Toyota RAV4 Forums banner

This can't be right.....MPG issue

5K views 20 replies 14 participants last post by  kyoo 
#1 ·
Hey everyone,

I have read numerous posts on here about people's good and bad experiences with their mpg on the V6's. I have a 2011 v6 sport, that i've now owned for a month and half. I have experienced an all highway drive, Portland to Seattle, and averaged about 24.5 mpg but still only got 260 miles on the tank before I had to fill up. Now that I am driving more in the city (Seattle) at a rate of 60/40 city/highway, the car's computer says I am averaging 16.8mpg.

The other night I was filling up my tank, a little under 1/4 left, and as stated the computer said avg 16.8mpg but when I did the math of how many miles I had on the tripometer (175.2) divided by the amount of gas I put in (11.095g) I am only averaging 15.77mpg.

My oil has recently been changed, along with the air filter, and my tires are properly inflated. Am I just destined to have bad mpg? I like this car a lot but I am loathing having to fill up once a week and stressing about poor mpg when I have seen multiple people posting about 19-20mpg + in their similar ravs.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. If not, I apologize for the vent post.


 
See less See more
1
#6 ·
My understanding is that winter gas has less energy in it than summer gas, so everyone's MPG suffers when using winter gas.

Also, it's my understanding that the best MPG value is at approximately 62 MPH, at least for the V6. MPG suffers terribly as speed goes up, because drag (air resistance) goes up exponentially as speed increases linearly. I don't know what the EPA highway numbers were based on back in 2005 when this generation came out, but it was probably a lot closer to 55 MPH than 70 MPH. Use of cruise control can also decrease MPG a bit.

The best advice I can offer: OMG, stop worrying about MPG!!!!

It's a First World Problem. There are much bigger things in life to worry about (family, health, work etc.)

Just love your awesome RAV4 and enjoy the ride.

Seriously.

.
 
#8 ·
Mileage with my V6 varies widely and apparently has little if anything to do with summer and winter gas. In-town mileage is horrible, but most trips are only a couple of miles, some are about 10 miles, mileage has been between 11.6 mpg and 14.8 actual (miles driven divided by fill-up gallons required). Highway mileage is a different story, varying between 21.2 and 26.3, and that's over a combination of twisty mountain roads (about 2/3) and Interstate highway (about 1/3) with occasional hard up-mountain acceleration needed in passing maneuvers, and that mileage for me is quite reasonable.
 
#9 ·
DVS;2054105 The best advice I can offer: [B said:
OMG, stop worrying about MPG!!!![/B]

It's a First World Problem. There are much bigger things in life to worry about (family, health, work etc.)

Just love your awesome RAV4 and enjoy the ride.

Seriously.

.
I'm still in a transition period from my old Audi and also my fiance's Subaru that both got pretty decent mileage. Now that I know this is what to be expected, I am a little more at ease but also a little disappointed as well.

I won't stress over it as much now.

Thanks for all of the replies.
 
#10 ·
I'm down in Vancouver, WA. The RAV is mostly my wife's grocery getter so it rarely sees highway except for the occasional short trip down I-205 to Portland. Still manages to average around 23mpg. Seattle traffic is obviously much worse though.

Spend less time concerned about how much you hit the acceleration pedal and more on how often you brake. Every time you brake you convert your momentum into useless heat at the pads. Drive in a way to minimize braking and you can still have fun redlining it at on-ramps and such while getting decent mileage.
 
#11 ·
Any extra weight you might be carrying around? If you were loaded up with 3-4 adults and a lot of gear you can expect lower mpg. My 06' averaged 25.5 but most of my highway driving was solo with no extra weight going 70-75 mph.
 
#13 ·
My wife's 2010 I4 AWD gets around 23.5-24.0 around town. We took it on a road trip through hilly county, and it got around 28 with the AC on.

My 2009 Avalon has the same V6 that you have, and I routinely get about 30 mpg. But I don't have the AWD and the front end of the RAV4 isn't as aerodynamic as the Avalon.

These numbers are what the dash is telling me, not actual calculations. I've heard the number displayed is a bit inflated from actuality, but I have no proof of that.

I keep 35psi in all the tires. I drive like granny is sitting next to me and with an egg on the gas pedal. My wife drives with a heavier foot.

Driving style is a big player in fuel economy numbers. How many miles are on your RAV4? I have corrected poor mileage complaints with a spark plug change when there were no driveability complaints.
 
#14 ·
I just filled up today and got 19.5 in all city driving with the A/C on 100% of the time. I usually get 20. My gal, same engine & car, gets 16-17. Same town, same car, same traffic, same everything. It all boils down to your right foot! She is Mustang Sally and I'm the old grandpa.

Mind you, we are at near sea level, flat terrain, and damn near always hot. Not where you are but it shows how an educated right foot can affect mileage.Train your foot!
 
G
#15 ·
The average mpg gauge should be retitled "guess ta ment" gauge. its only a ball park figure.
Odometer, fill it and do the math is the only near accurate method.
20 to 24+ = summer
17 to 22 = winter
that all folks
 
#19 ·
To get the true MPG it may be better to take the average MPG over several fill ups rather than just one. The MPG of each fill up seems to vary a lot. The MPG is the miles driven divided by the gallons, not what the cars computer says. The only reason I bring that up is I have found when talking to people about gas mileage, some are quoting what the cars computer claims and others do the math.
 
#20 ·
We have 2 V6 Rav4's. We have recorded the gas mileage with every tank on both of them (miles driven vs. gallons pumped). We typically use 89 octane gas and occasionally 93 octane. My wife and I both enjoy driving so we have heavy feet, drive fast on highways, brake hard, and our non-highway driving includes lots of hilly back roads with corners to brake for and stop signs. We've always used Synthetic oil.

With our 2007, I averaged 21.5mpg in mixed back road/highway driving during the first two years (32,000 miles). This mileage was aided by fewer remote starts since it was kept in the garage, the low rolling resistance stock tires and stock brakes which did not encourage as aggressive braking. This Rav has 105,000 miles now. In the past two years (16,000 miles), I've averaged 18mpg. This mileage is hurt by almost no highway driving (we take the newer Rav on trips now), use of winter tires for 4 months per year, remote starts twice per day in the winter since it is now left outside and more aggressive braking since our new brake package feels so good (EBC Yellow Stuff pads, ATE fluid and stainless brake lines).

With our 2012, we have averaged 19mpg over the last 2 years (only 10,000 miles). The mileage is hurt since my wife doesn't normally drive it more than 4 miles so the engine never even gets heated up to normal operating temperatures.

Your sport has slightly wider tires, so it should get a little lower gas mileage than our Limited's. I agree with the others... I wish we had a little better gas mileage, but we didn't purchase our V6 Rav's for the gas mileage, we purchased them for the V6 power and we really enjoy using it!
 
#21 ·
here's my fuelly - only have had it for winter months so far (purchased mid January)

http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/rav4/2011/kyoo/409815

it's the right foot. the bigger the engine, the more sensitive to throttle, since a lot more gas goes into a 3.5 than a 1.8. you should not be the fastest guy accelerating from a stop if you want good mpg out of your car - you should be the slowest. get a fuelly and keep track of it. it's very easy to carelessly get bad mpg in this car, and does require some focus and discipline to get good mpg. it's not a mini. also, only use 87 - anything higher grade is essentially harder to combust. i'm running 0w30 in my rav4, i don't think oil matters TOO much for mpg.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top