FR-S Low MPG
 

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the community. Quick question. My FR-S, completely stock has about 2,500 miles now and my average MPG is 21.7. I understand it's a new car but when will I start seeing the gas mileage it's suppose to get? Since I do mixed driving I would expect something around 29mpg.

Thanks,
Jared

Sounds about right, I do mixed driving as well and my average is around 6.9 litres per 100km which converts to something pretty close to wahat you're getting :)

6.9 LP100 is 34 MPG so way, way better!
I would say that 21.7 is far too low unless you are WOT half the time. If it doesn't come up soon you may want to get it checked out.

yeah just checked that myself, maybe ill do the maths BEFORE i post next time ahaha

but it is interesting because the FRS is supposed to get around 25 MPG mixed and the AUS version is 6.9 L/100km mixed, which as you said is 34, fair difference between the two

Mine has sat on 7.3 (32) since about the week after I got it. I know a lot of other guys get about the same so I don't understand why is only getting 21.

OP, is that your average over the full 2500 miles. Also, 6MT?

I got about 22-23 mpg when I first got mine. '14 6MT 125xx on the clock. I only get 25-26 now. I drive a different commute now after a deer strike. Better mileage, but I still get it on occasionally and haven't seen what it's really capable of. Little sliding around in the rain soaked roads lately has cut into ultimate mileage, but worth it in smiles. I got 36 mpg on one single commute to work on a fresh tank behind the AG trucks on the farm road route. That was only that single 24 mile stretch.

Depends on your terrain you drive on too. If you're constantly driving up hills and having to use the gas pedal harder to maintain speed, that will drop it.

That still seems awfully low because I have tanks of gas where I just say screw it, and floor it and shift at 3500-4k rpm and I still maintain 25.5-26 mpg for that tank. Could be the quality of gas you have as well. There's a lot of factors that go into getting good MPG.

@JROD9496 there are several threads on this over the past couple of years if you want to search for them that may have some useful information.

It does seem low though unless you are doing almost pure city driving or full speed racing. If you look at my Owner's Journal first post you'll see a tank-by-tank account of my fuel usage, which has never been below 29MPG and averages around 32 over >50K miles.

Also, if you are going by the onboard computer and haven't reset it since purchase that may be the issue. Mine definitely was behind the manual calculations for the first few tanks, but eventually caught up and now runs slightly above the all-time manual calculation (I'm at 32.63 but the computer says I'm 33.1).

I do mostly freeway driving, put 20k on mine in the first year of ownership and I'm right at 30MPG

I get 25-26 (hand calculated) on a consistent basis. If I stop going WOT so much I can get over 27.

Also since it has gotten colder check your tire pressure as it will affect gas mileage.

I checked mine and it had dropped to 29psi.
The door says all 4 tires should be at 35psi cold.

Ive gotten between 30-34 resetting it everyday since I've had it. Hit 18k miles yesterday. Automatic.

Same here (MT), if I slow down a little more and drive on more highways I can easily do 30-32mph.

On my second tank of gas, 75% highway, hilly terrain, averaging 31mpg.

The fuel economy of this car corresponds directly to the kind of driving you do. I've never had a car that had such a wide range of mileage variability, just based on how I drove the car. You use a lot less gas if you keep it under 4000 RPM and out of the direct injection.

To give some examples, most of my driving is on interstates at 75 mph with maybe 10% city driving mixed in. I normally get about 31-32 mpg.

However, I had a trip a while back where I was stuck on back roads going 60 mph almost the entire time. My average jumped up to 34 mpg. At one point I reset the computer for a 60 mile leg down a flat two-lane road with a 55 mph speed limit. The computer calculated 37 mpg on that leg.

In contrast, I had a couple of weeks stuck at home, driving around the city. My mileage dropped down into the 20s. If I hot rod around town up above 4000 RPM, it drops even more.

If you push the bottom display button on the dash, you can get an instantaneous readout of your gas mileage that tells you your mpg as of that moment. It's certainly not 100% accurate, but if you just leave it on that readout and glance at it occasionally as you're driving, it can give you a pretty good idea of what kind of driving is sucking your gas and what isn't.

I get around 25-26 MPG. Half city, half highway driving. Granted I drive in sport mode 90% of the time :p

ive been getting about 24-24.3mph consistently for the past several months. about 50/50 between city and highway driving.

There is an indicator light setting you can enable that will tell you the optimal moment to change gears - it is apparently supposed to maximize your MPG. Perhaps give it a shot? Not sure how helpful it actually is though, I never pay attention to my indicator light.

Jared,


Keep in mind EPA MPG estimates are a best case scenario (unless it's a blatant lie like KIA did resulting a $360mil settlement in '04 or a semi lie like Ford did with the C-MAX). It doesn't take into consideration real world driving conditions or a driver's specific habits. If you want to get the manufacturer's mpg (or better) you have to avoid traffic, do not drive against the wind, use your brakes sparingly, no WOT or jack rabbit starts, lose weight, do not fill the tank all the way (1gallon=8lbs), no passengers, inflate tires to 35psi, granny shift, follow trucks' slipstream, coast as much as you can and try to go downhill as much as possible.


:thumbup:

Depends entirely on your driving cycle.

I drove back up the freeway after a weekend outing rather conservatively in the low 70's mph, couple foot to the floor moments to zip through traffic and the computer told me I was averaging about 31 mpg.

