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My dealership did an excellent job rebuilding the car... but... my mpg's have dropped from an easy 39 to 41 mpg's to a hard to get 35 to 36 mpg's. I am bringing the car into the dealer next week and they said they will see if there are any software updates they may have missed. Don't know if this helps but I have always wondered why there is a big discrepancy between TCH's. When I first got my TCH and had not yet changed my driving style, I was getting 32 mpg's... now I would think it would be closer to 27. If any revelations come to light I will update. The accident occured at 20,000 miles and I now have 27,000 miles on the car.
advertised at 40city/38hwy. The car only gets between 24-28 mpg's. no matter what tips I try. Service Dept. says car is fine! Is anyone else NOT getting this fabulous mileage or am I the only one?
If I'm driving in town on a flat roadway on a nice day without a/c..I can hit 34mpg.
If its in any other situation..hot with a/c..cold with heater..up hill, etc...the best I usually get is around 26..maybe up to 28.. sometime as low as 24.
On the highway: around 38 mpg.
I drive normally..near the speed limit without fast starts or stops.
It's definitely possible to get better MPGs with more conservative driving.
You're doing ok. My consolation is to figure my probable mpgs with a non-hybrid.
Although 24-28 mpg sounds unusually low, all cars will get lower than expected mpg under unfavorable driving conditions, hybrids especially it appears. Was the mileage this low during the summer, too?
Dealer says "That's about right." Is anyone else having this low MPG with the Toyota Camry Hybrid?
That said, I don't understand those who say they get in the high 30s or 40+ w/o even trying. The distributions on greenhybrid.com have no resemblance to my experience; the reports on this site do.
Macolyte
Anyway, in cold weather I am also getting as low as 24 mpg and as high as 29, but most of the time since November it has been around 26-27. From March - October, I averaged about 32 mpg.
To really see "eye-popping" numbers in city driving with the Camry, you need to drive at least 10 miles on each trip. Once the car gets warmed up (after 2-4 miles), then it starts working much more efficiently. Also, if you're driving on the highway and averaging around 60-65 mph, you can easily get 40 mpg or more unless you're going uphill. At 75-80 mph I only get around 34-35 mpg.
So the car still has the best mileage of any midsize car currently available, but the people who say they are always getting in the high 30's are either lying, or they are driving many miles for each trip, so their cars are running very efficiently.
I know it's not my car either, because I just leased a 2008 Camry Hybrid for my wife (I have a 2007), and she is getting the same mileage as I do in the cold weather so far.
The answer probably lies in your comment that temperature, length of trips, grades, and driving habits determine mileage. After moving from the city (Oregon) to rural California, my mileage improved 3-4 mpg, to 38-40. I doubt my driving style changed much, but the temperature, length of avg trip, distance between stoplights, etc changed a lot.
Every time I drive into the congested SF Bay Area, the mileage drops.
Short drives in cold weather is a killer for ALL cars. But people notice it more in hybrids because they care more about and pay more attention to the MPG a hybrid gets.
My best tank ever in my 2007 TCH was 44.7 MPG, and that was at 75-80 miles per hour and a packed car. The caveat: I had a 25 miles per hour wind at my back. My best tank under normal circumstances is 40.6 and the worst is 29.6. My cumulative since I bought the car is 35.1 MPG, and that is with about 80% "city"miles and most of the trips short in length, i.e. less than 12 miles and less than 20 minutes. I could do much better if I had a 45-mile highway commute on a clear highway. The car generally gets around 40 MPG in those circumstances.
Something else that hurts people in the winter is that they do not keep their tires at optimum PSI. The cold weather saps the air levels in your tires, and you need to check them more often than in the summer. The low tires will deplete your MPG quickly.
People who live in areas where the road is frequently covered with snow, ice, slush, or rain will also suffer MPG losses, as the car needs more engine power to push the vehicle through the extra road friction that situation.
And, as a small percentage of the "general population" are liars, there are also a small number of hybrid owners who "fib on the high side" about their cars. No avoiding that. But there are FAR FAR more who tell the truth, like I do and others I know for sure do also.
Always remember that the circumstances which control miles per gallon achievements vary wildly, and "your mileage may vary" is a good slogan to remember.
