Tourer 2.2d-cat Auto - Poor Mpg

[Toyota Baggie]

I have a new shape Tourer T-Spirit 2.2D-CAT auto. It has now done 9,000 miles but has never got near to the quoted mpg figures. I do a lot of motorway/distance driving but the average mpg is @ 35mpg compared with the quoted combined figure of 42.8 mpg. I have had the car checked by my dealer and they say it is all "to specification". As this is an "Optimal Drive" engine I had greater expectations than this. It seems that the expected "norm" for mpg compared with the quoted figures is -10% however mine is nearer -20%. I have written to Toyota about it but they are giving the stock answer that it is performing to spec and it must be my driving/the weight of stuff in the boot etc. My last car was driven in exactly the same style with the same load and the same pattern of journeys and it returned -8.5% from the quoted combined figure. It was a Skoda 2.0 Tdi Auto.

Does anyone else driving the same model have any experience good or bad on this subject please?

[Phoenix999]

I was in my local Toyota dealer this past week and spoke to one of the salesmen who drives a 2.2 diesel auto, he said that his mpg is little different to my 2.0 petrol auto

[marama32]

If you drive heavy on the accelerator & drive above 70mph, then your going to get less than the quoted figures. Same with braking habits, if you use the engine to slow you down etc. etc

The figures are based on easy acceleration, braking etc.

If I drive my petrol version hard I get about 90 miles per tank difference (10mph faster on average, than my usual speed).

You will also find a difference with a premium fuel like Shell V Power. I get about 8-12mpg better ecomomy by using it, which actually makes it cheaper than the standard fuel.

Marv

[blue verso 56]

I drive the Verso auto 2-2 d4d (same engine and gearbox)and get about 34-5 to 35 MPG !!states in the brochures combined 41 MPG and I thought as the miles go on it would improve but not as yet !! but have just done 4500 miles .

The CVT was stating similar MPG to the diesel

[SF695]

Are the numbers published the same for auto and manual. If yes, i'm not surprised that the auto drives less on the liter

[OldSkoO1]

I've never had many problems with my t180 / 2.2 d-cat with regards to MPG.

I decided to reset the mpg counter in this weather and i had auto climate control on in the cold weather the other day from the second i set off from work to home and managed to 45.2mpg which isn't too far off the 45.6mpg combined figure. It was a good mixture of town and a-roads with some hills. Normally i would get about 48mpg in the summer, 51 odd if i really try very hard.

The only thing i notice with fuel consumption on the t180 is the mpg plumets if you go above 2.2k - 2.4krpm. I therefore treat it like an auto and change at about 2.2k rpm. And don't accelerate slowly, just get up to speed normally. See if this improves anything.

I do take it up to 4k rpm once a day and also hit about 3k rpm just to give it a workout / keep it healthy.

[cabcurtains]

I've never had many problems with my t180 / 2.2 d-cat with regards to MPG.

I decided to reset the mpg counter in this weather and i had auto climate control on in the cold weather the other day from the second i set off from work to home and managed to 45.2mpg which isn't too far off the 45.6mpg combined figure. It was a good mixture of town and a-roads with some hills. Normally i would get about 48mpg in the summer, 51 odd if i really try very hard.

The only thing i notice with fuel consumption on the t180 is the mpg plumets if you go above 2.2k - 2.4krpm. I therefore treat it like an auto and change at about 2.2k rpm. And don't accelerate slowly, just get up to speed normally. See if this improves anything.

I do take it up to 4k rpm once a day and also hit about 3k rpm just to give it a workout / keep it healthy.

If you added 200Kgs and an Autobox 20% would be a fair drop which is where the OP is with MPG.

Your commitment to the D-CATS cause is admirable but I think Toyota Diesels are poor for MPG as they have been built for low NOX/Particulates. You shouldnt have to drive your car like that to get 45 MPG, when driven nicely my Passat does near to 55.

Fitting a tuning box could help the OP, our Verso is around 4/5 MPG better with the box fitted.

