Fantastic/unbelieveable mpg numbers on V6!

[eflw1029]

Morning Everyone-
I just recently completed a 600 mile round trip from NYC to Leesburg, Virginia gassing up prior and after. I have a "plain vanilla" 2007 V6 Camry LE and the 256 mile trip down consumed 8.161 gallons regular gas while the return trip of 241 miles consumed 7.48 gallons. This tells me I averaged in excess of 31 miles per gallon going and coming. The amazing fact was during this Mother's Day weekend down when I made up for congestion at the toll plazas I was traveling around 80 miles per hour on both NJ turnpike and I95 after the Delaware Memorial Bridge to make up time since it typically takes me 4-5 hours on a congestion free day. I know typically you get the best mileage using the highest overdrive gears with minimum rpm's. From looking at the speedometer I believe the "sweet spot" on the 2007 V6 is around 60mph when the Camry tach shows under 2000 rpm. Because of the huge congestion at the toll plazas I decided to play catch up by traveling in groups of cars going 80mph when the camry tach displayed 2200-2300 rpms. Unless the Camry speedometer/odometer is way off, I had a huge tailwind going to and from Virginia I cannot believe my mpg numbers. A while back there was an article when a news service reported the fact many of the Japanese car manufacturers purposely rigged the odometer to reflect more mileage on the odometer to bilk the unassuming renter at the expense of the rental car companies.
Can anyone reply back with mpg numbers on any of their lengthy high speed highway runs on their V6 Camry's just to validate my findings? BTW, I am in awe of the fact the 2007 V6 Camry shows 2200 rpm's traveling 80mph...a testament to this high tech 6-speed overdrive transmission.

[Pipemajor]

That *is* great mileage - especially at the speeds you were uh, speeding. Anything over 60mph and drag starts drastically cutting into your economy.

We haven't had the opportunity to take our hybrid on a trip yet but around town we've been averaging 36mpg.

RE: the purposely optimistic odometers on Japanese cars. Only Honda reported a significant problem where the odometer records more miles than is actually experienced. This affects the warranty period primarily. Honda has promised a fix to get all their odometers recalibrated back to within 1% accuracy.

I suppose it won't be long before some type of GPS monitoring will track and report our miles for us.

[eflw1029]

My apologies if I committed a "faux Paux" but with I95 now allowing everyone to travel at 65mph it doesn't take much to go faster than the posted speed especially with the V6. If you do NOT throw the occassional glance at the speedometer you will find yourself doing the 80mph as i did. But what amazed me was the mpg figures I got. This is my first ever foreign designed (but domestically manufactured) vehicle and I am thrilled considering as of today, the price of regular here in NYC is $3.25 or higher dpedning where you fill up. I still have to get use to the pitifully small trunk and have to plan continually on purchases. For example, I purchased a Weber E210 LP grill and the box was huge. This would not have been a problem with my old '99 Crown Victoria with it's cavernous trunk. Because I could not fit this purchase in either the Camry's trunk or passenger compartment I ended up purchasing the grill from the local P.C. Richards and schlepped it home with a handtruck. Had I purchased it at HomeDepot I would have gotten a free LP fill-up as they have grill promotions until the end of the month. The good news was I printed the HomeDepot promotion and haggled with P.C. Richards. They eventually let me have it for $275 plus tax.

[eflw1029]

After my first inter-state trip I also had an opportunity to wash the dried "bugs" off the front of the Camry. I made it a point never to follow too closely to other vehciles especially tracks and tractor-trailers which have a tendency of kicking up stones and rocks. Upon carefully washing the front I noticed I had a bunch of chips on both hood and front bumper. I've got serious issues with the quality of the factory Toyota Paint. I thought the paint on domestically produced vehciles were bad but Toyota is worse. For the life of me, i don't see how I am going to preserve the pristine factory paint beyond a year considering vacation months are right around the corner. I see a few of the other 2007 Camry's parked on the city streets and already both front and rear bumpers look like hell. In NYC if you park on the streets it seems like everyone and their brother park "by sound" tapping both guy in front and back of you as you jockey for every available free spot. If anyone has found a bra for the 2007 model year I'd appreciate it if you replied back with the web site. I can live with the issues of bra's (scuffing, paint fade, etc) but I draw the line when new cars get chipped factory paint.

[lammydi]

Originally Posted by Pipemajor

That *is* great mileage - especially at the speeds you were uh, speeding. Anything over 60mph and drag starts drastically cutting into your economy.

We haven't had the opportunity to take our hybrid on a trip yet but around town we've been averaging 36mpg.

RE: the purposely optimistic odometers on Japanese cars. Only Honda reported a significant problem where the odometer records more miles than is actually experienced. This affects the warranty period primarily. Honda has promised a fix to get all their odometers recalibrated back to within 1% accuracy.

I suppose it won't be long before some type of GPS monitoring will track and report our miles for us.

