MPG is killing me!

Things that kill your MPGs:

Short trips
Stop and go traffic
Lift
Offroad Tires (I mention this because I often read people get a ~2 mpg penalty when upgrading tires)
I drive a stock limited and I live on the 2 sides of the spectrum.

City driving with a lot of traffic I´m around 12 mpgs. Holidays and weekends with light traffic I can see 17 mpgs.
Highway driving does a huge bump: +20 mpgs (long steady 65ish mph, as high as 22.5 mpgs), it all depends on the average and top speed. Under 70 mph would yield the best fuel economy.

 

definitely! i can get over 20 on the highway but city kills me haha

 

You have 2 options
1 buy a Corolla
2 suck it up buttercup

 

i like the buttercup option

 

I've tracked 341 consecutive fill-ups of my '07 Sport. Average was 17 before all-terrains, winch bumper, and sliders. Now it's 16.1. Highest ever, 23+ on a long interstate drive (that was stock on road tires); lowest I've had was 8 while towing a 4K lb. travel trailer. I don't love the mileage, but if that's the price I have to pay to own this amazing vehicle, I'm in. Bought it in 2014 at 96K miles and just hit 285K last week. I've had all kinds of fun in this thing.



And don’t worry - the dogs never drive on the road. ;-)

 

Once I moved further outside the city, those brutal gas prices and the 4Runner’s lackluster fuel economy really started to bite. Miles were piling up way too fast on the 4R.

So I grabbed a cheap cash car for my 60-mile daily commute. Excellent mileage—I can fill it up for about $25 a week. Now the 4Runner is strictly reserved for weekends, off-roading, and camping.

This is the way, boys. Let the 4R live its best life on adventures instead of slowly dying on the highway.

 

I like the idea, but I wonder if it really is the way - strictly from an economic standpoint. You're saving fuel cost and extending the useful life of your 4Runner by reducing wear and tear. But when you factor in the cost of the commuter car, the maintenance cost, the insurance, the annual registration and inspection fees, etc., I wonder if that all pencils out to a net savings.

It depends on a lot of factors, so it might or it might not really result in a savings. But the bottom line is we all get to make our own choices and spend our own money however we want. If buying a cheap commuter gives someone peace of mind, that's worth something.

 

People can make their own choices but it's a two way street, it's ironic to say the least to drive a sub-20mpg-combined $50-70k off road SUV that costs far more to register, insure, and maintain for long distance pavement commuting than something like a Corolla Cross, then complain about gas prices whenever it spikes for a period of time.

 

8 mpg is wild. but those pictures and memories are priceless!

 

It generally doesn’t work financially anymore to have a commuter car. The cost of vehicles and insurance are too high to make up the cost difference in fuel usage.

 

Yeah, that particular memory… First time towing a travel trailer, which we rented. We drove from Atlanta to Harrisburg, PA, where I filled up the truck and we picked up the trailer. I knew the mileage would be worse, but had no idea it would be so low. We were cruising north on the New York Thruway when the gas light came on. We hadn’t even gone 150 miles. I was waiting and waiting and waiting for an exit and praying to God that the first thing on our vacation wouldn’t be running out of gas on the New York Thruway.

We finally came to an exit, where I put 22.4 gallons in the 23 gallon tank.

I did some research and changed my driving habits a bit and had the mpg up to 11 by the time we returned the trailer.

 

This could certainly be true. Cash cars, maintenance and insurance all seem to have gotten more expensive.

Still, most dudes I know with proper wheeling rigs have an older Corolla or Prius for their commute. It’s not just about cost savings though. It’s also about flexibility. Break the rig? Down for maintenance or upgrades? Doesn’t matter. You still have another vehicle to get to work on Monday.

Personally my biggest push to get a cash car was mileage from highway use and needing that flexibility. It wasn’t necessarily gas savings… but I figured it’s worth a post in the thread anyways.

I didn’t build this rig up to commute. But I also don’t want a truck and trailer to haul a buggy or SAS’d Tacoma either. To each their own, but this solution seems to be popular in my wheeling group

 

This is my strategy… I drive a 2010 Honda Civic for my commute and on-site work visits. If I have to haul both dogs, I take the 4Runner. 4Runner is used for weekends, adventures with dogs, and roadtrips. Currently at 15k on a 2024… my 2010 civic is at 106k.its worth it to me to have an SUV and a smaller commuter car. I’ve had this same type of setup since 2014. My wife and I are a 3 car household (no kids). She drives whatever she wants (usually luxury) and trades her vehicles more frequently than me.

previously I had 2001
Infiniti QX4 (210k) and a 1991 Honda Civic (230k) which I had for 10 years before I upgraded to the 4Runner and newer civic

 

*waves in my beater Corolla from before TPMS era*

registration and insurances are reasonable, per mile is 1/3 the running cost of a 4R if we factoring in tires, brakes, fluids, diff service, transmission service, what have you.

 

Was it just the 2nd gen V8's that had all wheel drive + 4wd? Or did some V6's have AWD too?

 

Both V8 and V6 had the option of 4WD or 2WD. The V8 had FT4WD

I'm not sure if it's for the entire Gen 4 years, but for the 2004 4Runners the V8s had full time 4WD, I cannot switch out of it. I can switch the transfer from high to low. There is no dipstick for the transmission. it's sealed. The V6 models had the 2WD-4WD switch and high-low transfer case.

 

It's the same for all 4th Gens

 

Tires and traffic. Larger, heavier tires kill mileage and so does stop and go driving. If you live in that part of LA where there is little traffic and you can drive unimpeded like I see in the movies, then it's probably just your tires.

 

Mostly 14-17 around town and 18-20 with steady state driving.
I've spent the day puttering around back roads, side roads, forest roads and the milage stays up as long as I'm not stopping much.
f=ma; stops and starts killing the milage.
Just need a small hybrid braking motor to store the braking energy and then give it back on acceleration.

And then there's the war driving prices up and making the fat cats fatter. Seems like they all want to have one now and then and each war just screws us little guys and the guys that fight them.

 

read closely, that’s not mpg

 

Mine is 19.1 L/100Km 90% city driving

 

It was the 4th gen v8 that had it it they were 4wd as you could get them 2wd. The 03-04 had a transmission dipstick and no vvt making everything a little easier to work on. 05-09 had a check plug on the side of the transmission instead of a dipstick and had vvt making cam seals a pain from what I've heard.

 

The V8 doesn't have a transmission dipstick and they did come in 2WD or FT4WD. V6 has a transmission dipstick

 

My 03 v8 4wd has a transmission dipstick

 

Odd, my '04 does not. Is yours FT4WD?

 

Yes

 

My son's 2006 V8 doesn't have a transmission dipstick

 

From Google AI
I particularly like "most, usually and often". I guess nothing is "always" anymore. I think the only thing worse than automobile changes are outboard motors.

Most 4th Generation (2004-2009) V8 4Runners do not have a transmission dipstick, as they use a "sealed" transmission, particularly with the 5-speed automatic. The 2003 model year often has a dipstick, but 2004 and later models typically require checking the fluid level via a check plug on the pan, usually when it is between 115°F and 130°F.
Key Takeaways for V8 4th Gen 4Runners:

• 2003 V8: Often has a conventional dipstick.
• 2004–2009 V8: Usually features a sealed transmission (no dipstick).

 

I thought they got rid of the dipstick at the same time as they started vvt. Guess I was wrong.