[OldSkoO1]

I've never had many problems with my t180 / 2.2 d-cat with regards to MPG.

I decided to reset the mpg counter in this weather and i had auto climate control on in the cold weather the other day from the second i set off from work to home and managed to 45.2mpg which isn't too far off the 45.6mpg combined figure. It was a good mixture of town and a-roads with some hills. Normally i would get about 48mpg in the summer, 51 odd if i really try very hard.

The only thing i notice with fuel consumption on the t180 is the mpg plumets if you go above 2.2k - 2.4krpm. I therefore treat it like an auto and change at about 2.2k rpm. And don't accelerate slowly, just get up to speed normally. See if this improves anything.

I do take it up to 4k rpm once a day and also hit about 3k rpm just to give it a workout / keep it healthy.

If you added 200Kgs and an Autobox 20% would be a fair drop which is where the OP is with MPG.

Your commitment to the D-CATS cause is admirable but I think Toyota Diesels are poor for MPG as they have been built for low NOX/Particulates. You shouldnt have to drive your car like that to get 45 MPG, when driven nicely my Passat does near to 55.

Fitting a tuning box could help the OP, our Verso is around 4/5 MPG better with the box fitted.

Yes i admit, they are difficult to drive for MPG.

I just know i have to keep the heat up by giving it a good prod of the throttle but not rev too high to cause excess unburn't fuel that will overwhelm the DPF / EGR which will just trigger regen cycles. Remove that technology and the MPG will certainly improve and little thought will need to be given to temp's or rev's.

I guess i'm just used to it now and it comes naturally. You can go a long way between 1.6k and 2.2k rpm. Thing is i feel like i'm not even trying and i seem to be returning over 40mpg for every tank with some tanks reaching 500 miles before refill.

And i must say, i didn't buy the t180 to drive slow and gently.

And i do really admire the VAG setups for returning such impressive MPG's. The passats being quite low and shaped well for m-way driving do excellently. Even more so the Golf 130ps or whatever it is now. But as soon as you get to 170ps in either the Golf or A3 you have similar issues. MPG in these cars, even without the NOX reduction that the toyota has, these cars struggle to do much more than 41-44mpg.

[blue verso 56]

The Volkswagen gearbox is a completely different set up as they use a DSG system !! Toyota use a torque converter but thankfully they do as the MMt was a disaster .

To be honest I am surprised that Toyota have not gone down the lines of the DSG or Power-shift gearboxes they are producing good performance ,good fuel economy and low emissions

[cabcurtains]

The Volkswagen gearbox is a completely different set up as they use a DSG system !! Toyota use a torque converter but thankfully they do as the MMt was a disaster .

To be honest I am surprised that Toyota have not gone down the lines of the DSG or Power-shift gearboxes they are producing good performance ,good fuel economy and low emissions

Chances are they will catch up soon, personally i will stick with a manual until the CO2 and cost become equal.

[Cyker]

Bah, Autos are for people who can't drive! *ducks*

But yeah, 'proper' autos do loose a chunk of power through the torque converter unless you're at the highest gear, which is why they're getting killed off in the face of all these new emissions regulations :(

A semi-auto is as efficient as a manual in most cases, but tend to be the least pleasant to drive (IMHO - The only one I've tried that didn't suck were VW DSG's)

I do find that driving my Yaris in the 800-1500 range is the sweet spot for high mileage; I guess it's true that spinning up the turbo kills fuel economy! (Turbo starts producing useful boost from 1800-2000 or so depending on load)

The problem is that driving at that range all the time encourages crap to clog up the injectors which, ironically, kills performance, so a good motorway blast, injector cleaner or running a tank or two of something like V-Power through the engine can help bring power and economy levels back up...

