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Bad 2015 Corolla gas mileage???

44K views 78 replies 32 participants last post by  biff91 
#1 ·
We bought a 2015 Corolla LE Plus this past Thanksgiving weekend. The tank went from full to ¾ full after 38 miles of city driving. The onboard MPG calculator said it was getting 16 MPG (it’s rated 29 city/38 highway. When we took it back to the dealer the sales consultant said that’s normal – that it would improve after it got “broken in”. The car mechanic who I have taken all my Toyotas to and who has only worked on Toyota for the last 30 years says plus or minus a couple MPGs would be reasonable but not minus 13 MPG. We drove it another 400 miles to “break it in” and during this breakin period it did get close to 38 MPG when we drove on the highway. Then I topped off the tank with gas, recorded the odometer mileage, zeroed out the onboard trip mileage recorder and the MPG calculator and my wife drove 61 city mileage. The onboard MPG calculator said it was getting 16.8 MPG and 61 miles divided by th3 3.854 that it took to top it off again = 15.8 MPG. Either way I don’t think the mileage should be this bad. Can anybody post new Corolla mileage you have experienced? - Thanks.
 
#6 ·
If you do a lot of short city trips that will be normal. It's easy to get poor city MPG with short trip with a cold engine. Winter gas also hurts and if you allow it to warm up that will also kill your MPG. It sounds like things are normal on the highway so I would suspect that it's the type of city driving that you are doing. If you are driving a lot in rain or snow that will also lower your MPG.
 
#8 ·
Mine, a 2014 Corolla S Plus gets 38 MPG - 1/4 street and 3/4 highway, wintry driving, in the Summer time I easily get around 40. I calculated the miles driven to the size of the tank and seems very accurate - between 404 to 440 miles from tank. Mileage also depends on the quality of fuel - in MI I was getting around 43 MPG and IL gasoline seems to be worst. The car had these MPG figures since brand new.
Fuel, driving habits and conditions can definitely affect the figures; but I think you are right, 16 MPG is unacceptable... I would tell the dealer to put, what he told you, on paper so you can start building your case.
 
#10 ·
I've had my 2015 Corolla LE Plus Eco for two weeks. My MPG indicator says I am getting on average 29.4 mpg in my second tank of gas. It was about 28 in the first tank that the car came with. I drive mixed highway and city, but my highway driving often involves a lot of braking because I live in NJ where people merging onto the highway don't yield, where people weave in and out while speeding, cut me off, won't let me get into the exit lane, etc. If I watch the MPG indicator, the mileage goes down to like 7-10mpg with any kind of acceleration, even just going on an up incline. I really expected better mileage than this from this car. What gives? Where is this great gas mileage that was promised?
 
#11 ·
My 14 ECO has averaged over 44 mag and has never had a tank under 40, almost all open highway with a little suburban street driving mixed in.

I think your answer lies in your own description of how the vehicle is driven. With all the braking and accelerating, you aren't doing much different than city driving, although without the stop lights. What you're doing, I wouldn't consider highway driving.

To the original poster, how much of your city driving is sitting idle at stop lights? Any car sitting idling is getting 0 mpg. If half of your drive, you aren't moving, your mileage doesn't surprise me. You're getting OK highway mileage so I think your car is fine.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Why no one mentions what kind of gas they are using? (type and brand)
Question for TS: Hope you're not using AM/PM or ARCO, aren't you? :)

Did some research. I get close to 280-290 miles with full tank (Corolla S Plus) with Shell Plus gas, and 240-250 with Chevron Premium. Once, me and my wife got full tank of Arco for her 2012 RAV4 on our way to Yellowstone, so we ran out of the gas in 3 hours. So, yes. Gas stations matter.
 
#13 ·
You should be using regular grade anyway. It has more energy & will deliver the best MPG. Using plus or premium is more for cars that are boosted or are high performance to contract detonation. There is absolutely no benefit using it on a Corolla unless you turbo your car. I would never use Arco gas before but it was recently reformulated and is now a Top-tier gas so it should be just fine as is Costco gas too. I get between 325-350 miles on my tank when I'm at roughly 1/4 tank left.
 
#17 ·
I have had my 2014 corolla for about 8 months now. My fuel mileage is terrible! I'm getting around 16/22. I do mostly city driving...but still that's not even close to the 28 it should be getting. I asked about it at the dealer and all they say is ...its how you drive n weather n such. I don't have a lead foot. Seems like most other corolla owners get way better mileage. Has any one had really bad fuel mileage n toyota found a problem w the car and fixed it. Thanks...
 
#18 ·
Try driving around with the fuel economy display on the touchscreen, and see how well you do. You can also check this on your dash, but the screen shows how you've done in a 15 minute span. If you're getting good results, but still poor gas mileage maybe reset your ecu?
 
#21 ·
For anyone who has been getting poor gas mileage, do you pay any attention to the "ECO" indicator at all? If you have one, do you look at the "ECO gauge" while you're driving? If you use these tools and accelerate gradually, you will get far better gas mileage as opposed to "keeping up with traffic" and stomping on the gas all the time. If you keep an eye on the ECO gauge while you're accelerating, and keep it within the "economy" range all the time, I would expect you would see a rather massive improvement in your gas mileage, if you're one who is getting poor gas mileage.
 
#22 ·
Yep, I've very recently started driving my Corolla differently. Drivers around here are careless, and unforgiving (DC area). If you aren't keeping up with the flow of traffic, you get cut off, horns honking at you, lights flashing, etc. even if you are doing the speed limit!

But I've started just not caring. Not giving a single f***. And my MPGs have improved greatly. Last tank I got 34mpg average, when I generally had been getting 29 or 30.

