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Share Your 4.4 Gen RAV4 Gas Mileage

16K views 56 replies 35 participants last post by  edit808 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
It would be great to see what kind of mileage users are getting with their RAV's. Great way to compare highway vs city mileage...combined highway and city mileage, winter vs summer mileage...etc.

We are still on our first tank of gas...engine not broken in and averaged 8.8L/100km which is 32 mpg imperial and about 28 mpg US.

It was a 4 hour highway trip home with some slowdowns for summer road work. I expect this to improve as the engine get broken in...our full time AWD Outback gets around 8.4 to 8.6L/100km....
 
#2 ·
6.2L/100kms. All city rush hour driving. No hi way at all. :)

Btw, you should probably do a search before starting threads like this, pretty sure it already exists and your other "what did you do to your rav" thread has already been closed for the same reason. Although I do think it would be nice to have one of those threads for each generation myself as well. I personally don't care what anyone has done to their 4.1-4.3 gen ravs.
 
#8 ·
6.2L/100kms. All city rush hour driving. No hi way at all
...FWD or AWD? I got that kind of mileage with our old TDI in the city...And I am going to miss that...that's 45.5 mpg...I find that hard to believe for a large gasser like the RAV.

Are you doing your own manual calculations at fill up or are you taking the reading off the car ECU computer? the car computers tend to be a little generous in their calculations.

As for fully...works great if you can record every fill. It is when you miss some due to other family members filing the car and not keeping records that things get messed up.
 
#11 ·
I track my mileage pretty closely. The dashboard MPG reading is pretty inaccurate. Calculator figures show tanks vary between 25.5 and 27.5 MPG. AWD with a mix of driving, mostly up-and-down curvy mountain roads with minimal city driving. Hardly ever 'lead foot' it and 'coast' in 3 on the mountain descents.
 
#12 ·
My wife did a short 143 km (84 miles) and I just had to check the mileage...ECU said 8.2L/100km...which is 34.4 mpg imperial...28.6 US mpg.

Here's the kicker...my manual calculation from the fill up numbers came to exactly the same mileage. That shocked me because the ECU on our Outback is a little optimistic in it's calculation.

Tomorrow she is doing a 5 hr trip...car is topped up and ready to go...interesting to see what it will be..
 
#13 ·
My wife did a short 143 km (84 miles) and I just had to check the mileage...ECU said 8.2L/100km...which is 34.4 mpg imperial...28.6 US mpg.
That sounds about right. :)

Here's the kicker...my manual calculation from the fill up numbers came to exactly the same mileage. That shocked me because the ECU on our Outback is a little optimistic in it's calculation.
Actually, my 2013 Rav4 also tends to be optimistic too by my calculations but it varies sometimes. I've never really figured out why.

Tomorrow she is doing a 5 hr trip...car is topped up and ready to go...interesting to see what it will be..
Please let us know! :)

Drive Safe,
Steve R.
 
#19 ·
So far on my 2013 RAV4 XLE with AWD the average is 23.385 miles per U.S., 87 octane, gallon. This is on hilly suburban roads with a 70 / 30 percent city / highway mix and computed with exact numbers on an Excel spreadsheet. Car currently has 46,500 miles and is well maintained with 0W20 synthetic oil changes every 4,000 miles.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Were you pushing headwinds on that trip? One thing I've noted on my Rav4 is that it absolutely does not like headwinds and 80-90 mph isn't exactly loping along in the first place. Gas station to gas station on the interstate at 70-75 in calm conditions, my car will net high 29's, maybe low 30's with a light tailwind, but add a nice headwind and things drop into the 27's, sometimes lower. Aerodynamic drag goes up very quickly as speed increases. If you're pushing 90 mph into a 10-15 mph headwind, then 22 mpg is probably not unexpected.

Just a thought!

Out of curiosity, did you notice if your car was pulling 6th gear? I've had a few times when the headwind was strong enough that it wouldn't pull 6th and wound up running in 5th for the duration.
 
#22 ·
Probably 70% city driving and 30% highway with a heavy foot... I average about 22.5MPG.
 
#27 ·
Here is my MPG chart from my 2015 Rav4 AWD XLE since Feb-2015 until Sept-2016. To eliminate individual tank variations each point represents the average MPG of the 5 previous fill ups. It approximates 24 MPG in Winter and 28 in Summer. These numbers are actual miles/gals and not from the dash MPG average. The peak in May 2016 was due to a 1200 mile trip rather than my smaller trips and daily local trips.

Frank 2015 Rav4 XLE AWD with a little over 16K miles. (AWD because FWD was unavailable locally)
 

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#28 · (Edited)
Hello. I'm new to this forum. I bought a used 2013 LE FWD. First tank of gas my average mpg was 27.3. Hand calculated.
Mix of freeway driving and suburban driving. Not much stop and go stuff. I don't really care for the Eco mode button. So I usually
Push the sport mode button but my driving is not very sporty. I don't have a lead foot. Bought the RAV for reliability. I'm really starting to like it the more I drive it. Just got it a few weeks ago. Also, RAV had 23,000 miles when I purchased. Just over 24,000 now.
 
