The FR-S/BRZ loves the highway
 

My previous car, an RSX, got the best MPG cruising along rural roads at 45-50 mph, but decent mpg around town. But my FR-S MT is different. It loves the highway. Cruising at 70mph, the car gets 36-38mpg at 3,000 rpm. Pure city driving is around 23-24mpg. There are other cars that get a similar split in city vs highway driving but they typically are much heavier AT vehicles that loaf along at 1,600 rpm at highway speeds. I wonder if the difference in city/highway figures is due to its complex dual fuel-delivery system? I would like to see how the engine's efficiency curve compares with pure port or pure direct-injection systems.

I'm not too sure, but from what I understand the FRS/BRZ get better gas mileage on it's direct port injection system than when it switches over to traditional fuel injection. I'm not sure on where it switches over, so maybe if you can keep the revs below the point in which it switches over, you'll probably be getting better gas mileage. I have spoken with some owners of a Manual FRS that they tend to get about 35 MPG on highway traveling an average of 70 MPH. Maybe the EPA estimates were done with a lead footer? LOLZ!

this is good to know. for some reason i always feel sort of uncomfortable traveling at highway speeds because of the gearing. going 80mph the rpms are soo high i feel like i'm wearing out the engine and getting really bad mpg haha

From what I understand, the EPA estimates are taken from a "simulated" driving machine/computer.. the car is never actually driven on the road, so estimated MPG's can be a somewhat off. How much off could differ from car to car.

At what RPM are you doing when you travel 80 MPH? I understand that the final gear ratio is kinda short on the FRS.

LOLZ! Someone probably typed in 3785 instead of 2785 for the weight of the car. No one probably thought it was a typo because most cars weigh about this much these days.

I went on a trip from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara and averaged 35.4 MPG, Very surprised and happy with the MPG with my manual FR-S.

You have the Visconti tune? Would see a bit more on highway cruising I think.

Toyota's own video on the fuel-injection system shows that the port injection never entirely turns off. It is more complicated than a simple switchover. At certain times, both systems are working together. Anyway, I prefer it to a purely direct-injection system as it offers more flexibility and ensures that the valves will not get any buildup, as can be the case with direct-injection.

It is a great commuter car. I use my ZC6 mostly for traveling. Gets much better mpg compared to my 05 STi.

curious, how smooth is the car at highway speeds?

it's smooth at 80-90 right at around 3k rpm. Car is very responsive !

I think the mpg calculator in the car might be inaccurate. Car will say 33-35 average mpg. After doing a manual calculation it always brings me to around 30mpg. Thats with mostly 70-80mph highway driving.

3k at 80?? I think I get around 3800 almost 4k. I will have to double check this haha

Yeah the MT is definitely doing 70 at 3k.

After 4000 miles I finally took a highway trip. I loved it. The car is so planted and smooth. Not even terribly noisy.

Just back from my own trip - Indy to Cleveland and back. I have an AT and got just under 35 for the trip, which included some city driving. If it was just highway, probably would have been closer to 36. The car was incredibly smooth at 70-75 and very responsive. One of the most interesting things I noticed was that the car is very, very stable. Trucks, crosswinds ... it's just planted. I'm not sure if it's the low height, the aerodynamics, or what, but I've never had a car this stable, even my Mercedes, which is ... well, a Mercedes (and heavy!) Needless to say, I'm very impressed.