Hello,

I recently bought a 4 cylinder 2011 Toyota Camry LE from a used car dealership. 40k miles.

It's only getting 16-18 mpg city and hwy combined! My 2004 camry averaged about 27 mpg so I think something must be seriously wrong to be causing a 10+ decrease in mpg.

Few notes:

1. The mileage was taken by filling up the tank, then driving to half tank and filling back up, then taking the mileage driven and dividing it by the number of gallons it took to fill it back up. I did not go by the "E".

2. There was nothing heavy in the car.

3. An oil change was done when I bought the car. Tires were also replaced with new ones. I got an inspection done at a dealer and they didn't find anything that was wrong (at least through a routine inspection). They said that the car is in good condition.

4. I don't accelerate quickly, don't push the pedal going down hills, and use cruise control on the highways. Half of my driving is in the city but not during traffic hour, and the other half is highway.

5. I've tried sea foam mixed with premium gas - didn't make a noticeable difference.


PLEASE HELP! I appreciate any helpful suggestions. Thanks!

 

If car only has 40K miles then the original factory warranty may still be in affect, read owners manual. Is there any used car dealer warranty?

No need for premium fuel, sea foam should not be required.

Overall MPG should be about the same as other car, if 16-18 MPG then something is wrong.

Find out if car is still under original factory warranty or has a dealer warranty.

Drive through a few tank fulls of fuel to get a better MPG average. Use same gas station as you use for the other car, regular fuel and stop filling when pump nozzle shuts off. If mileage is still 16-18 and car under some kind of warranty take it to the appropriate dealer having the warranty.

If for some reason no warranty post back. No sense digging into car if it is covered under a warranty, and confirm MPG really is 16-18.

 

Thanks so much for your response!

I did purchase a bumper to bumper warranty through the used car dealer.

However, the Toyota dealership where I went for an inspection couldn't find anything wrong with the car that could be causing the low mpg. All we know is that it is getting MUCH less mpg than it should. They, and my friends who work with cards, keep telling me that there are numerous things that could cause it and it's hard to figure out exactly what it is.

Since we can't pinpoint exactly what is causing the low mpg, can I still file a claim through the warranty?

 

A few questions:

Was the used car dealer a Toyota dealer or independent?

Who supports the bumper to bumper warranty, as in what company? Toyota or someone else?

The issues are as follows:

Your warranty support may depend on what company services it. If Toyota should reasonable expect better support, but.

Some dealers are inclined to not want to do warranty work. You state the car gets XX MPG, they look over the car, state all is OK and you go away-end of their problems. Or they state low MPG is because of your driving as in heavy foo

Suggest documenting the low MPG over time and keep records so you can state to shop, over XXXX miles of driving (city, hwy, combined) to document this car gets this MPG in this type of driving. Then present documentation to another dealer (one may respond better then another). If no help, start moving up the chain of customer support but don't expect miracles.

Might also review posts at the Toyotanation website to find others getting low MPG on this car and what they did to get motivate the dealer to fix the problem.

If MPG really is this low, yes there are things that can cause this. Do you want to start repairs on your own at this time?

The real issue may be getting someone to spend their time and money to figure it out rather then just wanting you to go away. But drive a few more miles to make sure you establish firmly what the MPG is.

 

I would be upset if my Camry were only able to get 16 miles per gallon, as well. I would certainly agree that there is some problem, and exactly what the problem is can be difficult to pin down. I would also suggest looking at the warranty as I am almost positive that you have options available. Even an old Camry can get better gas mileage than that. I know of trucks that get better gas mileage. The good news is that Toyota has fantastic customer service for the most part. I hope that your able to sort it out. You are blowing through money in gas when you should easily be getting at least another 100 miles out of a tank of gas compared to what you are getting right now.