#29 ·
I had my gas tank needle point to "E" on 8/26/16, as seen in pic 1. When I pressed the "Return" button, it only displayed, "Refuel" so I'm assuming that my tank was nearly empty because normally after the warning sign of "empty", pressing the return button displays the mileage remaining but in my case, it only showed, "refuel". I had traveled 358.7 miles on my previous full tank. After filling the tank, the gauge displayed, "403 miles After Refuel" in pic 2.

Anyway, I decided to experiment and drove completely in ECO mode 100% till my next refill. In pic 3, dated 9/15/16, I was ONLY able to travel 308 miles on that tank as noted in "Trip B" (I use Trip B as my actual miles I travel on a full tank), with 7 miles remaining in the gas tank. I was no where close to the estimated 403 miles that Toyota displayed in pic 2 after refueling. Why would my mileage decrease rather than increase after switching to ECO Mode?

I will continue to drive in ECO mode 100% again since my last refuel. The display estimates that I will be able to drive about 390 miles before the needle points to "E". If my mileage does not improve, then I won't use ECO mode again. I'll switch back to normal mode and rely on the computer to automatically switch modes for me when I'm driving.

My experience in selecting ECO mode 100% of the time was not as fun as in the normal mode. I felt the loss of power. The engine's rpm was always high when I pressed on the gas pedal to reach the speed I needed to obtain. I felt pressured from the cars behind me when I would have the RAV4H gradually build up speed when trying to be in the ECO range vs Power range because I would be driving slower than the cars on the street.

I found myself constantly moving to the slow lane or if that was not an option, I would accelerate and hear the engine's high RPM. I a have also noticed that the gas engine turns on more frequently to charge the battery because it always depletes to two bars.

My average total commute per week is about 120 miles. I go to the pump about every 2 1/2 weeks. I am nowhere near the range of 400 miles per full tank as I have seen and compared to others on fuelly.com. I average about 330 miles per tank when in the Notmal mode. I thought city driving with the hybrid, especially in the ECO Mode suppose to increase your mpg compared to highway.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#30 ·
I had my gas tank needle point to "E" on 8/26/16, as seen in pic 1. When I pressed the "Return" button, it only displayed, "Refuel" so I'm assuming that my tank was nearly empty because normally after the warning sign of "empty", pressing the return button displays the mileage remaining but in my case, it only showed, "refuel". I had traveled 358.7 miles on my previous full tank. After filling the tank, the gauge displayed, "403 miles After Refuel" in pic 2.

Anyway, I decided to experiment and drove completely in ECO mode 100% till my next refill. In pic 3, dated 9/15/16, I was ONLY able to travel 308 miles on that tank as noted in "Trip B" (I use Trip B as my actual miles I travel on a full tank), with 7 miles remaining in the gas tank. I was no where close to the estimated 403 miles that Toyota displayed in pic 2 after refueling. Why would my mileage decrease rather than increase after switching to ECO Mode?
You've got the hybrid. Mind is just a 2013 XLE. The "refuel" thing is probably just what it's programmed to say after the DTE drops below a certain point. My car has never done that. I did have one situation that I almost pushed too far and wound up driving almost 30 miles beyond the point where the distance to empty number had dropped to 0. Was really sweating that one but got away with it that time. I don't push it like that anymore.

As for your estimated distance to empty after a fill up, from what I've seen on my car, that number is based on the fuel mileage you've been getting. If on the next tank, you're not doing as well, the number will be updated downwards as the miles go by.

I've also done a lot of experimenting with my car in normal, eco, and sport modes. I can tell you that I definitely don't get my best fuel economy in eco mode. I know that doesn't make sense but I think it boils down to something you said about eco mode not being as much fun. Basically, it desensitizes the throttle. If you're willing and able to put up with that, you should get better fuel economy but in my case, I found out I was just holding up traffic and pissing people off. The car felt dead and I'd have to push the gas peddle that much farther down to get the car to move, ultimately hurting my overall fuel economy. I'd think it would be better on your hybrid but maybe not. On my car, I find it much easier to leave the car in normal or sport mode and just drive with a light foot than to try to rely on eco mode. I can get better fuel economy overall and the car will respond when I want/need it to.

Good luck with yours!
Steve R.
 
#33 ·
We have a 2015 RAV4 XLE with air, and we average around 23 miles per gallon -- in the winter around 20. That is rather low, but this is for very short trips in the city. On the highway we get about 39 miles per gallon as per the car computer.

The vehicle only has about 2500 km on it, and it's a year since we got it, so it's not even really broken in yet.
 

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