Starlet Fuel Economy

[ashley karyl]

Yesterday I purchased a really smart little automatic Starlet for my wife with full service history that had only done 45000 miles from new. She drove it for the first time and somehow managed to crash it into the front of our house while parking after just 5 minutes. Nobody was injured but it did a fair bit damage to the house and also some to the Starlet, though the mechanic tells me its nothing serious.

On another subject I have only driven the car about 70 miles so far and while I was happy with the way it drove I had been appalled at how bad the fuel economy is having gone through about 1/3rd of a tank of fuel driving steadily, which seems excessive for a small car. My manual 1.8 Carina is miles better as was an ancient automatic Mazda 626 so I wanted to ask if anybody else is seeing this kind of terrible economy on the automatic Starlet and what the cause may be? I mentioned this to the mechanic who said he could take a look at the points etc to make sure that everything was OK but his basic theory was that any automatic would suffer badly for economy. Certainly the Micra seems vastly better.

[Boro Sera]

Dunno about the Starlets, but in the Sera community it's substantially more economical to drive a manual than an auto.

It could be something completely unrelated that's making the car a bit thirsty though - see what your mechanic comes up with

Good luck

[ashley karyl]

I've just filled it up for the first time and clearly it has a much smaller fuel tank than my other Toyota. With the needle flat on the empty line it took £37 to fill up compared to more than £60 on the Carina, so perhaps that explains some of my perception of how much petrol was being used but I shall now keep a check on how many miles I do to see what sort of economy I get in practice.

[Boro Sera]

A lot depends on the type of driving you do, and how 'enthusiastic' you are ! :D

Not sure on the Starlet manual MPG, but someone may be able to answer this - if nothing else it'll give you some comparisons.

[ashley karyl]

A lot depends on the type of driving you do, and how 'enthusiastic' you are ! :D

I am very gentle with the car and drive at a steady pace both around town and on a run but the wife seems to enjoy crashing it into our house so I guess that evens it out

[MattyCD]

my Manual Starlet takes very little petrol and lasts forever! there must be a problem with yours

[jamesholden]

It's probably more to do with the small tank and the fact that the Starlet's are only 3-speed auto's. Rather than potter upto speed you'll probably find its more economical to get up to speed quickly so you cruise the furthest distance in the cruising gear.

[Beagh1958]

Collected Starlett Spotiff 1332cc Automatic from Uk. Averaged around 38 to 40 mpg ? at steady speed 60 to 70 mph on way back. Around village with stop/start motoring will do around 30mpg maybe a little bit more. They do have a small fuel tank, other family member has same car over in UK & gets roughly the same fuel consumption. Autos are not as economical as manuals, on the upside they are absolutely brilliant cars if looked after properly.

[ashley karyl]

Collected Starlett Spotiff 1332cc Automatic from Uk. Averaged around 38 to 40 mpg ? at steady speed 60 to 70 mph on way back. Around village with stop/start motoring will do around 30mpg maybe a little bit more. They do have a small fuel tank, other family member has same car over in UK & gets roughly the same fuel consumption. Autos are not as economical as manuals, on the upside they are absolutely brilliant cars if looked after properly.

I filled up the other day and have driven around 120 miles since then. Its suggesting that I have used just over quarter of a tank but I am expecting the needle to start moving down more quickly now and I'll be curious to see what sort of economy we get. Its not an entirely fair test right now because part of this mileage is being done by my wife who is tending to accelerate and then slow down rather than cruising at a smooth pace. She passed her test in a manual 4 years ago but has only driven a few times since and needs some daily practice to gain confidence and a little road sense. The Nissan Micra auto seems to get much better economy reaching about 42mpg around town and better obviously on a run but the couple I saw with dealers just seemed very over priced and overall I preferred the feel of the Starlet.

Our Starlet is the Auto Solida from 99 which is a 1.3i I believe so I don't know how that is different from from the Sportif. Looking through the paperwork I can see that every service and repair was carried out at Toyota dealers and the cambelt was changed just two months ago, so that really inspires me to keep it in good shape. Most likely I shall sell the Carina now which I don't really want to do but its hard for us to justify running two cars from a cost perspective while I work from home. The Carina is a brilliant all round car and I love the way it eats ups the miles with no stress on longer trips.