I live in San Francisco and drive my Hybrid Toyota Camry about 90% of the time in the city (up and down hills, with stops, etc.). I am getting much lower MPG than I was lead to expect I would get, and it seems to be getting lower. After 10 tanks, I'm getting under 27 MPG. The dealer tells me this is probably due to driving in San Francisco - they can find nothing wrong with my car. But Toyota continues to advertise via billboards in San Francisco: "40 MPG City. Any City" -- which certainly implies that they are referring to mileage in San Francisco and is the primary reason I bought this car. I'd love to hear the experiences of others who drive in San Francisco - so please respond. Thanks!

 

Hi Terry,
I also live in S.F. and while my driving ratio is exactly opposite your's, 90% freeway/10% city, I am experiencing the same thing with the city portion of my driving. I live on top of a pretty big hill so I find that in one direction of my trip (the downhill part), I will get pretty good mileage and on the return trip (uphill part), it totally kills the mileage. Hard for me to give you exact mileage stats since I don't do a lot of city driving but I'm pretty sure I get somewhere in the high 20s low 30s. I find it pretty helpful if you plan a route with a bunch of stop lights that you can time vs. a bunch of 4 way stops. Unless you have a really light touch on the gas, the constant starting and stopping seems to wreak havoc on the mileage.


Yeah, there's one of those billboards on one of the exits I take to get to my house. I always think, "any city -- expect San Francisco".
I'm sure Toyota rated this for a city that's relatively flat with minimal stop and go traffic where you can remain in Electric mode most of the time.



Mark

 

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...ad.php?t=10243

Same post by you 4 months ago. You didn't get enough feedback back then that you didn't do proper research before purchasing your car? OK, I will say it again... there was no false advertising by Toyota, and you didn't do research on the TCH, so you bought the wrong car.

I drive from Gilroy to Monterey every day, so I drive thru the hills of Prunedale, and I only get 34mpg on the highway. I think that's great, and I know I will never expect to see the 38mpg highway which the TCH is rated. How do I know this? BECAUSE I DID RESEARCH ON THE CAR BEFORE I BOUGHT IT, SO I KNEW WHAT I WAS GETTING.

 

I also have a short commute with a few hills (although not nearly as bad as SF), and I knew right off the bat that there was no way I would get 40 mpg. When I first got the car I was stressing about every 0.1 mpg tank average and I decided that it just wasn't worth worrying about. It is what it is and I drive how I drive. To be honest, I didn't buy the car for just the mpg--I bought it because it's cool and geeky and I needed a family sedan. If mpg was my only criteria I would have gone with a much smaller and lighter car, but I needed something that wouldn't bounce into orbit if a Nissan Armada hit it. I also liked the safety features of the Camry Hybrid, I liked the CVT, and I felt comfortable in the car.

That said, if you bought the car specifically and ONLY to get better gas milage in San Francisco I agree with the other posts that it's not the right car for your situation. I'd trade it in for a much lighter and smaller car with a better turning radius--it'll make parking in San Francisco a lot easier also (I've lived there, I know how it is). My .02 --benny

 

Thanks for the responses. In response to Flopshot: no, I clearly did not research this enough if in San Francisco I can only get 67% of the mileage that Toyota advertises -- in San Francisco -- that I should be getting. But if that's not false advertising, please explain why not. And do you work for Toyota by any chance?

 

We could never get better than about 32mpg in SF, with an 02 Prius, but it always would make 40 or better on the peninsula. The hills are just too steep and you can't recapture all the energy expended, since some is lost to friction braking, you can't anticipate lights, and the ICE works so hard on the hills.

The important point is that you should still be getting a lot more than what a conventional Camry would be doing in the same conditions, which would probably be high teens. The SF cab drivers using Escape hybrids are getting 2-3 times the mpg of the Crown Vics with similar weight.

 

I would agree with John above. You are definitely getting better mileage than the conventional 4-cylinder Camry. There is probably no car out there that's the same size as the TCH that's going to get close to those number (except for the new Altima Hybrid).

 

I wonder. The 4 cylinder weights 3263, and the TCH is 3637. That's 374 more pounds that is being lugged up those very steep San Francisco hills. --benny

 

No, I don't work for Toyota. And you can get the stated mileage in any city INCLUDING San Francisco. All you have to do is avoid all the hills. From AT&T Park, drive all the way around the Embarcadero to Pier 39. I bet you will get 40mpg, just like the EPA-rated city mileage. If you drive the other way from AT&T Park, take 101 down to Candlestick Park, I bet you can achieve the 38mpg highway rating. Therefore, no false advertising.

 

I live in Tampa (not hilly at all!) and try to drive as conservatively as possible. The maximum mpg that I can get is 29.1 right now (it has been the worst since the last fill up). I was getting 32 mpg prior to that if I tried really hard. I notice that per the display, the engine is kicking on mostly all the time with the battery seldomly being used. Is anyone else experiencing this? I've had my car about 9 mos. now and was expecting much better mileage. I also did have to have the main battery pack in the trunk replaced in under 2000 miles. I can't help but think that something is not working properly in my car, but the Service Manager insists my car has no problems. I also can ONLY get my mpg up if I drive my car on the highway, opposite of what the hybrid cars are supposed to do.

Any feedback would be much appreciated!