I decided to see what mileage this new Rav4 was capable of, highway only, varying altitudes, 80 miles out, and then back. I ran it in Eco mode. Went from 3,500ft, up to 5,000ft, then down to 2,000ft @ 55 to 70mph. I topped off the tank before and after. Previously we've only used Normal mode, with mixed town and highway driving resulted in 26-27mpg.
The highway Eco test delivered 37.4 mpg! The dash graph had been maxing out @40mpg which I considered to be impossible, but 37.4 is pretty darn close. So now we are leaving it in Eco mode to test combined driving.
Considering my Harley consistently gets 40 mpg, 37.4 mpg in this car is amazing.
I also noted that due to the lower Revs in Eco mode engine noise is basically non-existent. While performance suffers a bit you still end up with a silent car that sips gas. Not quite = to a hybrid ... but close.
The highway Eco test delivered 37.4 mpg! The dash graph had been maxing out @40mpg which I considered to be impossible, but 37.4 is pretty darn close. So now we are leaving it in Eco mode to test combined driving.
Considering my Harley consistently gets 40 mpg, 37.4 mpg in this car is amazing.
I also noted that due to the lower Revs in Eco mode engine noise is basically non-existent. While performance suffers a bit you still end up with a silent car that sips gas. Not quite = to a hybrid ... but close.