Very Poor Fuel Consumption

[Danny1.2]

Hi all, my wife just bought a used 2016 1.2t Manual Auris Touring and we are on our first full tank but the mileage is looking terrible already. We have gone from a full tank to a quarter of a tank and have only done 160 miles. I am going to work out the exact figure when I refuel but this is very worrying. 

Most of the driving are school runs however 40 miles of that is also motorway milleage. Does anyone else have this issue? I was hoping for alot better than this. The average MPG on the display is showing 26.2 but I am not sure we are even going to get that. Looks like we will receive around 200 miles from a full tank to the petrol light coming on. 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated... 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

From the Honest John Real mpg information on the 1.2T, owners are getting between 33 and 51mpg - https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/toyota/auris-2013/12-turbo

Presumably you bought the car from a dealer - if so under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the dealer is responsible for any faults within the first six months of purchase regardless of any warranty - see https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act

So once you've established the actual consumption and if it is still poor, go back to the dealer you bought it from and get them to look at it.

[furtula]

If most of the drives are school runs where the engine does not even get to warm up properly, or let's say 10km per run, and in city, with cold weather, the mpg is there to stay.

Do give more info about the duration of trips.

[Heidfirst]

3 hours ago, Danny1.2 said:

Hi all, my wife just bought a used 2016 1.2t Manual Auris Touring and we are on our first full tank but the mileage is looking terrible already. We have gone from a full tank to a quarter of a tank and have only done 160 miles.

Also, not sure what the fuel tank capacity is on an Auris but there will be a "reserve" even when the gauge looks like it is empty/the low fuel light comes on & Toyota are typically very cautious so it can be significant.

[Danny1.2]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I bought the car from a dealer. The typical runs on this tank are:

- 40 miles roundtrip motorway. 

- 6 school runs a day of 3.2 miles there and 3.2 miles back with some other stop offs and journeys on top. 

When I bought the car the tank was just around slightly above the quarter mark and I drove 55 miles on the motorway averaging 42.3 mpg and when I finished that journey the petrol gauge lit up. I filled the tank up with petrol which cost £48 at & £1.28 per litre, so around 8.8 gallons. 

I realise school runs are going to ruin the petrol consumption but my wife was getting similar figures in her Ford 1.6 petrol 180 bhp grand c max which also weighs 1850 kg. 

Also, I did notice that one of the tyres went down by 20% in the first 4 days since I bought the car. Should I ask the dealer to replace that tyre? 

[Heidfirst]

22 minutes ago, Danny1.2 said:

Also, I did notice that one of the tyres went down by 20% in the first 4 days since I bought the car. Should I ask the dealer to replace that tyre? 

First find the leak. You could have picked up a puncture after buying it which would not be the dealer's problem but if it is another reason it may be.

The low pressure may also have affected your fuel consumption slightly. Also bear in mind that with the cold weather upon us mpg will be a few down from summer consumption for the same trip.

[Danny1.2]

But do those figures still not seem very low, even for the the time of year? 

[FROSTYBALLS]

On the face of it, the figures do seem low. However, checking the fuel consumption on a brim to brim basis would probably be more accurate than relying on the car's display. 

[Danny1.2]

How much more am I going to get from a quarter of a tank though considering I only got 55 miles on a motorway run from a quarter of a tank. 

Should I ask the dealer to check the car and if so what should I ask them to check? 

[FROSTYBALLS]

14 minutes ago, Danny1.2 said:

How much more am I going to get from a quarter of a tank though considering I only got 55 miles on a motorway run from a quarter of a tank. 

Should I ask the dealer to check the car and if so what should I ask them to check? 

How long is a piece of string? Two things to bear in mind is that the fuel gauge doesn't operate in a linear way - bars extinguish slowly when the tank is full and more quickly as the tank empties -, and if you're going by the low fuel light, that illuminates when a reserve is hit, and not when the tank is nearly empty.

 

[Danny1.2]

You are correct but it looks like I will be lucky to get around 200 miles before I end up in the same spot where I was when I filled up the tank with £48.

[nielshm]

This is how my 1.2T works. Bear in mind, that I have the CVT, but fuel consumption is pretty much the same. 

If I do a short 3 mile drive, starting with a cold engine, the Mpg is something like 23.

If I take the car to work, 15 mile drive, no motorway, the Mpg is around 38-40.

On longer trips, the Mpg is 45.

On the motorway, doing 65-70 mph, the mpg is 35.

Please note that the calculated range hits 0, when there is 7 liters left in the fuel tank. That mens you can do another 60 miles before the car runs out. 

[nielshm]

1 hour ago, nielshm said:

This is how my 1.2T works. Bear in mind, that I have the CVT, but fuel consumption is pretty much the same. 

If I do a short 3 mile drive, starting with a cold engine, the Mpg is something like 23.

If I take the car to work, 15 mile drive, no motorway, the Mpg is around 38-40.

On longer trips, the Mpg is 45.

On the motorway, doing 65-70 mph, the mpg is 35.

Please note that the calculated range hits 0, when there is 7 liters left in the fuel tank. That mens you can do another 60 miles before the car runs out. 

Uups, Mpg figures are wrong. These are the right ones:

If I do a short 3 mile drive, starting with a cold engine, the Mpg is something like 28.

If I take the car to work, 15 mile drive, no motorway, the Mpg is around 45-47.

On longer trips, the Mpg is 51.

On the motorway, doing 65-70 mph, the mpg is 42.

Please note that the calculated range hits 0, when there is 7 liters left in the fuel tank. That mens you can do another 60 miles before the car runs out. 

[Danny1.2]

You might be right. When I am on the motorway the trip computer is showing 42ish mpg. Would I be correct in thinking that it would be lower if there was a problem? 

