A Call to Action: MPG Meter Disclosure

Exactly, or at least it could be fixed on new models. A small error is one thing, but when the error is consistently in Toyota's favor the error starts to sound convenient.

Tom

 

Agreed. 16 years later and they're still this far off on such a simple thing? One can only conclude it's intentional.

 

...I just hope the hypermilers putting my 47 MPG average to shame are quoting the real McCoy calc from gaso gallon purchases.

 

you guys have to realize that this car does clock things a little differently than most other ICE cars on the road.. it's calculating electrical draw with gas draw, etc, etc...

i feel lucky enough to be driving such a sophisticated machine. with the mileage we do get... why would i stop to care if it's off by a percent or two (even 5 just to make a point)? i'm glad it gives any mpg reading at all. (a lot of cars still don't)...

i really don't get why people are bashing the trip computers and such... it's the speedometer.. always has.. always will. there should be a way to adjust that. (there usually is... then again... i had a german car before too...) from what i've seen.. most cars on road have a speedometer that isn't 100% correct.

you could always do what i did... larger diameter tires which make the speedometer clock more accurately... until they wear down.... i've done a lot of mile marker test and gps speed test.

 

my point ultimately being, it's the speedometer... with my larger tires, my car is more accurate than a stock prius. people shouldn't have to adjust for this as i have (other purposes involved).

i think the other meters tend to be extremely accurate. they're simply getting wrong baseline information.

one more thing i'll re mention (directly this time) is the tire size... not the oem/aftermarket topic.. but new vs worn tire. there is no way for the computer to calculate this and therefore will always be off either in the first half or the last half of it's life.. or center... wherever the curve falls... people claim there isn't enough change to make a difference but that's BS. when the outer side of the tire changes by up to a few percent.. everything follows goes off too.

the best car has won... go prius... sorry.. was that more priuschat bragging?

final note... get use to it people.. we we starting getting high mpg and more laws intrude into our lives... these things will get more and more odd... then we'll end up suing which doesn't make sense because it's our fault this bureaucratic system is in place anyway. its our fault.. get over it or do something about it yourself (literally) anyone notice the greatest people in history did things and didn't just complain?

 

You are confusing speedometers with odometers. The UN-EU regulation that frequently gets reposted here absolutely does require a bias one way on the speedometer, by allowing *plus* but not *minus*, while the class action lawsuits here in the US whack the manufacturers for warranty fraud for applying a similar bias to the odometer.

 

Cruise control meter isn't even accurate either, but that's expected in all cars.

 

Really don't know where to begin, so might as well pick on your final paragraph:

Do you know what the above means? It's point? Intent? It's totally befuddling to me, LOL.

 

For mileage, it's only clocking gas consumption and distance traveled, just like any other car. The electrical portion is an irrelevant detail. since all of the electrical power is ultimately generated by consuming gasoline.

You mean precise, not accurate. Precision is not the same as accuracy.

Tom

 

How accurate are pump calculations? Are we trusting the pump is properly calibrated and that it clicks off at the same fill point every time?

 

My mpg meter always seem to read around 3 mpg over the calculated figure, rather than a percentage. e.g. last fill up was 46.3 mpg (UK) reading - 43.5 mpg calculated and in the summer when I get 65 mpg readings it calculates to 62 mpg.

 

Gas pump inspection is a state issue, not federal. The "getting caught" part is the kicker. Inspection levels have dropped off with states' fiscal crises, in some areas to zero. In my state, Michigan, pumps are only inspected after a complaint. While inspections are rare, re-inspections after a "fix order" are even rarer. Prosecution is essentially nil.

States have never been very aggressive about pump inspections, and even less aggressive about prosecuting offenders. The following article does a good job explaining the situation:

Is Your Gas Pump Ripping You Off? - CBS News

Tom

 

in WA state i actually busted a gas station back in umm?? 2005 or maybe 2006 and it was verified by State inspection that "validated action" but "did not warrant escalating the issue for refunds"

now what all that meant, i have not a clue other than i did see a consistent 5% variance in favor of the gas station every time i went there.

i did see their inspection stickers updated the same month i received the response (which took about 3 months)

 

Last time I looked into this issue locally, Texas supposedly had five inspectors for the entire state.

The manual for the ultra-gauge suggests using the same pump to minimize pumping errors. To which I'll add, try getting it at the same time of day and hopefully the same temperature too (or reasonably comparable).

 

I don't doubt that happened to you but I think that is unusual in most areas.

The only place I have been clearly scammed by a gas pump was in Mexico in the 1970s. I put over 20 gallons in a saddle tank that only held 18 gallons when run completely dry.

I normally run my tanks close to empty if I am around gas stations and not out in the boonies. If a station pump if far off I'll notice it.

 

This happened on my 2004 which had the bladder so out was hard to get a consistent fill up. it read less than a2% difference between pump and car but it was high/low
I noticed it when I would get 3-4 tanks in a row measuring low. Then I noticed it was the Arco on the west side that was always involved. I was going there even on the neighborhood because they were the cheapest gas in town.

After I filed the report I stopped going there and went back to averaging less than one mpg difference.

 

Today's Vancouver Province paper has a review of the 2012 Camry. The reviewer is pretty excited over the mileage he achieved (6.6 liter/100km).

Several times through the article. He uses the phrases "I actually reset the darned mileage meter numerous times, so skeptical was I" and "the new Camry Hybrid regularly posted fuel economy ratings of..."

But I wonder if he's calculating mileage, or just relying on the dash gauges? If the Camry's displayed mileage is typically optimistic, and reviewers are just accepting the gauges as accurate, and reporting these numbers, it is an incentive for Toyota to perpetuate the fibbing.