Yet another poor mileage thread

I had a ScanGauge on my 2012 TRD Off Road and would constantly monitor mpg. Why, I don't know, because it is just not a big thing for me. But when I lived in St Louis I would consistently get 19.5. That was a mix of probably 60/40 highway/suburb driving, the highway driving almost always at 65 or under. I now live in a smaller town, more stop lights and very little highway, shorter trips, and it dropped to right around 16. I didn't drive it too hard, but I would get on it if I needed to. Your mileage sounds about right for your conditions. Not impressive, we all know, but most of us here didn't buy a Tacoma for fuel efficiency. My 3rd gen gets 17.5 here, a little better but still not impressive.

Toyota trucks are known for reliability, and Toyota sticks with tried technology in the Tacomas. They were putting the 22R-E in Celicas (the fuel-injected version of the 22R) long before they put it in the pickup. Reliability is probably the main reason people love their Tacomas -- what you give up in fuel efficiency, you save in repair costs.

 

The Dodge was probably 3:50 is gear range with 245/70/17. It's a heavy chunk and the RPM was a little over 2000 at 70 I think.

 

air the tires to 35psi, my trucks getting 21.5mpg winter gas since I aired up the tires

 

Actually driving style has had almost zero effect on mileage. I was driving pretty hard when I first got it and got ~15. After I tried slowing down my top speeds and shift RPM the mileage was still 14.5 to 15.5. On my Acura if I redline it up the on ramps and accelerate hard all the time I can get the mileage to drop down to EPA city. Usually I can best EPA city by 2 mpg or more whilst driving hard. My version of driving hard is to drive it like a diesel. Use the torque, shift short and use a moderate amount of throttle. The quicker you accelerate to cruising speed, the more time you can spend getting the best mileage. ANY acceleration nets you bad mileage, accelerating like a granny is only slightly less costly that hard acceleration. If I have to go 6 blocks between lights and I spend 3 blocks getting to speed, 2 cruising and 1 slowing down, I am going to get worse mileage than accelerating in 1 block and cruising for 4. I haven't seen any vehicle get good mileage when accelerating, so I strive to limit that phase.

 

I would agree, I have driven very aggressively with a tank and got 16 at the worst, and driving like a grandma might get me 17 or 18. That is city driving. I think I can get 20 if the conditions are right, which like you said, is a lot of coasting and staying at speed and little accelerating. I have kind of come to the conclusion that it’s not worth trying with this truck, just drive it however.