Also, when I bought the car I noticed a grinding nose noise when braking. I called up the dealer and they he said said that it was because of rush on the brakes as the car had been left undriven for a while. 

 

[Konrad C]

I have a 1.8 T27 Avensis estate, and I am currently averaging over 37 mpg. The worst average I have seen is 33 mpg. The car can go 370 miles with at least a couple of bars on the fuel gauge, depending on driving style. I know that my car has 60 litres (13.2 gallons) fuel tank compared to the 50 litres 11 gallons) on the Auris. I fill up from 35 to 47 litres depending how much fuel remains. I do occasional short journeys (uphill to my mum) some journeys across London around the South Circular, local journeys in my borough of Bexley which don't have many 20 mph roads or speed bumps compared to other borough like Greenwich or worse Lewisham, which has a blanket 20 mph on every road it controls. 
I have the tyres pumped to 36 psi which helps, and change up early when possible. The rust of brakes should rub off, depending on how severe the rust is. Hopefully the brakes are not binding. If you live in one of the out London Boroughs near a dual carriageway, go for a drive and lightly press the brakes to clean the discs. If that doesn't work, it will be a new discs and pads. 
I would be disappointed if I couldn't match my current car consumption, if I had your car.    

Edited November 15, 2018 by Konrad C
correction

[Danny1.2]

Thanks for the reply. I am assuming most of your journeys are not short trips if you are achieving that mpg. The trip computer on any runs without traffic that we do does look better. I suppose I should try and get my wife to use the stop start more aswell. Can't hurt. I pumped the tyres to 34 psi each, maybe I will increase them and check the 2 weekly or if the Tpsi lights up. 

[Konrad C]

2 minutes ago, Danny1.2 said:

Thanks for the reply. I am assuming most of your journeys are not short trips if you are achieving that mpg. The trip computer on any runs without traffic that we do does look better. I suppose I should try and get my wife to use the stop start more aswell. Can't hurt. I pumped the tyres to 34 psi each, maybe I will increase them and check the 2 weekly or if the Tpsi lights up. 

I try to avoid traffic and anticipate situations, the best I can. I change the oil once a year - I only do 8000 miles a year. I use 0w-20 grade oil preferred by Toyota, as per owners manual. Be aware, that some dealers may use 5w-30. I once tested the parts man at my local dealer, and he got the grade wrong for my car. He said that 0w-20 is for the hybrids! 
You car has a turbo and produces more torque at lower revs, so should be more efficient.
Every little helps.  

[Motheo]

Some figures from my 1.3 VVTI Auris
I have bettered my fuel consumption to 5.6l/100km, got 845km on that tank and filled in 48L and my tank size is 55L plus this was using Aircon 90% of the time as the temps have warmed up.

95% of the time the car drives on the highway.

[m456an]

Remember tyre pressure will lower in winter as cold air is more compressed. I was hearing strange noises when I braked with my Yaris maybe a couple of months ago. The way I fixed it was to occasionly push the break pedal down with force all the way down when the car was not moving and that was that....one thing I do to improve mpg sometimes is say I am at a lower gear instead of increasing to a higher gear I rev it more and just drive in neutral, especially when going downhill. 

[Danny1.2]

So just to update I filled the tank up with £51.03 of petrol at £1.259 a Litres with 231 so that is a poor 25.909 MPG. I'll be honest, that is not good at all. I was hoping for at worst 30 Mpg.

[furtula]

When comparing on https://www.spritmonitor.de/en that mpg does seem pretty bad.

Do you get the same MPG as your wife, to exclude maybe some bad driving habits she has?

[Danny1.2]

Even with me driving in a light footed manner doesn't make much difference. Some of that driving was with undrinflated tyres. I inflated them 4 days ago and today they were lower already. Is that normal? Is it possible to gauge if there is anything wrong by looking at the instant mpg? Might call the dealer that I bought the car from and mention the brakes as I can still hear a slight grinding noise sometimes.

[Catlover]

Your mpg does seem low, but no experience of a petrol only Auris. (Wife has a hybrid). Low tyre pressures will make mpg worse, as well as wearing tyre faster and unevenly. If tyres are losing pressure in days they need sorting ie testing for leaks, possible valve leakage or slow puncture.

[TonyHSD]

Hello friends, 

small turbo engines are known for poor performance and economy within car business, even Toyota has moved onto a bigger engines size with the new Corolla upcoming, and that’s why would be available only as a Hybrid variant in the UK. 1.2T might sounds alright on paper but in reality they are not as efficient as they should be, simple physics and it’s same with VW, Ford , Vauxhall ect. , however 25mpg its a bit of a high consumption, 30-33mpg for your driving needs would be a more realistic figures. Tyre types and pressures also very important, but most of it it’s how you drive and where you drive and for how long. I personally get 60mpg of my driving with Auris Hybrid first gen and all that from mixture driving motorways 80% and town driving 20%. After I switched to winter tyres mpg went down to around 55mpg and with the cold weather coming will drop at least another 5 but overall I am happy. Been using a small petrol engine car before that and never achieved any good fuel consumption. Small engines can only suits small cars of up to 1 ton weight and driving between towns A and B roads up to the speed limits with smooth acceleration. Best to check with other owners off the same car and compare what they get out of their motors. 

Have a nice weekend 

👍

[FROSTYBALLS]

35 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Toyota has moved onto a bigger engines size with the new Corolla upcoming, and that’s why would be available only as a Hybrid variant in the UK.

More to do with sales - Auris hybrids have outsold petrol and diesel Auris for a while now. Since December 2017 with the choice either being the 1.2T of the 1.8 hybrid, this gap has widened further.