[Little Jack]

I filled my tank in preparation for my trip from The Springs to Denver. When I got back from my 128 mile trip, I filled up again. My calculations showed 57.8 mpg. The best my Golf diesel ever got was 55mpg. I only have 635 miles on my XLE. I can't wait to see how the car matures.

 

[Philnick]

I've had my 2021 Hybrid Camry LE for two weeks now. I'm halfway through the tank of gas it came with, and at 484 miles. It was at around 145 miles when I got it. It says that there's about the same amount of miles left in this tank.

I love the car, but I've never seen it saying it's getting the 50 mpg it's rated at - the closest was around 45. Got it about 80 miles from home on vacation when I saw that a local dealer had it in silver - all the dealers near home had it only in black.

Right now the Trip screen says it's getting in the mid 30s in mpg. Since driving home from vacation, I just tool around Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I run it solely in ECO mode, since even ECO has a lot more pep than my prior 14 year-old car.

The main thing I've tweaked since getting it was to change the behavior of the radar-assisted cruise control to make it stop smoothly instead of abruptly when approaching a car sitting at a light (just set DRCC Curve Control to "Weak" and the vehicle-to-vehicle distance to three bars). Would that tweak reduce mpg?

The other thing I'm wondering whether the heat wave is reducing my mpg by forcing me to use the car's AC - which I've set to Auto and 72 degrees.

The car is not loaded with heavy stuff - just a few umbrella chairs and a little furniture padding in the trunk.

PS Ignore the MPG readouts: The manual says it has a 13 gallon gas tank. It's at the halfway point according to the gas gauge, that's about 6.5 gallons used. Since the odometer says it's at about 484 miles, and I got it at 145 with a full tank, that's 339 miles on the first half tank. That's just over 52 mpg, almost exactly what it's rated.

I guess there's no real point in watching the mpg on the Trip, Tank, or Total screens.

 

[Little Jack]

I haven't used my ACC yet, just a lot of pulse and glide On Eco mode. I use my ac all the time. The real mpg figures will be known once you fill up and divided number of miles driven by the gallons pumped in.

This is MPG thread. Oil posts were moved to Consolidated Oil thread. Please. Apples to apples.

I'll be doing my first oil change at 1000 miles next weekend. I bought a long low profile floor jack and two jack stands. Should be a piece of cake. I'm thinking about installing a Fumoto drain plug to help with the process. I hope to see a slight improvement over my already phenomenal fuel mileage.

 

[45Frank]

I've had my 2021 Hybrid Camry LE for two weeks now. I'm halfway through the tank of gas it came with, and at 484 miles. It was at around 145 miles when I got it. It says that there's about the same amount of miles left in this tank.

I love the car, but I've never seen it saying it's getting the 50 mpg it's rated at - the closest was around 45. Got it about 80 miles from home on vacation when I saw that a local dealer had it in silver - all the dealers near home had it only in black.

Right now the Trip screen says it's getting in the mid 30s in mpg. Since driving home from vacation, I just tool around Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I run it solely in ECO mode, since even ECO has a lot more pep than my prior 14 year-old car.

The main thing I've tweaked since getting it was to change the behavior of the radar-assisted cruise control to make it stop smoothly instead of abruptly when approaching a car sitting at a light (just set DRCC Curve Control to "Weak" and the vehicle-to-vehicle distance to three bars). Would that tweak reduce mpg?

The other thing I'm wondering whether the heat wave is reducing my mpg by forcing me to use the car's AC - which I've set to Auto and 72 degrees.

The car is not loaded with heavy stuff - just a few umbrella chairs and a little furniture padding in the trunk.

PS Ignore the MPG readouts: The manual says it has a 13 gallon gas tank. It's at the halfway point according to the gas gauge, that's about 6.5 gallons used. Since the odometer says it's at about 484 miles, and I got it at 145 with a full tank, that's 339 miles on the first half tank. That's just over 52 mpg, almost exactly what it's rated.

I guess there's no real point in watching the mpg on the Trip, Tank, or Total screens.

I pushed it with the gas and I did get 700 miles to the tank once. I was probably 30 miles past the get gas now peep and past the 0.
I normally have no issue getting 650mpt. Still averaging 52-54 mpg on paper.

 

[Mekomann]

Frank what model Camry do you have le,se?

 

[45Frank]

Frank what model Camry do you have le,se?

2020 le hybrid. Basic not all the horns and whistles.

 

[Bingo44]

I am on northeast Texas near Arkansas. It stays hot here and humid. My summer tanks have been averaging about 48MPG, and the cooler weather tanks about 46. I did not experience the initial ’break-in oil’ providing a reduced MPG result. I have owned the car since December of 2020. It is a 2020 Camry LE Hybrid.

I mostly drive to work at speeds between 65-70 MPH. This is my commuter car, so I am definitely pleased with this. During a short road trip to Hot Springs, AR I exceeded 58 MPGs. I attribute that to taking the back roads with speeds between 45-60 MPH. It definitely does very well in that speed range. I am in a rural area, so I don’t really get to see how it performs in the city.

