What’s your average mpg?

Your driving style (and where you drive) has way more to do with your MPGs than just about anything else.

As far as I'm concerned, 16 is pretty good for a first gen, especially if you're doing a bunch of city driving.

Best I've ever gotten was 18 over about a 1500 mile road trip, but that was all highway going 55 because I was towing a small trailer. Some people claim they get over 20-22 "average", and let's just say I'm skeptical of that.

Anywhere between 14 and 18 or so is normal, and it all depends on your driving style.

 

i've been keeping a 'fairly accurate' fuel log memo book on my truck for 23 years and 154k miles
no need to be skeptical! but i don't tow and the heaviest of loads i've had for a long enough distance to matter (over 500 miles) is a 6ft ladder, medium plastic toolbox and luggage, bags of travel items that could not fit in the xtracab back
a few times the 3.4 could get almost 24 or 25 if speed kept under 65 mph (maybe cruise on 55mph) before they raised the speed limits to 75mph

 

Good for you.

I got 22mpg in my 4Runner on the way back from a trip to the beach this weekend (100 mile trip) according to the on-board computer. I don't claim that's my mileage, though. Like I said, it all depends on how and where you drive.

As I said, some of the best mileage I got was actually towing a small trailer. It was fairly unstable so I kept the speed to 55, and the 800 pound trailer was barely noticed by the truck on the hills. I get worse mileage without towing that trailer because I like to go 75.

But I stopped really tracking the mileage a long time ago. I just don't care that much.

 

I can agree Mine is on the low side because I only ever checked it loaded which drops the mileage

Average can mean different things . To me average is the total miles driven ever divided by fuel purchased which can be hard to keep records of .

 

Not if you're OCD, lol. My parents, while not particularly OCD, are octogenarians so they are pretty set in their ways. For as long as I can remember, when my dad steps out to pump the gas, my mom pulls out their little black book and writes down the date/time, mileage, and # gallons purchased. I have no idea how many books they have from the various vehicles they've owned.

Do they DO anything with this data? I can't imagine they do, it's all on paper. I think it's just something for my mom to do, I don't think my dad really cares. I suppose they could graph it up and post it on the interwebs to brag about it or something.

 

i was tracking it for tax purposes for the occasions when my employer at the time did not give a fuel stipend and i had to cover travel expenses out of pocket, i just kept it up out of habit

 

I've used Fuelly for my 1998 for 300 fill ups and 80,000+ miles tracked: http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/tacoma/1998/madjikman/42743

I tried adjusting for the smaller 31" tire discrepancy and I came up with 20 mpg.

Mostly 5th gear, 50 mph... and I drive like a grandmother.

 

For me I track for two reasons:

1. OCD. It sucks but I've embraced the lifestyle.

2. Truck health. If my mpg's go from 18-20 to 12-14 without a significant change in driving style, etc I know something ain't right. Before my truck threw a code for the rear O2 sensor I knew something was wrong based on my mpg tracking.

 

i mainly rely on the tripmeter for any noted issues, had one time that it was not getting normal acceptable miles and found it to be a couple tires were VERY underinflated (low 20s) due to a winter storm that wreaked havoc with barometric pressures iirc
it sucks having to air tires up when its near zero out and icy valve stems lol

 

Yes and yes.

 

@jbrandt
Admittedly, that is a charming little habit they share.

 

It's quite entertaining. I get the feeling that for my dad, it's just one of those annoying little habits that comes with being married for [...checks calendar...] 60 years. It's definitely a mom thing. Sometimes my dad forgets to tell her the mileage before he drives off and you'd think he almost ran over a cat.

 

Lmao, that is hilarious.

 

2. I get this simply by having a general idea how many miles I get from a tank. Usually 220 (indicated) or so for my normal driving routines (mostly commuting on city roads).

Less than that and I'll hook up my OBD reader and check things out.

 

Equally as effective. Less OCDish

 

when you guys calculate your MPG do you also consider if your speedo is off? usually these trucks are off by a few MPH's doing 65. I know my trucks speedo is off 3MPH when I'm doing 65 and it increases the faster I go, so I always add that into consideration when I calculate MPG.

 

More lazy-ish...

but gets the job done.

 

If you want to know your actual mileage then yes, you absolutely have to calculate the difference. It's a % difference, but it's really not all that accurate to just do a little math based on the different tire sizes, although that's usually "good enough".

For me, I couldn't care less what my actual mileage is. Every time I pass one of those speed trap trailer things, the indicated speed is pretty close to my indicated speed (within a mph or two), so that's more than close enough for my purposes, and I don't adjust anything. I have 265/75416 A/T tires, which is barely larger than stock...

If you want to know your actual mileage as accurately as possible, and precisely know how far off your ODO is, the next long-ish road trip you take, track your distance traveled with GPS, and compare that to what the ODO says. The longer the trip, the more accurate the GPS measurement will be (as a % error). Since your ODO only reads down to a 1/10th of a mile, you need to drive for long enough that the +/- 1/10th of a mile is an acceptable error. 100 mile trip would equate to 0.1% error.

 

I've always been lucky to get 15. Same situation: stock tires, no armor, bearings feel fine, I think I even have the same GR.
I really never understood it myself. I've tired tons of different driving styles. The best by far I ever mustered was almost 18mpg going 60mph cruise control on a 100-mile trip. I've given up trying to figure it out.
On second thought...maybe I should do a compression test

 

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