Poor mileage acceptable to Toyota
I recently purchased a 2003 Toyota Tacomaq, 4 cyl. 2.4L. I have since learned that the window sticker stating 22mpg City is erroneous. Two different Toyota dealers have told me that these trucks get 19mpg City. Toyota customer service told me that 19 is acceptable to them and they are sending me a letter to that effect. The dealer service people even told me I was lucky to be getting 19. I am outraged, and there seems to be nothing I can do. Why did I never see this in any reviews or publications? I checked many of them before buying, and I bought a 4 cylinder to get good mileage because I never tow and never haul excessive loads.
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Driving conditions: NO stop and go traffic, tonneau cover, NO AC use yet, outskirts of a small town, NO offroad or dirt roads.
there are V-8s out there (2wd) that get 19-22 easily. Most v-6s can get 19 easy too
only thing left to ask is are you driving it like you stole it?
I have real trouble believing the 2.4L I4 guzzles gas like mine. Do you drive an Xtracab or RegCab? Xtracab got some more weight on it, and could result in some decrease in milage, but not to 19.
The thing that burns me is that neither dealer would offer advice. I just switched to syn. oil, and I might next add a K&N air filter. Hate to spend the bucks. I would rather give them back this thing and let some other "lucky" individual buy it.
False advertising if you ask me
And yes mileage under REAL operation ....they are
gonna get less.........................geo
BTW: My bud traded his 4 cyl camry for a new outback wagon.
He is in shock ! camry way over 20 mpg...outback best 16 mpg !
Heck my Chevy 2500 4x4 gets 18 highway crusin' ac on too ! My
V-8 Caddy gets 25 or better...........
Engine diags wouldn't indicate anything is wrong in this case..
Also, is your tire pressure up to specification?
I have an F250 SuperDuty with a 5.4L engine and I get 16mpgs consistantly. There's no way your Tacoma should be sucking that much fuel..
system again in trucks tho. to improve CAFE
ratings.....My Caddy sips gas on the hiway
prob. the final gearing. Heck at 70 mph the
motor is only turning 1700 rpms! My truck is
turning 2500 rpms at 70. It has the 4:10s tho.
It was the last year they had the carbureter 4-banger with 4 speed. The gears were nice and tall and I remember getting consistantly something like 26/32 city/hwy.
It was a good, basic truck. I do not think they could sell something so basic now as there would be liability concerns on it's safety.
Are there the same mileage problems in the SUV's or Tundras? And what kind of engines/gas mileage can we expect from the "4-Runner-sized Tacomas" on the horizon? What kind of mileage does that big six-cylinder get in the 4-Runner? Seems like the whole lot of "zoom-zoom-zoom" in trucks has "deep-sixed" the concern over mileage.
B
with my truck. Mpg. is poor when new. Mine only
got 10 mpg no matter what new. Now with 16k miles
the best I get is 18 mpg hiway ac on unloaded !
Maybe when you get miles on it your mpg will increase.....Never noted any diff. in my Caddy mpgs. tho. Prob. cuz my truck was gassing up all
the time while my Caddy was driving by all the gas
stations !..........LOL
Sorry I can't help more, but hope it helps.
Ken
I was hoping to get at least 20 mpg since (unlike Yurian) my 2.4 liter standard-cab Nissan was only getting about 22 mpg. I was astounded to find that I get 25 on the freeway (at 75 or so) and never less than 21 around town. EPA estimates are 19/23. I'm happy.
-james
I have never heard of a vehicle getting great mileage straight off the lot. My tacoma 3.4L got pretty dismal mileage for the first 10k miles and then really started to get better. Was I surprised - not at all. Im at 26k miles now on my 2000 model truck and mileage is anywhere from 18 to 23.5 depending on how and where I drive. Good luck.
My dad has a new 02 Chevy s-10x cab, 4.3 v-6, auto., 4wd loaded out. Will have to ask about his
mpgs....His 99 s-10 4 cyl., reg cab, auto., 2wd got over 20 plus puttin' around. Read that GEEZER
at the wheel mpg.!............lol..........
The increases will be gradual, and you probably won't even notice the difference from tank to tank. But I bet in 6months the MPG's will be right at the numbers on the sticker.
Also remember that some trucks will take more or less fuel in the tank depending on the angle the truck is sitting at the pump. This can skew the mpg calculation for a tank, but will be made up on the next tank and average out over time.