I did get to drive for a few days last week on a new tank of gas. I average closed to 40 on the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster always reports about 1.5 MPG more than calculating the tank by hand. I always drive her car more as a game to get the better gas mileage, so I think my average on a full tank would be close to 38.5. After about 4 days of driving, my son needed the car for the evening as his was in the shop. It came back with the instrument cluster reading around 32.3 MPG. Knowing his driving habits, he probable took off fairly quick and stopped quick.
Overall we have been extremely happy with our TCH. Our only problem has been the back brakes needing to be replaced, which was under warranty due to a bulletin being issued by Toyota.
My neighbor has a Prius and I've always wanted to borrow it just to see what it could do in my hands. They don't really take the time to understand it.
By the way, has anybody tried increasing their tire pressure to improve mileage? I am curious what a higher but still safe level would be for all 4 tires.
Big debates on that on GreenHybrid. I was on the minority opinion.I do try to go with 36 cold and have not noticed any negative impact on ride and handling. I don't think it will make a measurable difference and could be dangerous for the people reporting 42 to 50 psig.
I always calculate my mileage and go by that number. For me, the car usually reports 1 mpg better than what I calculate.
That's about right. But with the speedo error you actually drive more miles than what it registers so in fact you are getting better milage than what a hand calculation will give you. In earlier threads I've documented data and results. It is not an issue that can easily be resolved by changing tire/wheel diameter as one would think . While you could indeed change the height by going to a taller tire and correcting the odometer, it would throw off the speedometer reading even further. I don't know that anyone wants to drive around with a speedo that is about 6mph off.
You're probably getting closer to 35.6mpg (rather than 35.1) which all things considered is only 6.7% less than 38mpg. Not bad and certainly 225% better than most people probably getting 16 mpg. At $3.20/gallon gas it's a substantial savings over the 16 but it's just pennies a day difference in 35.6 and 38. Only the totally obsessed (like myself) gives a rats hindend worrying about a few pennies per day.
Doing all of the above as well as driving 50 miles each way to and from work gets me 38 to 40 mpg... if I only did short drives the mileage would at best be in the 35 area.
After my accident the mileage dropped to around 35 mpg's and after a service visit it went back up to the 38 to 40 range. Today I asked what they did and they said all they did was run a service check on the system. They do not know what exactly happened, but think that running a system check may have corrected or reset something. Not a great answer, or the one I was expecting, but an answer.
I've experimented several times when I read comments the last two summers and I have not been able to prove to myself that running AC on ECO mode hurts my milage to any measurable amount.
In the short time we've had the car, I've seen what the car *can* get as far as mpg, and I'm very happy with the car in general.
First, thanks for all the great insight into the hybrid world. I am now looking to pruchase a TCH and am trying to forecast how it will perform in my circumstance.
I live in West Texas and have a 140 mile round trip commute. Flat, straight, two lane, little traffic, two stop signs, 75 mph speed limit. Under typical conditions (i.e., 70 degrees), what is everyone's forecast on mpg?
My wife drives an SUV and would be using the car on weekends, so I know I'll gain a lot there. I'm an engineer and realize real world performance will vary with temp a other factors (we get a lot of wind!). But your input would be appreciated.
Tom
Based on your description of your drive, my bet is you will get 38-40 mpg.
Now, it is very cold in Indiana right now and I may have dropped a heavy foot a few times to feel the acceleration but the best average on mpg I have received is 28 mpg on the first tank and the last tank was only 23.8?? What's up with that? :mad: I always let the car warm up before I drive and it's a lot of city, no more than 45 mph. Could there be something wrong with the Hybrid system? I'm a little frustrated and would love some advice if anyone has it.
Also, it does take time to break the car in (like the other person was saying). It will do much better when the weather warms up. Certainly a lot better than your 4runner.
tom
Today, its 50 degrees..my mpg is 34.
Temp makes a huge difference!
Matt
I admit I was skeptical about the mileage,since I commute 70 each day.
Today I hit the 1/2 tank mark and have driven 350 miles. Here's the math.
What do I attribute to this?
1) Everything I read on the Edmunds board taught me how to drive this car diffently than my past cars.
