Toyota Tacoma "Real World" Gas Mileage

don't know my milage.don't care.nothing drives better or is as much fun.5 or 25.driving or towing is all the same.just enjoying the ride

 

Recently completed a 1100 mile trip throughout the midwest and watched the MPGs carefully:

Hwy Mileage: 18.5 MPG @ speeds always in the 70-80 MPH region. Cruise Control used extensively.

City Mileage: 17.1 MPG

Conditions:

2013 TRD Sport DCLB 4X4, OEM tires inflated to 36 PSI. 87 Octane gas on all fill-ups. ARE Shell/Topper. Three passengers, weight approx 600 LBS. Bed filled with hunting/camping gear and coolers, weight approx 350 LBS. Temps in the 10-35 degree range.

 

Hey SigSense, it would be interesting to see the results on a similar trip at 60°. It would not shock me to see your hiway mpg 2 mpg better. Not as much increase in city with the auto. The auto's final ratio in od is .72/1. The 6sp manual is .85/1. Can't do much with the manual on the highway because of the ratio. I get 20-20.5 highway in the summer. 17.3-19.4 now. In the summer in city- rural driving I routinely get 20.5-22 mpg. There's alot I can do with the manual there such as skip gears or coast to stop signs. I do believe the 4.0's ecu settings are too rich on cold weather starts. That sucks fuel. Those figures are with no loads though.

 

72 fill ups and I have averaged 18.6 mpg on a 2014 DC.

 

I can get 400 miles per tank with mixed highway/city driving. Truck is 2009 manual tranny, 2.7 liter, long bed regular cab with 2wd.

 

Hey Don, with the manual you can jump your city-rural mpg's. I've had good results skip shifting and coasting. In city-rural driving try 1st to second shift @2000rpm. Same with 2nd to 3rd. Run 3rd to 2200-2500 rpm then shift to 5th. 5th to 2000rpm then 6th. Also see how far you can coast to stops, within reason. It doesn't take long to figure out what you can get away with. These are things you can do with the manual to help mpg's that autos cannot do. It wouldn't shock me to see your mpg's jump 1-3mpg in city/rural driving. There are other skip-shift patterns you can use, this one is my preference. The autos will do better at highway speed mpg's. Its simple math with gear ratios. I routinely get better city- rural mpgs than highway mpgs.

 

Most vehicles I have ever owned will get the best steady-state mileage at the lowest speed they can comfortably cruise at in top gear. That's pretty much the key to your skip-shifting - get it in top gear asap. So for my 2.7 Tacoma that's about 45 mph. Obviously your ability to do that is dependent on road and traffic, so as a practical matter on real roads and trips I can usually get 25-26 out of it if I stay on the 2-lanes and hold it to 55. Hard to do a whole tank on 45 mph country roads but I bet it'd be just a little higher.

 

Hey Kenjw, you are right. With the manuals we can manipulate this process. The autos do it all for us, so there's not much anyone can do short of the skinny pedal with them. I am very satisfied with my mpgs in warmer temps. Cold temps are another matter.

 

The availability of the 5-speed manual is the single biggest reason I opted for the Tacoma. The new Colorado looked tempting but no manual 4x4. I am sad to see so many vehicles now are automatic only, though I certainly admit that for many an automatic is desirable.

In the manual 2.7 Tacoma, I don't think gear-skipping is as beneficial as in the V6. I have tried it, going from third to fifth most commonly, but you have to wind it out pretty good in third to make that work. You just don't have the torque to make it work well. When I had an S10 with a 5-speed and a 4.3 V6, you could go 1-3-5 all day long.

Do you think gear-skipping could save gas even if I had to take it past 3,000 to do it?

 

Probably not. If you skip a gear it probably should be 4th only. You're rolling pretty good by then so it doesn't take as much torque. Coasting probably gains the most in fuel conservation though. The biggest mpg killer on these trucks is the ECU's mapping in cold weather, especially starts. One guy here uses an engine block heater. It wouldn't shock me to see a 3 mpg increase using one if start temps are below 32°.

 

By the way, if you think the 5 speed is fun, which it is, you should play with the 6 speed. It's a ball! It doesn't get to 1/1 until 5th gear. Talking about fast. 0-60 in 6.9 seconds is what I've gotten several times. Tow rating is at 6500#. I've towed a 25' baba with it, weighs about 6000#. You know its back there but it by no means kills the truck pulling it!

 

I currently get about 16 combined city and highway right now on winter gas, will be back up into the 18 to 20 range once summer hits.

 

Yeah that's what I kind of thought about gear-skipping on mine.

I have also told a lot of people about the fuel cutoff on modern fuel injected engines. It's funny to watch how a lot of people drive, staying on the throttle until they have to jam on the brakes. Just turning all that energy into heat (and wearing out the brakes).

Since I am a new owner the cold weather economy remains an unknown. We had one cold snap here where it got down to 6 or 7 degrees (F) and my mpg on that tank was about 22, which is about 2 mpg off what I had been averaging. Now it's normally staying in the 30s and I was back up in the high 23s last time. But I don't do many short trips because I live in the country and if I go anywhere it's at least 10 miles or so, so I do get it warmed up every time I drive.

I do let it idle for a minute or two before I take off when it's cold so the revs come down for a smoother takeoff. I like to go easy on the clutch so stay off the throttle when starting from a stop and don't hit the gas until the clutch is all the way out. Hard to do that right when it's fast idling.

My only difficulty with driving this Tacoma's manual transmission smoothly (and I have had manuals for 30 years) is getting the revs just right for the 4-5 shift. I hate it when it's off and the engine slows down or speeds up when I let out the clutch. I have found that giving it a little extra gas right before I push in the clutch helps, and of course you can watch the tach but that's distracting. Any other tips? I think the problem stems from the friction point being higher in the pedal's range of travel than I am used to.

 

Last fill up MPG was at 16.8 during a period of temps in the 20's and lower, all short trips, 10 miles max. '07 Prerunner, DC, SB, V6 auto, stock size tires, no lift.

 

Right! They should have a 6-speed w/the 2.7. The thing I have always been taught is, if you have less horsepower, you need more gears.

 

I agree. The 2.7 is a hell of an engine though. Very tough! The 6 speed with it would give you more opportunities with mpg's, and speed.

 

I am very pleased so far with the 2.7. It has far more power and is more fun to drive than I expected.

 

My first Toyota was a 1981, bought new. It had the 22r inline 4 cylinder with the very first time offered 5 speed. Standard cab with bucket seats from the factory. A fabulous truck. The 2.7 5 speed standard cab Tacoma is a direct descendant. Another fabulous truck. The Toyota's are just plain ( fun to drive!).

 

This truck really is fun to drive. The only other vehicle I ever have had that I enjoyed driving as much is a VW GTI. Also a 5-speed but that was one short-geared car. Close to 3,000 at 60. It felt like you were going down the interstate in third.

 

Thanks - so far so good! And the mileage is about the same (maybe a little better) than my Jeep Rubicon - it had an auto and the 3.6L - and it didn't feel like it had the go that the Yota does, even though the engine is rated higher horsepower and about the same torque. Seems like the new V6 engines all want to rev to high h*ll to make any power ...