A week later on the same tank the mpg has dropped below 25 and I fully expect that when I actually fill up it will be in the low 20's. This is because my commute is on city streets, several traffic lights and a lot of idling with little opportunity for maintaining constant speed. You can almost pinpoint the changes in my mpg with major life events as I've had two since buying this car.

http://www.fuelly.com/car/scion/fr-s...7974/fuelchart

Yup, my mileage sucked in the past three months, however I'm on track to fill up 2 times a month with the exception of trips, worthy trade imo from the average of 4 fillups/month when I was getting high 20's and low 30's mpg.

Another factor in my declining mileage is my willingness to put my foot to the floor for little reason in clear traffic. It's easy to forget that a 7,400 rpm redline is one of the best parts about this car.

/novel

Edit: With the exception of tracking or autocrossing I've never been worse than EPA estimates of 21 mpg city driving as evidenced in the fuelly linked above.

i got 21 mpg throughout 17k miles on fully bolted AT

don't forget about cold weather idle! :)

Worse i ever got was 26.5mpg on a tank that included alot of sprinted driving. Otherwise im consistently 29-30mpg, 75%hwy and 25%city. (lots of traffic though)

Worst I ever got over 15 gallons was 8.2 (included a lot of spirited driving :thumbup:)

Worst with evidence (average over a tank)
http://s2.postimg.org/8is58pd55/20140315_120813.jpg

That does seem on the low but still reasonable side depending upon your driving. I currently get a solid 30 mpg but it's almost all highway. Before in somewhat mixed driving I was getting around 27. If I'm on days off though and do nothing but knock around the neighborhood running errands I'll get to about 25 in my bone stock MT.

I feel like it's been consistent since new though (just had the two year anniversary in October at 18k miles).

I get about 22 mpg all city driving, still breaking in my engine.

Keep in mind the car's MPG calculator seems to be optimistic.
Moreover, if you've changed your wheel/tire combo, that affects it as well.

I typically see 7.7L per 100km (works out to about 28mpg), while the trip computer may say 7.3-4

Driving in slippery conditions will lower your mileage as well.

Highest I've ever gotten was just a bit over 25, and that was during break-in. Now, I try to see how far under 20 I can get it on gas. 16mpg is easy on E85.

I get around 20-21 mpg, but I don't drive on the freeway. With 87 octane gas I was getting ~18-19 mpg.

In the 2 years that I've owned my FR-S, the best tank I have gotten was 26.8MPG. I generally get between 23-25MPG with my normal work commute.

I really don't know how some people average in the mid 30s...unless they sit on the highway in 6th gear at 55mph for the entire tank of gas.

I got 22 MPG with 11k to the engine. A lot of city driving and a day or two for highway driving .

12 fill ups and averaging 28.5. That's in and out of downtown Manhattan everyday from 55 miles out and a bunch of bouncing around in the (very hilly) burbs where I live. I've seen as high as 38 on extended highway runs but have no problem knocking that down to ~29 once I get off the highway.

I drive about 7 miles to and from work -- my average is about 23.3mpg
I shift between 2800 and 3500 and occasionally 4k range. I don't think i'm WOT but I cannot hit 25mpg,

either i'm shifting way too high or I'm not driving normally. HW miles I can see hitting 27mpg, because I can get that on the instance mpg measurement. If you drive it like that long enough you'll get there. But currently 23.1 to 23.3 is my best.

I avg 29.1 mpg

I began manually calculating my MPG after my second fill up (i have 1,500 miles now after almost 3 months of ownership). First recorded average was 31 mpg. Then 29, 28, 28. I have been getting around 300 miles per tank give or take. Once i reached 1000 miles, i began driving a bit more aggressively. I also did my first oil change at 1000 miles. BTW, I drive 8 miles to work, and very little highway.

Winter-grade fuel gets lower mpg's, cost less too.

My average is 8.7L/100 km which is roughly 27 mpg. Should be better but I unfortunately usually sit in traffic jams on the way home.

You nailed it! I spend 95% of my time on the highway (well over 55 though) and have sat on 32 (7.3L/100km) for the last 4 months.


Even cold weather idle, snow tires and bad roads have not moved it at all.

How are you getting your mpg? The most accurate way is getting your calculator and dividing your gallons you put in on fill-up into the amount of miles traveled.

The only time I got as low as you did is when I wasn't caring about mpg and was flooring it every chance I got. This was city driving and I got like 20mpg. Now that I drive more conservatively with my manual, highway I get around 29 to 27.. with drifting and speeding occasionally

OP here: Thanks to everyone for all the great responses. I wasn't expecting so many but it made me think more about it. I do mixed driving it's all suburbs, backroads and highways. The car reads 21.7 mpg but I have not reset the trip odometer in over a 1,000 miles so that could be a culprit as well but I would still think it would do better than what it's displaying still. Although, my tank doesn't seem to last that long. Always under 300 miles per tank so I'm really not sure what to do. I did break in the engine first and all my accelerations are under 4,000rpm except the occasional backroad driving but that doesn't exceed 6,000rpm. I redlined it once it first gear so nothing crazy from my end really. My car is a 2013 that had 178 miles on it before it was purchased from test drives and service guys so I'm not sure if they floored the hell out of the car before I received it. So I'm not sure there could be any effects there. I'm just curious to the few people were posting low mpg ratings with a good amount of miles on their car and then the people getting great mpg. What would I have to get checked if this keeps up next time I'm at the dealer? I thought it was a new car thing but I feel like it's not getting any better. If not worse I would say.

Thanks for all the help everyone!
Jared