Why am I getting such low MPG??

It's normal behavior. That's what the Toyota dealer told me. If you so much as add an aftermarket cupholder it will adversely affect fuel economy.

 

I just want to be able to go somewhere so I can burn gas.

 

The short 2 mile commutes hurt your mpg because it sounds like mostly city driving which involves lots of acceleration and little cruising, also the engine when cold uses more fuel to warm up quicker. Driving 79mph is hurting too because of your increased weight and wind resistance and the larger tires and heavier tires put more load on your Powertrain. I can only recommend regearing so you can let your engine spin more freely and decrease your cruising speed aswell because wind resistance increases with speed.

 

Is there a sticky on this stuff? I looked today but didn't see one.

I'd miss the weekly MPG threads -- they're one of my guilty pleasures -- but it would be nice to get a mega thread stickied that outlines best practices in the OP, has a poll for how much off you are from the window sticker (which will help collect variances across models and engine types), and then can be referenced immediately when a new MPG thread pops up like a wart everyone wants to chew on and pick at.

 

Can we see a pic of what the fancy gauge is saying? Asking for a friend.

 

Just drove to the PA mountains last weekend, 65-70mph highway cruising, and 50 mph back roads, 24 mpg according to the dash on the way out. Stock manual Sport DCSB, stock tires, 37 PSI indicated on the dash. Air damn thingy still intact. That is from the convenience store where I iced up the cooler, so warmup not included. Early on July 3rd, so hardly any traffic.

Now when I drive the 10 miles to work in the morning, a mix of 80 mph highway (don't want to get run over) and city streets, I can get 15-17 mpg indicated, depending mostly on whether I'm using A/C, and how much traffic I hit. That's mpg from the bagel place in town to work. So the truck is pretty much warmed up for that trip. If I just leave the house and drive straight to work, that trip includes warmup, and can be 14-15 mpg. Even 13 mpg in winter if I let the truck idle for a while before leaving. So, the warmup makes a huge difference in computed mpg for a trip.

 

Lemme get this straight.... Your Tacoma is getting horrible mileage??

THIS IS AN UNPRECEDENTED OUTRAGE!

 

It's the price you pay for a dope truck.

 

I squeezed 56 mpg out of my wife's Civic on a road trip once.
















Why can't my Taco match that?

 

It totally can. Keep trying. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

I'll have to disagree with that... but maybe it's just in my case. My last tank in my V6 with full a/c was 22.9 mpg via the math driving mostly between "city" and "highway", and that's with several several miles with my new headache rack. The rack weighs about 40-50 lbs and it affects the airflow behind the cab (the condensation patterns on the slider are noticeably different). After the last fill up, the dash display says I've been getting in the lower 23s on average and once up to 24.9. The math will lower those figures by .5-1 mpg.

I leave the eco display on in Entune. I've learned to drive fuel friendly for the most part but the display reinforces it for me.

 

It’s because SR5s universally get fabulous* mileage, and its drivers are always** superlative. Math isn’t my thing, but 22 v. 17mpg is 100+ more miles per tank. That’s real.
*maybe
**possibly

 

SR5 Tacomas are the best Tacomas ever made. https://images.app.goo.gl/7dmBFSBbMYcTNUqP6

 

My contribution. 2020 TRD Pro, stock config. Lead footed driver, predominantly local.

Local driving 14.2 MPG, remember the lead foot.
After about 1200 ODO miles it started to hit 15.2 MPG and above. Several Taco owners have said that the truck learns your driving habits at 1200 miles. I concur.

Recently took a trip, Long Island to PA for 5 hours. Doing 80MPH mostly, I was getting 19.1 MPG. I'm guessing if I was 65-70, I'd have gotten 20+.

Not too shabby for a badass truck.

 

I'd like to see a 4x4 V6 Tacoma that got 400+ miles on 1 tank of gas, daily driven.

 

Fancy gauge pic as requested.

 

It doesn't make a difference. If it did, the OR and Sport wouldn't be rated the same. It's purely aesthetic.

 

I once got 404 miles between fill ups, but more commonly get around 380.

 

I drive 85 miles a day round trip to work. 2018 pro on 265/75/16. Keep the speed under 65. Pretty flat roads in SC. I get 400 plus per tank even with running the ac on full blast. Keep shifts under 2000 rpm. Would love to go to 285s but I like the mileage to much with 265s.

 

Yeah, it feels like that's logical.

But OR and Sports are grouped together due to the way EPA treats similar models, not because they get exactly the same MPGs. The EPA doesn't test every single trim level on every single vehicle. They don't even test most models of most cars on a given year. Their bias is toward newer models and functions as part of a back-and-forth with the manufacturer's findings. Also, different tires plus the the air dam do make a difference. Driver input makes a bigger difference. We've gone over all this before in other MPG threads. It's why a sticky would be nice. But groundhog day is nice too.