.

Has that been confirmed? 4 cyl turbo wouldn’t be an issue for me if it performed to my expectations.

In any case, I’ll do what the auto manufacturers taught me to do.

Assess the first two or three MYs. If the vehicle is acceptable to what I want and need, I’ll buy one. If not, I’ll look around to find the best fit. My ‘15 has 70K miles so I’m ok driving it for the next decade if I need to.

 

I get your point. My wording was not ideal, but hey.....I type this shit on my phone while sipping Crown Royal, so don’t expect it to be a perfect work of genius every time.

Anyways....I did some digging on this transmission dipstick loss thing. The VAST majority of vehicles have no AT dipstick, including the F150, which is the most popular vehicle in NA.

Most articles I read said it was to prevent the car owner from overfilling with the wrong fluid. Essentially the AT level was better of unknown to the end-user as they were likely to mess it up.

However.....this Wikipedia article opened another avenue for research and now I see this as the truth as I deal with the exact same issue in a different scenario at my work in power generation. Oil-filled utility transformers have a problem with heat and oxygen aging the insulating oil and the additive packages in the oil. It’s called “oil oxidization” and the effect is to acidify the oil, which then begins to attack the transformer components from within. Additionally, oil has (contrary to common understanding) an affinity for water and wants to have a certain level of water saturation. Oil will absorb moisture until this exact saturation is reached. Water in oil decreases the insulating properties of the oil causing further issues in a high voltage application. To combat this, and prevent premature transformer failure, the transformer oil tanks are sealed from the atmosphere, and have a nitrogen “blanket” in place of normal air on top of the oil. Exchange of air with the outside world is very limited, through the use of bladders and one-way pressure relief valves.

It would seem, if the Wiki is true, that the same considerations are taking place with Automatic Transmissions. They are trying to limit the oxidization or the oil, which in turn makes the oil and it’s additives last the lifetime of the vehicle.

We see this same phenomena with other automotive systems such as brake fluid, where limited ingress of air is allowed.

Anyways......an interesting read:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_transmission_fluid

 

Toyota knew what they were doing...they knew the gearing wouldn't be great, but they also knew that their overall fleet would have to meet CAFE standards.

 

My responsibilities changed lol. We have an 8K trailer.

 

Nice. How are you liking it?

 

17.3 avg after the first 10K miles. 90% of my driving is interstate.

 

Lol is for work not play. Test equipment.

 

Not bad, barely getting that with my Tacoma

I’m sure there is some play involved...

 

That is actually pretty darn good mpg's. It that at 70 + mph ?

 

Yeah but I drive like an adult. But, every now and then I take off like a 16 year old. The Tacoma has the ECT mode. The Tundra has a tow/haul mode and when you push that button and floor it...

 

Some of you should sell your tacomas.

The difference between an owner and an enthusiast is that the owner is typically a Bro who accidentally bought a historically low powered, ultra reliable utility truck. When really they wanted a diesel with a lift and elephant ears, or an 8 second drag toy etc...now they’re unsatisfied. And now the enthusiasts have to point out how stupid they are when they complain about the most obvious traits of a Toyota pickup. If it wasn’t for the “owners” tag up top, I would say a lot of you straight up don’t belong here.

 

Let me say this, and I understand few share my viewpoints and the sales numbers obviously say Im among the minority in the following:

1. My 485 HP Challenger Scat Pack, pushrod V8, same weight as my Tacoma (although I recognize better aerodynamics) averaged 17.1 over my ownership.
2. My current 300k+1998 4 Runner that's all kinda beat up, with the 3400 V6, averages 16.2 with a FOUR SPEED transmission!
3. My 2007 Tundra averaged 13.4 over 70k miles with a V8
3. So far my Tacoma averages, over it's lifetime, 16.5.

Consider I drove/drive all vehicles under the same conditions, work commute, etc.

To get 16.5, I have a powertrain that is typically anemic unless I rev it high, has double the # of injectors (more maintenance generally speaking), more valves (more maintenance generally speaking) and the Atkinsson/Otto system (more maintenance generally speaking) to get me basically what I consider poor gas mileage.