I have this Garmin GPS. It will show your average mph and Max mph.
nüvi® 650

Part Number: 010-00540-70

[gdanaher]

[quote=eflw1029]
Can anyone reply back with mpg numbers on any of their lengthy high speed highway runs on their V6 Camry's just to validate my findings? BTW, I am in awe of the fact the 2007 V6 Camry shows 2200 rpm's traveling 80mph...a testament to this high tech 6-speed overdrive transmission. /quote]

I've had only a single trip but it was from the Dallas area to southwest of Austin in the hill country. I35 varied from 75-90 and on to winding ranch to market roads at 40-50. Total trip on a single tank that weekend and it averaged 29 and change.

[rawknmxpx]

i know i have an i4... but just to make you all feel good about your v6's...

i did a road trip from corvallis, or to mira mesa, ca a few weeks ago... 3 people, luggage and a dog doing an average speed (had the nuvi running...) of 78.6 and averaged about 28mpg over 2000 miles there and back. So the V6 wins again... dammit. Still very pleased tho.

[geoff5093]

Highest i've gotten as 38.5mpg, driving about 15 miles. There were two fairly large downhill sections, but I stayed at a constant 50-55mph the whole time without braking or accelerating hard.

[mdracer3313]

I drive about 80% highway/20% city and put about 120 miles on the car everyday (drive my car for business) usually in the 75-80 mph range. I have averaged 27+ mph from the second tank of gas on. Car has 5k miles on it now. The sixth gear is a big help with keeping RPM's down at highway speeds.

[darksparkz]

Wow, that is spectacular mileage. I made it to 570 miles and had to fill up twice 16 gallons the first time and 14 the second time, with a mix of 50% highway and 50% city.

[tekdemon]

Originally Posted by eflw1029

After my first inter-state trip I also had an opportunity to wash the dried "bugs" off the front of the Camry. I made it a point never to follow too closely to other vehciles especially tracks and tractor-trailers which have a tendency of kicking up stones and rocks. Upon carefully washing the front I noticed I had a bunch of chips on both hood and front bumper. I've got serious issues with the quality of the factory Toyota Paint. I thought the paint on domestically produced vehciles were bad but Toyota is worse. For the life of me, i don't see how I am going to preserve the pristine factory paint beyond a year considering vacation months are right around the corner. I see a few of the other 2007 Camry's parked on the city streets and already both front and rear bumpers look like hell. In NYC if you park on the streets it seems like everyone and their brother park "by sound" tapping both guy in front and back of you as you jockey for every available free spot. If anyone has found a bra for the 2007 model year I'd appreciate it if you replied back with the web site. I can live with the issues of bra's (scuffing, paint fade, etc) but I draw the line when new cars get chipped factory paint.

That's very bizarre...Toyota is supposed to have pretty good paint compared to other manufacturers, and my 2003 Camry hardly shows any chips and whatnot. I just had my bumper replaced a few months ago due to an accident, but even back then I don't remember any noticable rock chips.

I wouldn't worry too much, you're probably just being a little too paranoid since it's your new car, the paint on Camrys usually holds up pretty well My dad's '02 looks pretty good too (although he too has had bumper replacements and repaints...lol).

Your bumpers might look like hell due to parking though...some people really do seem to park by tapping you, but I've seen pretty f'ed up bumpers on every make of car in NYC so I don't think that's a Camry problem.

If it makes you feel any better, Camry bumpers are fairly cheap to get repainted lol.

[hans747]

2002 v6 gen 5 (67k miles) -- just did a round trip from spartanburg to jacksonville. got 26.6 going there, and 25.5 coming back. Drove in the high 70s and low 80s the entire way. bit disappointed to be honest. My wife's 98 volvo v90 wagon (with inline 6 and a 4-speed auto tranny) pulls about 28 in the same circumstances. then again, this car is due for new plugs, filter, belt, and TB cleaning. We'll get her out of chugging mode and back into sipping soon enough!

[ibgreen]

I've done some highway driving since getting my V6 LE last December, but I just did the first "real" highway trip- 667 miles round-trip.

(Using Regular as the manual says to) I got 29.8 miles out, and 32.1 on the way back. That's at the speed limit, mostly 65 on I-80, with the AC on in 90 degree weather and even includes 40 minutes at 2mph waiting in traffic to get on the GW Bridge .

I just set the Cruise Control to the limit and enjoy that smooth ride. And people passing like I was standing still .

Pretty good, since the first tank - admittedly with snow, ice and only local driving - was only 19mpg . It seems to improve with time. I thought sure the AC was going to kill the mpg.

BTW- Worst gas prices, 2 weeks ago: on Long Island, Regular was $4.28 to $4.48 - all within 1 mile. Best: Lamar, PA, along 80 where a price war (remember those? ) had it down to $3.77 within a day of those other prices.

Paint: one tiny chip on the hood I noticed about 3 months ago . Could be worse.

[wireless]

I've been reporting 31 mpg highway in my SE V6 for over 2 years now. Nothing new.

[Tobeit]

I only hit once 31Mpg - in the winter (35F) at ~75mph cruising speed and winter tires. I never hit that again and now I am lucky to get 27 Mpg on Highway only - city only dumps around 18-19Mpg.