 

[Philnick]

My 2021 Hybrid Camry LE has just passed the 1200 mile mark in the past week. (It was 135 or so when I bought it.) I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts and drive it almost entirely on city streets. I run the car exclusively in "Eco" mode (even in that mode the car has a lot more pickup than my old heap).

But I've never gotten even 30 mpg, measured by dividing the difference in odometer readings between fill-ups by the number of gallons added to fill the tank.

This may have been aggravated by low tire pressure caused by using a gas station air pump's pressure gauge shortly after I got the car. I confirmed that the pressure was low this morning when the digital air pressure gauge I mail-ordered arrived and I found that some of my tires were as low as 32 psi. None was at 35. So I went back to the gas station and pumped air into each tire until the digital gauge said it was more than 35 psi, and then I used my fingernail to let air out a little at a time, testing until it said 35 psi.

It was mid-June when I bought the car, and I've had the A/C set to 72 degrees. (It sat from mid-July until mid-August after I had knee surgery.) Today, in addition to finally getting the tire pressure right, I turned off the A/C, since the temperature is in the sixties.

I finally got numbers on the Trip screen this evening in the 47-48 mpg range - but it fluctuates all over the lot, going as low as 12 mpg. How much effect does turning on the A/C have on gas mileage? What about the fan without the A/C? The car stereo? Sitting listening to the radio while waiting for my wife when I pick her up? Does turning it off and turning it back on without my foot on the brake put it into a mode that won't reduce my gas mileage as much while waiting for her.

And can anyone here enlighten me as to the meanings and relationship of the mpg numbers on the three screens? The Total and Tank mpg numbers are still in the mid thirties - even though I topped off the tank after getting the tire pressure right today and pressed OK to reset the numbers. Trip seems pretty clear - mpg since turning on the engine this time - or is it instantaneous mpg? Isn't Tank the mpg since the last time the fuel door was opened to gas up? What about Total?

 

[cb91710]

32 to 35psi is not going to be significant impact on fuel economy. It will have SOME impact, but not a lot... 32 is low, but totally acceptable.

Sitting with the system "idling" listening to the stereo can be a killer, particularly if you are doing primarily short trips. While hybrid tech benefits from "stop and go" driving to a degree (my Avalon gets close to 50 on Los Angeles freeways), if these are short trips, the ICE will run until the system is up to operating temperature.
Don't be tempted to shut the system down and listen to the stereo without the hybrid system in the full "Ready" mode... the 12v battery is much smaller than a conventional vehicle and you can kill it quickly (look for Luddite's recent post about killing his battery, though he's never been clear that he has a hybrid)

Running the AC is more efficient than driving with the windows down once you're above 25-30mph, but it's really not a significant impact either way. These aren't the old R12 systems that you could really feel when you turned them on even with a 300hp Chevy 350.

As far as I can tell, "Tank" resets when the system senses the tank has been refilled... I've not tried just popping my fuel door to see if it resets.
Total is the average MPG between when you reset the total. On mine it's when I tap "update" on the stereo's Eco screen. The 199.9 on this is because I took the shot while waiting in line at the car wash, and the system had remained in EV mode from the gas pump to the car wash.

 

[Philnick]

32 to 35psi is not going to be significant impact on fuel economy. It will have SOME impact, but not a lot... 32 is low, but totally acceptable.

Sitting with the system "idling" listening to the stereo can be a killer, particularly if you are doing primarily short trips. While hybrid tech benefits from "stop and go" driving to a degree (my Avalon gets close to 50 on Los Angeles freeways), if these are short trips, the ICE will run until the system is up to operating temperature.
Don't be tempted to shut the system down and listen to the stereo without the hybrid system in the full "Ready" mode... the 12v battery is much smaller than a conventional vehicle and you can kill it quickly (look for Luddite's recent post about killing his battery, though he's never been clear that he has a hybrid)

Running the AC is more efficient than driving with the windows down once you're above 25-30mph, but it's really not a significant impact either way. These aren't the old R12 systems that you could really feel when you turned them on even with a 300hp Chevy 350.

As far as I can tell, "Tank" resets when the system senses the tank has been refilled... I've not tried just popping my fuel door to see if it resets.
Total is the average MPG between when you reset the total. On mine it's when I tap "update" on the stereo's Eco screen. The 199.9 on this is because I took the shot while waiting in line at the car wash, and the system had remained in EV mode from the gas pump to the car wash.

View attachment 351066

I've only run it in Accessory to listen to the stereo once, for ten minutes last night - I won't do that again, if it's using the tiny 12v startup battery instead of the main traction battery! I do sometimes have to turn the car back on for a moment if I forgot to close a window, and I generally don't step on the brake pedal for that. But when I get down to the car first and am waiting for my wife, I turn the car on fully. Idling like that for a few minutes can be a real mpg killer?

I only pop the fuel door when I put gas in - does it sense the change of pressure from opening the fuel cap to reset the Tank counter, or do I have to drive it down to less than half a tank before filling up for it to reset?

I've never seen that History screen you've pictured - how do I get there? All the buttons around the screen look the same as in my Camry.

 

[Philnick]

Found that screen, under the Menu button.