My opinion is that if Toyota made a regular, run of the mill Otto 3.5 without extra injectors and without Atkinsson cycle, what would my gas mileage be? Would it really be WORSE that my 98 4 Runner? If the Tundra got 13.4 and the Tacoma is a V6, it would stand to reason it would at least get 16mpg with just your run of the mill v6?

So basically I still do not understand why Toyota added thousands more in complex systems to get extremely little gains in MPG and frankly, maybe a higher cost of ownership in the long run due to fixing all the extra gas mileage features.

I understand some of you will say "Well I average 20 mpg" and I believe you, but then under those same conditions, you would get higher averages than me on the vehicles above too.

 

That’s definitely a good watch.
That said:

My stock 2003 Tacoma on cruise control @78 mph consistently did 19-20mpg highway while my stock 2017 did 14-15mpg on cruise on the same stretch of Highway (San Antonio to Corpus Christi).
The first time I drove this highway stretch with my new 2017 I thought something was wrong with the transmission. That’s what brought me to TW, actually.
Same driving habits with both trucks. I’m nowhere near a speed freak.

Not complaining, I love my truck, just stating a fact.

*with OVTune and 4.88’s, on highway I’m back around 17-18 on cruise, 19-20 without cruise.

 

Truth: Fuel economy is the responsibility of the driver. Always has been. You can make a Yaris suck fuel if you want to.

The difference with the 3G, is you can achieve very good economy if you want to. You may not enjoy it, but the economy is definitely there. This is blatantly apparent over the 2G Taco, where you will struggle to get marginal economy.

I just spent a couple weeks driving both models due to my work situation, and can say (my observation only) the economy on the 4.0L sucks in comparison to the 3.5L. I would not go back to a 2G Taco with fuel prices going the direction they are.

 

Keep in mind it is both fuel economy and emissions they are concerned with, although I don't know those numbers -- getting more power from a smaller engine, mostly equivalent mpg, but cleaner emissions is still a win, if that is truly the case.

I wouldn't say that the pseudo-atkinson engine is really that much more complicated -- it uses the same technology to adjust valve timings as the VVT engines they have been producing for years. And the extra injectors are more of a reliability play to avoid the intake gunk buildup that direct injection engines see.

But, I would still agree that the overall recipe is a little lacking. It's progress, but definitely not perfect.

Great video find, though, I enjoyed it.

 

Interesting video.

When I first bought the 3rd gen, I really sucked at controlling the skinny pedal. I didn't know it then, I sure know it now. I've never achieved the EPA sticker in any of my cars, I thought I never would.

Last year I was averaging a 17mpg tank, running on stock-size all terrains. About a year ago, I really started paying attention on how to move through traffic efficiently. This wasn't exactly motivated by fuel savings. To be honest, it was because I've grown tired of road raging, fighting for an open lane, occasionally having a roadside discussion with whatever asshole that decided to cut me off that day.

So I backed off. I slowed my roll, just a tad. Two things were immediately learned: 1) my average commute time only increased by about 30 seconds which is not at all as significant as I thought it would be, and 2) my stress levels went down considerably. This thread isn't about that, so I'll get back on point.

The third thing I noticed was the mileage boost. It was huge. The more I learned how to coast through stop and go traffic, keeping a steady speed, not crawling up the ass of the slow fuckhead ahead of me, the better my mileage got. A year ago my average was 17 with a high score of 19. This morning I got a high score of 25.4 for the trip, and 21 for the entire tank.

That brought along another observation which is purely subjective: if you drive this truck the way it was designed to drive, it's a joy. It rewards you for being smooth on the pedal, it doesn't gear hunt anymore, it doesn't clunk from a hard shift, it just rolls along like its supposed to.

It's a truck that's designed to be grandma driven, with some grunt waiting in reserve in case you need to pass. That's just a selling point that doesn't look good in the brochure, unfortunately.

 

I don't drive like grandma or sports car driver; actually drive sane and average over 21-22 consistently. Constant speed on the highway, easy 23-24mpg. Remember its is a truck designed to haul a lot of weight in the box or hitch. I don't listen to the naysayers and frankly wish they would sell their trucks and buy a Honda Ridgeline if they are not happy and continue to gripe. I am one of the very happy 240k '18 Tacoma purchasers. Maybe I am lucky but think I am really in the great majority of satisfied Tacoma owners.