I removed the roof rack cross bars and gained almost 4 mpg
- Thread starter Proudfit
- Start date
Area 51, I am not sure if your question was directed at me, or the OP… But I will answer.
Well, I have never gotten 30 MPG, until I removed Miss Daisy’s air brake/noise generator on the roof. Lots of 26, 27, and 28 mpg tanks, but on the final leg of our ‘NC to the redwoods’ trip, after filling up with E-0 in Memphis, I drove from Memphis to our home in Cherokee County NC, a total of 413 miles, and the fuel mileage was shown to be 30.8 MPG. However the ‘fill up to fill up’ calculated at the pump ‘tank milage’ was ALSO 30.8 MPG.
More pontifications (speed, prevailing winds, etc) about fuel economy in this thread, Posted in thread 'NC to the Redwoods…'
NC to the Redwoods…
I would strongly doubt its 1 mpg. I might be able to see 0.5 mpg..........remember, we are all learning the art of hybrid......definitely quieter.....not that it was terrible to begin with.
I changed out my stock wheel center caps that had the Toyota logo to some with Toyota written on them. I got a 4.8735 mpg increase.
Wait, 23!? Am I the only one getting 18.5 mpg? I drive on Eco all the time
Not sure if sarcasm or not. Don't use Eco, it makes throttle response and HVAC both worse. Keep it in Normal mode and learn to coast so the engine turns off as you come to a stop. I get 22mpg+ in the warmer months.
Blizzaks and winter temps are killing me at 16-18mpg right now.
This brick doesn't do well above 70mph either...
- Jul 7, 2025
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Yeah, I paid that rack forward awhile ago and installed an OEM rack. My winter mpg is hovering around 20-21 now.
Welcome to the asylum.
Factory MPG estimates are based on the 1958 model, which has no air brake on the roof, and 245/R18 tires. Roof brakes and larger oversized tires will cost you MPG, big time.
Unlike a Prius, our Land Cruisers are a parallel hybrid.
A lot depends on what your right foot is doing. The Car Care Nut has a good YouTube video on how to drive the Toyota hybrids to maximize your MPG.
I use ethanol free 93 octane (almost exclusively) and it adds at least 2+ MPG. It has also done that in the last three vehicles that I’ve owned.
Removing the First Edition rooftop air brake/noise generator added another 1-2 mpg.
Driving at 60 instead of 70+ MPH was the single most important factor in the MPG going up. Pushing a brick through the air is costly, especially at 70 MPH.
Head winds, whether direct or quartering, are costly. Likewise, tailwinds, whether quartering or direct will boost your MPG.
My tank average, calculated at the pump, is currently 27+ MPG, with mostly highway driving. Mostly city driving yields about 23 MPG tank averages.
The best MPG that Miss Daisy has ever achieved was when we were on our last leg of our ‘NC TO THE REDWOODS’ trip (there’s a thread here somewhere where I documented our MPG on the entire trip) after filling up in Memphis TN, with 92 octane E-0 fuel, and driving back home on interstates with the cruise control set at 60 MPH, with no stops until we got home. The trip computer had us at 33+ mpg when we got off of the interstate in Cleveland, TN, and headed home on mostly 2 lane highways. By the time we got to our home station, the trip computer MPG had dropped to ~31+ mpg, which correlated almost perfectly with the tank average for that leg of our drive home. Total drive was 413 miles on that leg of our trip, with no ‘low gas’ warning on the dash. DTE was 408 miles after that fillup.
After that it took many tanks of fuel for our ‘Distance To Empty’ (DTE) light to fall below 400 Miles. Currently, our DTE light reports 390 miles at each fill up. Total average MPG since new is currently at 25.5 mpg.
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- Aug 6, 2024
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I'm getting 230 miles per tank, no matter what I do. Probably just my driving style. I change drive modes a lot living here in FL.
Really???
I’ll type real slow for you…
Every interstate highway that I’ve ever traveled in the last 54 years, has at least two lanes, sometimes more.
So any truck driver that wants to illegally go 75, can easily pass me in one of the other lanes to my left.
And when one of them runs into Miss Daisy, my rear dash cam will record it, and I will own him, his company, or his employer.
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I actually added the crossbars at around 4.5K miles on my LC and really have not noticed any mpg difference . It hovers around 21.5 to 21.7 (total average mpg in nearly 5K miles). Eco mode mostly and havent done much highway driving in the last 2/3 months.
I will type even slower, I assume your that guy that bunches up the traffic on the interstate
Really???
I’ll type real slow for you…
Every interstate highway that I’ve ever traveled in the last 54 years, has at least two lanes, sometimes more.
So any truck driver that wants to illegally go 75, can easily pass me in one of the other lanes to my left.
And when one of them runs into Miss Daisy, my rear dash cam will record it, and I will own him, his company, or his employer.
Go around.
- Jul 7, 2025
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Most speed limits where I live max at 55, even on the interstate. There is one stretch of 60mph that goes for about 15 miles. I set my cruise for 5 over whatever it is on the freeways, for a max speed of 65 over 99% of my driving. I sit in the right, right-center lanes and ignore the clowns who think 5 over in the right lane is causing an obstruction. The entitlement is insane. Couple that practice with me only using heavy acceleration when necessary and I never see below 21 mpg across a tank.
I usually drive fast on the highway (RIP my fuel economy) but I’d never be so entitled to think that my desire to go fast should mean people that aren’t in the passing lane also need to go fast. Live and let live. Go around if you can, get over it if ya can’t.
