Petrol Consumption

[CRUNCHER]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can possibly help !! I really think the fuel consumption on my Rav 4 ( 2010 Multidrive s ) is very high. On average according to the trip computer average is 25/26 mpg. Yesterday drove 85 miles round trip & still on trip was 26.4, & that was motorway driving at not excessive speed.

Has anyone got any ideas to why the fuel consumption is so high. ?????? Otherwise it means going to the garage to plug into a diagnostics & see if there is a problem. ( by the way it is still under warranty)

Look forward to solutions etc !!! Overall a happy Rav 4 driver !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[firemac]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can possibly help !! I really think the fuel consumption on my Rav 4 ( 2010 Multidrive s ) is very high. On average according to the trip computer average is 25/26 mpg. Yesterday drove 85 miles round trip & still on trip was 26.4, & that was motorway driving at not excessive speed.

Has anyone got any ideas to why the fuel consumption is so high. ?????? Otherwise it means going to the garage to plug into a diagnostics & see if there is a problem. ( by the way it is still under warranty)

Look forward to solutions etc !!! Overall a happy Rav 4 driver !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Ray & welcome to the club.

I've had a couple of 4.2 petrol automatics. The 5-dr averaged between 20 & 25 mpg depending upon how much town driving was done and our 3-dr averaged 33 mpg but it was mainly used for long commutes. The fact is that the petrol RAV's are not famous for being frugal with the go juice so your results aren't surprising, although the 4.3's seem to be better than the 4.2's.

What I would strongly recommend is that you do brim-to-brim calculations of consumption and compare those to the OBC read-out, i.e. fill the car, re-set the OBC, zero the trip and when you next fill up note the mileage covered, the amount of fuel used, work out the mpg and compare it to what the OBC is reading. Do the b-t-b calc a few times and see what the average is compared to the ongoing OBC average.

Experience of what others on here have found suggests that the OBC may well be optimistic - which means that you will be even more depressed. But it is possible that it is reasonably accurate or perhaps even pessimistic; the OBC on our 4.3 D-CAT reads about 1-2% below the actual b-t-b consumption. I reckon it's best to know what your real mpg is before spending money on diagnostics that may not be necessary. Once you know the true position there are several things that you can then check/adjust yourself. Even though it is under warranty, Mr.T will demand a diagnostics fee up-front which they will refund if there is something amiss; otherwise it's a case of "It all seems to be in order, Sir" and bye-bye anywhere between £50 & £100 depending on where the garage is located.

Let us know how your calcs go.

[Raistlin]

Use this:

PM me with an email address and I will forward you a blank copy

Click to expand.

[Madasafish]

I use https://www.fuelly.com .

Why bother working when someone does it all for you AND you can look at what others do with the same car..

I reckon - over the past 15 years of comparing real mpg vs EU mpg- that my mainly urban driving averages EU mpg -10% in summer and -15% in winter...As for extra urban stuff, for the birds... I only get within 15% on clear empty motorways driving like there is a bomb under the accelerator...

[Pogle]

Realistically your car is petrol and automatic so its not going to be good on fuel. Ive also gone for petrol this time. I know I will be spending more on fuel but the car was a lot cheaper than a diesel to buy and I am hoping it will be less problematic in the long term.

[CRUNCHER]

Hi, Many thanks to you for posting such detailed replies to the fuel issue !!! This is the first time I have used the forum, & it will certainly not be the last !!!. I really didn't know that there was so much expertise out there

Many Thanks

Ray

[namead]

I wouldn't have said that's high - but to be expected.

At 60, my wife's XT5 auto gets over 30mpg in the UK. at 75 on euro roads, it gets about 30 (road surface differences I guess)

But, at 80+, mpg will start to tumble and your figures seem to indicate around 80 to more like 85 which is what I've seen on the XT5

[ALake]

The petrol Rav4 aren's exactly frugal, but having spoken to owners of various other cars (Nissan X-trail 2.2dci 37mpg, BMW x3 2.0d 38mpg) I don't think it actually compares too badly now.

I took mine from Durham to Norfolk last week - on the way there it did 33mpg (showed 33.9 on the computer!) and on the way back I somehow managed to get 35mpg (still showed 33.9 mpg on the computer!) and I did my calculations from brim to brim.

In general I average 29 to 32 on my daily commute, which isn't cheap at the pumps but you've already saved over the initial cost of the car and will probably save again in maintenance costs if anything goes wrong. I amazed at how many new diesels are getting really ropey consumption figures - this weeks Auto Express shows the Dacia Duster 1.5 dci getting 36mpg which makes my 6 year old petrol Rav look like a dainty sipper!

Like firemac said, it mght just be worth doing a couple of full tank measurements of your own, if you're getting 26-30 out of an automatic petrol 4x4 I would say that fits in will everything I've experienced or read about.