Just have fun with your truck.
Harry
Manuf. claims 17 / 19 for this vehicle.
As for the discussions about Nissans, well, they have less horsepower and are slower than the Tacoma's, so there is a tradeoff. I would rather pay a little more for the fuel and have the power and quality of the Toyota, personally.
I live in Missouri in the Ozark foothills so the terrain varies more greatly than it would in St. Louis or Illinois.
I thought the newer automatics were supposed to be better on gas mileage.
B
Now back to the topic. I bought a new Nissan Frontier in 98 with 5 speed manual and the 2.4 4 cyl. That truck could only manage average 17 mpg with a lot of highway driving. I traded it in for a Chevy Silverado 4x4, auto, with 4.3 V-6 that gets the same mpg and has way more power!
I think some manufactures sacrifice mpg to meet emission laws if thier engine control technology is not state of the art.
The mileage thing is, I think, the attempt to burn more fuel with less displacement. Hence, 4 valves per cylinder. But I agree that at this point big block V6s like GMs 4.3 do a better job of converting fuel to power with very favorable differentials. But in 4 cylinder engines, the Toyota has it all over the S10 4 banger in power. Sadly, this is a result of burning more fuel in nearly the same displacement. I think you have to compare the Toy 4 to a GM 6, and in that comparison the GM will win. GM makes excellent engines, and they sell a V6 at a price competitive to the Toy 4 cylinder. On the other hand, I've owned an excellent S10 that I really liked, but its handling pales in comparison to the Toy.
2003 toyota tacoma
PreRunner Regular Cab
4Cyl Automatic
This vehicle has a posted 19/22 miles per galon rating.
What should I expect and what are realistic numbers that you may have seen?
I would suggest that you get a manual with the 4-banger. From what I usually hear from other Tacoma people, mating an I4 with an auto tranny is not a great idea. Of course, this would mean that you'd have to get a 4x4, since currently Toyota doesn't offer a manual prerunner. Too bad.
I haven't driven an auto I4, so I can't speak from my own experience, just relaying what I've heard.
The I4 you'll get is bulletproof, has been in Toyota for at least 10 years. Just suggesting that you mate it to a manual tranny.
Again...testdrive the prerunner you want and see how it feels to you. Maybe you'll like it the way it is.
That's 18mpg for a V6 4x4 5spd Xtracab with a lift.
Half of it was highway speeds of 80-85mph, other half was all city.
All automatics with torque convertors (that is almost all automatics except the super exotics) lose about 30% of the engine power in the torque convertor at least until the torque convertor locks up at around 40-60mph.
Result: lower mpg and poorer acceleration in exchange for the "convenince" of only having to move your right leg rather than both legs. It's a poor tradeoff IMO.
It takes any engine more than 10K mi to wear into it's sweet spot. If you drive a new engine too easy, you will never get it because the rings will not seat properly and blowby will always haunt you. Cylinders are manufactured with a very fine crosshatch that is designed to fill with oil and kind of polish. If the cylinder pressure doesn't get high enough(this pushes the rings out into the cylinder wall) during the break in period for this to happen in the way that it is supposed to you will never get the fuel economy that you could have gotten and the engine will for lack of better wording not be as good for it's entire life. No new magic technology replaces this.
I'm not saying that you should hammer your new truck but you should run it up to the 3500-4200 mark every 50th shift in 2nd or 3rd to ensure that the rings are seating properly. Is it using ANY oil during it's normal change interval?
Remember that you are dealing with a very good Japanese I4 that is designed to rev a little, if you drive it like something American designed, it will not only perform poorly in all aspects but it will not last as long as it should.
Good luck
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
According to the author the first 20 miles is the most crucial during the break in period. That's when 80% of the breakin occurs. The remaining 20% occurs over the next 500-1000 miles.
Have you ever noticed that your car has more power when it's cold outside?
The Suzuki Vitara I am driving now varies from 24mpg(averaged for a whole tank)at neg 40C and 30mpg at 0C
I know a couple people that have blown engines in snowmobiles because they jetted for -30 and drove at -40. The extra oxygen leaned out this simple carburator setup to the point of engine failure in a range of 10 degrees C.
cold weather starts. And in summer they do the
same to cut high pollution in certian areas also.
This could also reduce mpgs.............