[Phoenix999]

Bah, Autos are for people who can't drive! *ducks*

But yeah, 'proper' autos do loose a chunk of power through the torque converter unless you're at the highest gear, which is why they're getting killed off in the face of all these new emissions regulations :(

A semi-auto is as efficient as a manual in most cases, but tend to be the least pleasant to drive (IMHO - The only one I've tried that didn't suck were VW DSG's)

I do find that driving my Yaris in the 800-1500 range is the sweet spot for high mileage; I guess it's true that spinning up the turbo kills fuel economy! (Turbo starts producing useful boost from 1800-2000 or so depending on load)

The problem is that driving at that range all the time encourages crap to clog up the injectors which, ironically, kills performance, so a good motorway blast, injector cleaner or running a tank or two of something like V-Power through the engine can help bring power and economy levels back up...

Obviously someone who knows nothing about the modern automatic gearbox

[OldSkoO1]

The turbo spinning is actually when the engine is working most efficiently; when the mean pistol speed is about 1200-1500 which on my T180 is 1.9k to 2.5k. Without going too technical its normally when your car produces max torque.

The turbo's air to fuel ratio during max torque produces low frictional horsepower loses and high volumetric efficiency which basically means your generating the same amount of power for the least amount of fuel compared to anywhere else in the rev range.

Read into this correctly, you use this range for power, to move on etc. You don't use this to maintain speed. You use this range to accelerate. You maintain speed at around 1.5k - 1.8k for best economy, you then accelerate from there up to about 2.2k and change again. And if your going uphill, use the engine efficiency and keep the rev's higher to put less stress on the engine, e.g. 2-2.5k. If the engine is labouring or struggles, it injects more fuel to keep going, but the heat isn't there and you get excess soot.

The same is when you go past max power or reaching max power. The air supply runs out, the power drops off and fuel is flooded in which again causes excess soot. And excess soot means more regeneration cycles to burn off the trapped particles. Using v-power diesel also helps. Not only giving you better running fuel economy because it burns hotter which is a bit of a bonus in winter but eventually means less soot build up so less re-generations, and driving correctly is less regen's so you gain mpg from there too.

Thing is, i don't really use V-power for its MPG gains, i use it to lubricate and keep the fuel injection system and injector spray patters as clean as possible. You may pay £5 more a tank with v-power and working out the MPG v normal fuel its still slightly more expensive, only a few quid, and to me its worth it to help keep things a bit cleaner.

[Geordie Mick in Wigan]

I can't believe that anyone actually believes they can get anywhere near the official MPG.

The quoted figures are done in strict conditions, in more or less laboratory conditions, using empty cars that have had the manufacturers fiddle them to death before they submit them for testing, they're then driven by people who are paid to drive them so diligently with one aim and one aim only, get the best MPG out of the car.

The test is about 20 miles in total, so how can they return a figure of say 45 miles per gallon when they didn't even use a gallon of fuel in the test!!

I think they should put a gallon in a dry car, set is ODO and drive til it stops, that's the reality of it.

My manual 09 D4D 126PS T4 Tourer is loaded with about 75Kgs in boot, it gets driven quite spirited, cruise circa 90mph (on my private motorway ;) ) and up until the cold snap, NEVER went below 41mpg, which really impressed me. I've had other Auto Diesels which averaged mide to late 30's and that's acceptable to me, auto boxes (even DSG's) do SO many unnecessary gear changes (which burn fuel), you drive along a road and when you back off the gas to slow down it upshifts only to downshift another two gears.

During the recent cold snap I noticed when the temperature gauge got to 0 degrees the engine started ti idle at 1200rpm, even after a long run, the car never seemed to get warm (according to the temp gauge for the engine), then I looked at the average MPG which was 35mpg B)

When I went to the Toyota dealer to look at buying a new Land Cruiser for the wife I went to service to query, wondered if I had a faulty air temp sensor etc and they told me it was intentional.

Apparently Euro idiots say that the temp of the coolant has to be 95 degrees to be effective, when it's so cold the engine intentionally fast idles to warm the engine to get the coolant temp up, to reduce emissions. The net result, the car actually emits more emisiions as it's obviously using more fuel! Barking mad,