2) I drive around town doing my errands on only electric mode.
3) How do I achieve this? When under 30 mph, every time I see the gas-engine-in -use display come on, I every so slightly back off the gas petal. Gas engine goes of, electric comes on. Life is good.
Tank of gas is 17.5 gallons
half tank used /2
Half tank of gas is 8.75 gallons
Miles driven 350 miles
Miles per gallon 40
I recently purchased a 2008 Toyota Camry Hybrid. The dealer threw in the rear spoiler. It had to be ordered. I am getting 40+ mpg on the highway and averaging about 33m mpg in the city. Does the rear spoiler impact the miles per gallon on the car?
I drive between Sedona, AZ & Burbank, CA 4 to 6 times a year. AZ speed 75, CA speed 65 to 70. I am guessing 30% hills and 70% flat.
Can some one give me a ball park answer for MPG?
Just an FYI, I have rented a number of Prius's from Flagstaff and have come to terms with the gliding. I think I have that down.
Thanks for your time with my question.
Macolyte
For us non-hybrid car owners, if we would use some of the techniques for hyper-mpg, I bet we would see at least a 10% improvement in gas mileage. Some of my best achieved mpg's were right after I bought my 06 Accord. I was intentionally driving carefully during the break-in period. Now, I just like to get up and go, which reduces my mileage by 2 - 3 mpg's.
Even though they claim a 17.5gal tank, with the rubber bubble, etc, I think you only get about 15 gallons. I never ran my tank dry, but I get it down to the "low fuel" alarm light. The last 1/4 of tank goes down fast. And then I'm only able to fill up abut 14.5 gal or so.
Second, with what you have 350 miles/half tank, this means you should get abut 700 miles for the tank. I don't know of anyone getting 700 miles for the tank on their TCH. It is more like between 480 to 580 miles (some may get over 600) for the tank.
Just my 2c.
Furthermore, all TCH (perhaps other hybrid) drivers literally see roughly what their consumption is when they accelerate - as low as 5mpg. It always makes me wonder what my Explorer gets when it accelerates. If you never had to accelerate but only cruise down hill, our mpg would be closer to 99mpg... One can wish, right?
I've had my TCH for over 12000 miles. Drive about 40 miles/day. During summer I got between 38-41mpg no problem. If I was more lead-footed, averaged about 36-37mpg. When fall/winter struck, my mpg dropped to about 34-36mpg. The nights were longer, so I felt like sleeping in more, so continue to alway push my luck with getting to work on time. This calls for more heavy foot. So to me that explains the lower mpg just fine. I don't run heater much, but do have to put up with motor heating longer. When I relax and let my foot off the gas, I get better mpg: 37-40. I've yet to get over 40mpg this winter, but I haven't been too obsessed with my mpg, so perhaps I got lucky once this winter.
As far as the low whiny type noise goes when you are stopping - that is the electric motor. If you are concerned, have dealer check it out (just in case). Or compare with other hybrid owner. I personally like the sound. I feel like I'm in one of those futuristic movies (you know, one where everything is rounded, droids are everywhere and there are flying cars everywhere - although that wouldn't be cars anymore...)
Anyways, when you walk away from the car, it makes more noises (clicks and purrs). Thats normal too - I think it leak checks its system (you should check out a flow diagram if you get a chance - very cool!).
I do enjoy the crapulator (butt warmer) - I use it every day. I enjoy all the bells and whistles that came with the - even the blue-tooth phone capability that I thought I wouldn't use. I use it nearly every day now.
The only thing I'm itching to do is run the car dry (in summer when its very warm) and let the car run dry. Then see how many literal gallons I'm able to place into the tank. Or perhaps I should Google it. There are plenty of hybrid freaks that probably did that and more already...
For anyone who has the car - enjoy it! For all those that want one - get one if yu can afford it. Worst case scenario, you help fund the technology so they can make better hybrids in future. Or at least let them know that market is willing to buy this technology.
Oh, and the last thing - I absolutely love the smart system. I wish my house had one too - I would never have to pull out my keys every again...
It was my math.
regards
There are people that push it to the limit and get over 700 miles in a tank of gas. Check out the forum at www.greenhybrid.com.