Highlander Gas Mileage, Tips & Octane

[dupont24]

Guys the EPA est. for milage is just that, Toyota has nothing to do with it. Also if you buy gas from the bigger gas companies your milage will be lower (Exxon for example) Try a smaller company like Hess or even Sunoco. Also syn oil helped me gain almost 2 miles to the gal. My Tundra does 20 on the Highway, 16.5 around town.

[P.M]

Originally Posted by rsvees

Also if you buy gas from the bigger gas companies your milage will be lower (Exxon for example) Try a smaller company like Hess or even Sunoco.

Although I avoid Exxon like the plague (haven't used it in years, for performance reasons), what's your reasoning behind this?

[dupont24]

Originally Posted by P.M

Although I avoid Exxon like the plague (haven't used it in years, for performance reasons), what's your reasoning behind this?

Just from trying different brands and always checking my milage, Exxon/Mobil gives me 1-2 miles less per gallon then Hess.

[charlie]

I strongly considered the 4 cly Highlander when we were shopping for a SUV.It lost out to the Pilot because the Pilot had a lot more interior room for the 2 greyhounds and 4 adult sized people on long trips.It is rated at 17-22.Now the 22 is doablemif you keep you speed down,but the 17 is a bad joke.We get 14mpg city-same as the V-8 Tundra-in the city-sometimes worse-12mpg.We once got 12mpg highway doing 80mph in hills with a big roofbasket on top.With the roof basket,and doing 75mph we only get 15-17mpg highway.Hard to believe the Tundra does as well as thwe Pilot;they are the same weight,and hp,but I expected the V-6,with a much lower,and smaller profile would do a bit better.Oh well,Charlie

[BRealistic]

http://www.auto.com/industry/iwira26_20021026.htm

[BT-22]

was getting 14.5 on my tundra city/highway mix, mostly city.

Now I'm getting 13-13.5 mpg!

My friend had a 4runner a few years back and he said it sucked up gas like crazy.

[Brian M]

Sequoia only gets around 12-14mpg in town driving. 18-20 on the Highway.

Parents Highlander V6 gets in the low 20's on the highway. That is alot of truck for a 4cyl to haul around.....big mistake folks make is buying the small engine for mileage purposes but not realize how hard it has to work.

[charlie]

Hi,what sort of mileage are you getting with 4 cyl Highlanders-city hy?I did a search here and The only actual numbers I could find were one guy getting 21mpg hy(pretty bad in light of 27 EPA).Thanks,Charlie

[toad]

Originally Posted by charlie

Hi,what sort of mileage are you getting with 4 cyl Highlanders-city hy?I did a search here and The only actual numbers I could find were one guy getting 21mpg hy(pretty bad in light of 27 EPA).Thanks,Charlie

Charlie,
I have the 3.3 v6 in my wifes highlander. We took it to Suncity Grand
in Nov. And got low 18.8 high 24. Around town in warm weather we
get about15-17.5 in city. Hope this helps. Toad

[charlie]

Toad,thanks,that is better than our Pilot-13.8 in AC weather city driving,15.1 in the cold months city.We get as bad as 13mpg(at 82mph with a big roof basket) and as high as 23(at 60-62mph0 highway.It can get the 22mpg hy,but no way the 17mpg city.Thanks,Charlie PS Where is Suncity Grand??Las Vegas? PPS There must be some 4cyl cheapskates(like me) who bought the 4cyl to get better mpg,out there??

[garylamm]

I have a 02 highlander 4cyl, 4wd. We get 19-20 around town and the BEST we ever got was 23. This was on 93 octane and 8 Hrs of highway driving. This is the only this I am unhappy with about the highlander. The 4 cyl has plenty of power. The 27-mpg must be the 2wd version. Get the V6 or wait for the 05 Hybrid

[Rlockyer]

Getting 22 to 23 in a decent mix with the '04 Rav4... same 2.4 as the Highlander.
Highlander being heavier and a bit bigger would probably be doing very well to get 23.
Our best tank was all highway at a little over 24.
Still only about 3,000 on it, so it's barely broken in.

[breugel]

On my 2004 Limited I am getting 23 MPG with 75% Highway and 25% City with regular "87 Oct" and 28 MPG 75% Highway and 25% City with premium "93 Oct". Is this normal for the 3.3 Liter? I know the manual says you will get better performance with premium but 5 MPG.

[gman]

I have been testing all three grades - 87, 89, and 93 on my Limited. Not only has the gas mileage improved the higher the octane, but also the power and pickup has been much better. The manual says you can use 87, but I will never put less than 89 in it again.

I found two mpg difference between the 89 and 93 and the performance seemed to be the same, so I may stay with 89, but I am going to defintiely keep playing with it.

Let us know what else you discover - particularly regarding performance.

[breugel]

It defenetly has more pep with Premium.