Winter fuel economy

[Saxmaniac]

Just interested in other people's experience now the cold has arrived.  I've just measured brim to brim 48mpg which is a huge drop from a few months ago where I was comfortably averaging over 60 (real mpg, not display.) 

[darecky]

Same here, and in city driving my warmth loving wife is able to get it as low as 45mpg by running the heater constantly and thus the engine!

[TonyHSD]

Hi, that’s right fuel economy is seriously affected by the change of the weather: cold, wind, rain all works again the hybrid system and it’s normal to get that numbers, I am doing exactly the same, and I also drive with winter tyres which makes the efficiency even worse. Sometimes I wonder if there is any point to have a hybrid car if you live in northern countries where  winters are really cold and long , Siberia or Norway or in Iceland ?! Maybe still better than just a petrol or diesel but not much of a benefit like in hot climates. 

[Saxmaniac]

Even at 45mpg for the size of car it's still pretty good,  perhaps some newer diesels might do better but you've got all the problems with Dpfs and the like 

[Catlover]

I know I drive a Gen4 Prius, but today on a journey I did over 70mpg, but its a journey I know to be favourable to the car, and the temperature outside had risen from 2deg this morning to 8 deg this afternoon.   MPG drops to mid 60's in the winter, which is great.   I also remind myself its not just mpg, its running emission free for many miles per journey. 

[Steve Whits]

The best I've had out of mine is 70mpg (brim to brim) on a long journey to Scotland. I live in Sheffield and my wife uses the Auris for short runs and she's currently getting 39mpg😢

Lots of steep hills and short journeys

[CurranShelter]

On 12/18/2019 at 4:23 PM, Saxmaniac said:

Just interested in other people's experience now the cold has arrived.  I've just measured brim to brim 48mpg which is a huge drop from a few months ago where I was comfortably averaging over 60 (real mpg, not display.) 

More or less the same here, going by the display - but out of interest, have you found much of a difference between the displayed and actual MPG?

[Catlover]

Can’t be bothered doing real life fuel consumption tests. I know very well what I get in real life will be less then the dash computer reading, maybe up to 10%, so when I did over 90mpg over a 50 mile journey in June if I take 10mpg off I still doing 80mpg - I very happy with that.

[Gerg]

10 hours ago, CurranShelter said:

have you found much of a difference between the displayed and actual MPG?

Just under 4 mpg difference between real and measured, whenever I've checked (not often now).

[PeteB]

I've found the figures I'm getting from full tank to full tank calculations are much more accurate on my 2019 RAV4 (about 1½-2% optimistic on average so far) than allother Toyotas I've logged over the last 19 years/350,000 miles or so which have averaged about 5% optimistic.

[CurranShelter]

2 hours ago, Gerg said:

Just under 4 mpg difference between real and measured, whenever I've checked (not often now).

Take it that's the computer overstating mpg rather than understating... that's not inconsiderable, although I suppose it's still quite small in percentage terms (and not far off the figures noted by PeteB).

[yossarian247]

I've found the MPG display on my Auris tends to be about 2-3 % optimistic, whereas on our diesel Avensis it's miles out in the other direction; 5-10% pessimistic . 

On thing I liked on the VWs I owned in the past was that with a VCDS cable and software it was possible to adjust the calibration of the fuel consumption display to get it more or less bang on accurate. I've never found any way of doing this on Toyotas, even with Techstream. 

 

[TonyHSD]

Most of car manufacturers figures are quite accurate with some +&- , sometimes all you need is to reset the counter while you driving and let it re set itself again, and of course best way is  to calculate properly full tank to full tank otherwise you are far from realistic consumption imo. 

[Gerg]

I'm no VW expert, but there are lots of detail bits of design on VW group cars that Toyota don't seem to consider worth copying, or are slow to introduce, for example: loud horns, decent headlamps, global window closing, a/c cooled glove boxes, a thoroughly-thought-out trip computer, better quality paint and rust protection on the underbody, doors that don't flex as the window closes, heater vents for the rear footwells.

Of course it's all about money and weight for lots of those things, but not all of them.

2 hours ago, yossarian247 said:

I've never found any way of doing this on Toyotas

There is an ingenious way you could adjust the trip computer fuel readings if you're really committed.

Just change the wheels. 

 

I know, I know, I'll go and get me coat........

Happy New Year!

[Saxmaniac]

I agree with the comments on the display over reading mpg by 4 or 5 mpg. Display averaging low 60s today with 209 miles mainly motorway,  60 to 70 mph and about 7 deg outside. Must stop obsessing!