[754] Fuel Economy

"7.67km/L on my Rav4. Biggest change? I was driving.

Edit: Previous top ups (including this one) 7.67km/L, 5.09km/L, 6.6km/L, 6.16km/L, 6.51km/L.

Driving style affects consumption A LOT. Also traffic. One other notable change was leaving the house earlier to bring my daughter to school to avoid traffic. Ten minute difference was a major factor."

- My Facebook post earlier today.

I drive a 2001 Toyota Rav4 AWD with a 2.0L 1AZ-FE engine. It is obviously an old car, and for quite a few years I've always had an issue with the fuel consumption.

This past week I had to drive my daughter to school and pick her up. This was a bit concerning for me since the price of gasoline here is relatively high right now and I know that the Rav wasn't exactly a fuel efficient car.

As a quick reference, I've heard that some 2nd generation Honda Jazz get 8 - 10 km/L consumption in heavy traffic. 8 - 10 km/L! How I wish I could experience that consumption.

Anyway, I had noticed that I was spending quite a lot almost every week for the gasoline of the Rav4. And now that I had to use it everyday to bring my daughter to school, I knew it was time to see if I could improve the consumption. As you read from my FB post above, I did.

The biggest change that happened was I drove it almost exclusively. My driving style is quite different from my Mom's driver, who normally brings my daughter to school and fetches her. I anticipate when to let off the accelerator. I try to make sure I keep the engine revving smoothly. And when it's an open road I make sure I move near the street legal top speed. Also, I stay in my lane and avoid snaking in and out of traffic.

Another change that greatly helped improve fuel economy was leaving earlier. Traffic sucks in the Philippines. Ten minutes is a big deal in traffic. We left ten minutes earlier, around 5:50 am and we normally got to my daughter's school around 6:20 am. Before when they left around 6 am they would get to school around 6:45 am or so.

Finally, I'm not sure if this helped but I put in 100 octane fuel instead of the minimum recommended 95 octane. Hopefully putting in a higher octane fuel helped de-clog the fuel lines or clean the engine. I don't know. For all I know using higher octane fuel did no difference.

You can imagine my surprise when I computed for the consumption of the Rav4. I was very pleased with it, but I also know that consumption will go back down once someone else starts driving my car. Oh well, at least I was able to get a little more bang for the buck in my last top up.

Out.