 

[cb91710]

I've only run it in Accessory to listen to the stereo once, for ten minutes last night - I won't do that again, if it's using the tiny 12v startup battery instead of the main traction battery! I do sometimes have to turn the car back on for a moment if I forgot to close a window, and I generally don't step on the brake pedal for that. But when I get down to the car first and am waiting for my wife, I turn the car on fully. Idling like that for a few minutes can be a real mpg killer?

I only pop the fuel door when I put gas in - does it sense the change of pressure from opening the fuel cap to reset the Tank counter, or do I have to drive it down to less than half a tank before filling up for it to reset?

Idling for a few minutes can hurt the Trip MPG on a shorter trip, but it should not have a big impact long term.
The Tank MPG is most likely reset by the same sensor that drives the distance to empty and the fuel gauge. I have no idea what it does if you only do a partial fill-up on the Tank MPG display, but the gauge and DTE will follow the fuel level, and calculate based on recent average MPG.

The one thing that may be the root of your low mileage... and I really hope is not a sign of failure, is that you left it parked during the summer while you recovered. This would have pretty well depleted the high voltage battery as well as the 12v battery. It may not be a bad idea to run it into the dealer early for the first maintenance and have them run a diagnostic on the battery to confirm that it is healthy.

In the mean time, maybe take it out for a nice road trip this weekend and put a couple hundred miles on it in a straight shot to see if it helps bring things up to normal.
While my driving conditions are (apparently) favorable to good economy (my EPA rating is 43, yet I generally run 47 or 48 on Fuelly), I can't imagine that the Camry, being 200lbs lighter, would not get well over 30mpg.
Also, try running in Normal, or even Sport mode instead of ECO. Some have felt very strongly that the lack of throttle response when in ECO mode actually encourages the driver to be more assertive on the pedal, resulting in reduced MPG. I run almost exclusively in Sport mode. I decided to try ECO for a tank to see if it made a difference... I could not tolerate it longer than a few minutes. It made my Avalon more anemic than my old '94 pickup with the 22RE.

 

[Philnick]

The mileage per gallon was the same before and after the month spent parked. I'll try running in Normal instead of Eco - as counterintuitive as that is - but I wonder if the root of the problem is that most of my drives are less than 5 miles, since the number on the Trip page always starts out in or below the low twenties, and goes up as I drive.

Since the temperature is in the sixties, I've turned off air conditioning and that helps.

 

[cb91710]

Ya, the short trips are a killer... ICE or Hybrid.
While hybrids do benefit from "stop and go" driving, with short trips, they run the ICE to get it up to temperature, and to maintain the high voltage battery.
For comparison, my '16 Corolla got about 32/33 and I'm getting 47/49 on the Avalon hybrid.
My wife used to get 18-20 in her '15 Rav4, and it getting about 35 in her new Venza.
If we took her Rav out on a road trip, I'd be able to get 28-30 or sometimes better out of it.

Do as much as you can to combine multiple trips into a single trip/day to take advantage of having it warmed up. Better to do three 5 miles trips in a couple of hours and let it sit for two days, rather than 5 miles a day. Obviously, if you're driving to/from work that's not going to be practical.

 

[Philnick]

Considering that I'm coming from a 15mpg 2007 Hyundai Sonata, I'm not going to complain too much about getting only twice instead of three times the gas mileage - I love the car, which I've named "Hymie the Hybrid" - "Sorry about that, Chief!"

 

[cdn-tch]

... but I wonder if the root of the problem is that most of my drives are less than 5 miles ...

ABSOLUTELY!!! 5mi is almost a minimum to get the ICE into a full operating temp, which the hybrid system favours before doing its full magic.

Do a test run and go for a longer drive, cross town on city streets and see what you get.

 

[cb91710]

I only pop the fuel door when I put gas in - does it sense the change of pressure from opening the fuel cap to reset the Tank counter, or do I have to drive it down to less than half a tank before filling up for it to reset?

I tested this yesterday when I got to work.
Popped the door, opened the filler cap, let it sit for a few, then closed it back up.
The "Tank" MPG did not reset, so it must be triggered by the tank actually reaching "full"

 

[Philnick]

ABSOLUTELY!!! 5mi is almost a minimum to get the ICE into a full operating temp, which the hybrid system favours before doing its full magic.

Do a test run and go for a longer drive, cross town on city streets and see what you get.

Seems like running in Sport mode might help it get up to proper operating temp most quickly - as counter-intuitive as it sounds. Can I tell by looking at the temperature gauge at the bottom of the screen when that's the case? Where would the needle be pointing?

PS I seems really odd to me that the Trip page doesn't show miles traveled for this trip! And it should not reset every time you start the car but only when you press a button to say "Start a running tally for this trip" which could be several days long, with many on-off cycles in it.

 

[cb91710]

Your odometer still has two Trip settings that you can manually reset by holding the button.
The Eco "trip" meter is just that... the current trip since last restart.

 

[Philnick]

1) Where do I find the miles since restarting? All I see on the Trip screen (which always resets with a restart) are mpg, average speed, and running time - not miles driven.

2) Where can I find the trip miles and mpg that don't automatically reset with a restart but only with a manual trip reset?