jmcohen23 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Just curious to see if anyone has achieved the 24 MPG on a consistent basis..... I used to drive between 70-80 MPH on the HWY to work everyday, and then one day, I decided to drive around 55 MPH. I have been doing this for about 2 months now, and my gas mileage increased from 18 MPG to as high as 22 MPG. Now, I'm getting about 20-21 MPG. I have 99 RX300 with 105K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Tibet Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Just curious to see if anyone has achieved the 24 MPG on a consistent basis..... I used to drive between 70-80 MPH on the HWY to work everyday, and then one day, I decided to drive around 55 MPH. I have been doing this for about 2 months now, and my gas mileage increased from 18 MPG to as high as 22 MPG. Now, I'm getting about 20-21 MPG. I have 99 RX300 with 105K. I have a 2000 RX300 with 87K. I was initially getting 21-22 on the highway and 18 in the city. Our highway miles are mostly in the relatively flat parts of the Carolinas, traveling between Columbia, Raleigh & Charleston and mostly driving 80-85. When I tried driving around 75-80 instead, I noticed I could average 24 on a trip. When I tried driving 65-70, it dropped to 22-23, so I think there's a real torque efficiency in the high 70s. I've also noticed that the effects of drafting on MPG are amazing! Of course, I don't advocate doing it to the point of dangerously tailgating, although I suspect the effects of that would be off the chart. Drafting even 50 feet behind a car of similar or greater size noticeably ratchets up the MPG, although it's not something I've tried to quantify over a long trip. I think Mythbusters said that drafting even at 100 feet at 55mph, you get something like a 10% increase in fuel efficiency. As for city driving, I live in downtown Columbia, so 90% of our city driving is the worst for MPG: block-by-block. Work, daycare, and just about everywhere we shop & eat are within 2-3 miles, mostly of city blocks. I can only assume that "city" MPG ratings generally account for a higher percentage of suburban driving than our 2-3 trips a month (cities being generally bigger than downtowns). That said, we're currently averaging 17 MPG in the city. When we were driving out to the beltline for daycare 3 days a week, we saw much longer stretches between stoplights and our MPG was a tick higher at 18-19. All of this is a combination of my mileage-conscious driving and my wife's mileage-irrelevant driving. :) And I keep the tires at 42psi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmastres Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I get around 18-19 in mixed driving of any sort but on the highway I used to be able to get 24.5 if I concentrated. I have a well worn route of 200mi. form here in Santa Barbara to North San Diego county. When I first go the RX I could get the 24.5 to 25 if I kept it below 65, now with about 110k mi on it the best I can do is about 23.5 or so. Most of the time on pure highway driving I get about 22-23 at 70-75mph. Thats because theres just no way you can drive that slow (60-65) on SoCal roads. The min speed is 70 or you end up with people continuously glued to your !Removed! no matter what lane you're in. I certainly haven't found any "torque efficiency" at driving over 70 (maybe its there but I haven't noticed it) What I do find is more rolling and wind resistance and less mpg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dchan865 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Just curious to see if anyone has achieved the 24 MPG on a consistent basis..... I used to drive between 70-80 MPH on the HWY to work everyday, and then one day, I decided to drive around 55 MPH. I have been doing this for about 2 months now, and my gas mileage increased from 18 MPG to as high as 22 MPG. Now, I'm getting about 20-21 MPG. I have 99 RX300 with 105K. It sounds about right. I've been getting about 21.6 MPG on my RX300, has about 118K miles on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwest Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Just curious to see if anyone has achieved the 24 MPG on a consistent basis..... I used to drive between 70-80 MPH on the HWY to work everyday, and then one day, I decided to drive around 55 MPH. I have been doing this for about 2 months now, and my gas mileage increased from 18 MPG to as high as 22 MPG. Now, I'm getting about 20-21 MPG. I have 99 RX300 with 105K. Go to your dealer and have the available C-best options set such that you can disable the A/C cooling system indefinitely, throughout the winter months, by simply switching it off one time via the pushbutton. The second C-best option unlinks the A/C from operating automatically, without any indication, in both full and partial windshield defrost/defog/demist mode. Then go to Home Depot and purchase a manual water shutoff valve to install in line with the coolant flow to the heater core. Use the valve to turn off the flow throughout the summer months. Not a substantial improvement in FE but also not inconsequential. And you will have no more instances during the wintertime of sudden unexpected episodes of windshield fogging. No windshield fogging about 5 miles down the road in the early morning nor on a mountain pass when the A/C shuts down due to decloning OAT unbeknowist to you and shortly thereafter the windshield suddenly fogs over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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