Keep the RPMs low. Don't rocket from a red light just because everyone else is. Don't do 80mph on a 65mph highway just because everyone else is. Your car will thank you by giving you more distance for your money!

I'm constantly getting dirty looks but you know what? I just don't care anymore, I want good mpg!
 
#24 · (Edited)
4 weeks ago I purchased a new Corolla "L" manual 6 speed rated at 37 MPG highway. I took a 2200 mile trip and averaged around 48 MPG mixed driving. My best highway tanks were 51.8 and 50.6


These vehicles do not need to be broke in. Whoever told you that is a knucklehead or just plain deceptive. They are not like the vehicles of 25 years ago. With that kind of MPG if this is a vehicle problem you should be able to smell the excess. If it is not repaired you will burn out your cat.


Let me add this. This does not mean the vehicle necessarily has a problem. The problem could easily be the driver with a very heavy foot. Lastly forget about the on board computer to figure your MPG. Use a calculator. Also just driving 60 miles and topping off again is not a reliable way of checking MPG. In my opinion if you got 38 at one point and 15 at another someone has a very heavy foot and bad driving habits.
 
#25 ·
My mom has this same problem with her Chevy Cruze. Average fuel economy averages 20 miles per gallon. It turns out its all about driving habits. I mean her driving habits are very erratic, she floors it from every stop light and will slow down to about 30 mph and then floor it from there, she repeats this procedure day in and day out. I have no clue why she does this but I told her if she takes off slowly and doesn't floor it all the time she will get much better gas mileage.
 
#26 ·
in true city driving nobody is going to see 28 mpg, or even close. im talking sitting at lights for minutes at a time just to go sit at another light a block away....or parking lot like conditions where you creep inch by inch. engine running and covering very little ground. id expect to see 15-20 mpgs in those conditions at best.
 
#27 ·
To expand about a few things, let me add the following:

1. Indeed, you can really kill your gas mileage by stomping on it as you start from stop signs and stop lights, and stomping on it as you move through traffic. You really can, most of the time, just take your time, and the jackrabbits will go around you. In fact, make it easy for them to do so, if you can. And no worries -- it's very likely they won't get more than a block or so ahead of you, for all of their efforts. Meanwhile, you can just relax, take it easy, get great gas mileage, and coast up right behind them at the next light.

2. Speed on the highway can really make a difference, too -- this is a good time to keep your eye on the Average Mileage display. If you take it easy, perhaps even keeping it down to the speed limit, you'll probably see the Average Mileage start going up. But if you're one of the fastest cars on the freeway, it's likely that you'll see that Average Mileage number start going downhill. Once again, just take it easy, keep it around the speed limit, cruise along in the slow lane to whatever extent you can, relaxing and enjoying the drive, while the idiots in the fast lane are punching it and then stomping on the brakes, weaving around the different lanes, and working their tails off. Again, no worries -- it's very quite likely that you'll coast up right behind some of these guys when you get off at your exit.

3. Finally, you really can't say you're getting good or bad gas mileage if you're not calculating it properly. You really do need to keep on going until your "low fuel" light comes on, and then go ahead and refuel. Make sure to get receipts for your gas purchases, and write down the car's mileage, the Trip A mileage, the Average MPG number, and the Cruising Range number. Then, reset the Trip A and the Average MPG display after each fillup, so they both record your results for each tank of gas. By all means, keep track of your mileage, either on a spreadsheet, an app for your phone, or a web site like Fuelly:

http://www.fuelly.com/

Just go ahead and establish an account, and get moving. Though I'll give you a tip that I sure prefer with the site -- don't have it figure the miles for you based upon the odometer, because that just makes some presumptions you might not want to make -- just use the number of miles for each tank, based upon your Trip A number. That sure makes the site work more like you might expect it to -- I sure wound up preferring to work with the site that way.

At any rate, bottom line, you need to record your mileage over "full tanks of gas," not little top-offs. Little top-offs can record "nothing but in-town driving" or "nothing but freeway driving," or anything in between, and really won't record your true average over all kinds of driving.

Apologies if that's all old news to you, but by all means, if that'll help you get better gas mileage, go out and get better gas mileage!
 
#28 ·
Im glad some of you w the corolla are getting decent fuel mileage. As stated earlier...i do mostly city driving. I watch how i drive. I do not have a heavy foot at all. I'm getting about 18 city...22 hwy. I think that's terrible fuel mileage. For my 2014 corolla. I've had the car 8 months. Been like that since i gt it. I also had a prius where i gt great fuel mileage 40/50 mpg. I know how to drive to get better fuel mileage...it just doesnt seem to be working for me in the corolla. :/
 
#32 · (Edited)
No disrespect but 18 city and 22 highway is a heavy foot. You cannot compare a hybrid to a straight gas engine. The hybrid will make up for some of the heavy foot issues. I wish you were in my area and we could get together. I would prove to you using your vehicle that it will get in the 30 city and 40's highway and the low MPG you are seeing is driving habits. All of my vehicles do way better than the EPA MPG claims. It is driving habits.
 
#40 ·
I actually get higher gas mileage by about +2 mpg using higher octane gas. The reason is, it's a smoother burn, a longer power stroke. The engine runs smoother at idle as well.
No. Just no. The octane rating has to do with the gasoline's resistance to pre-ignition. The Corolla's engine is not forced induction or super high compression or anything like that where pre-ignition would be an issue. There is no benefit to premium fuel in the Corolla whatsoever. It is a placebo effect.

I'm not sure what you mean by "longer power stroke". The stroke of the engine is not variable.
 
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