I own a 09 1.8L Vibe which uses the same engine and transmission made by toyota nummi. I also notice the oil consumption problem.

However, I think that I find the reason.

The car has 3-D, 2, L. I always assumed it meant 3=D, and there's nothing in the owner's manual to suggest otherwise.
But it is not ture. "3" and "D" are two different gears. You can bump the lever to the right to get into D, and bump the lever to the left to get into 3.

When I use "3", the engine is noisy, especially when the speed is more than 80km/h, and the RPM is always between 3000-4000 or even higher, which I think made the engine consume more engine oil (High tempreture and High RPM). Also, the mileage is poor.

When I use "D", the engine is quite, especially when the speed is more than 80km/h, and the RPM is always between 2000-3000 which I think made the engine consume less engine oil (Low tempreture and Low RPM).
And the mileage is good.

I may be stupid. I noticed the difference between "3" and "D" after driving my car for more than 2500 km (2000 miles). Before that time, most of the time of driving, I was using "3" instead of "D". So I had a oil consumption problem and poor mileage on my vibe 09.

Now, I am using "D" gear during my driving, the oil consumption problem seems gone and the mileage is really good now.

I hope my experience can help others.

Any comments are welcome.

Thanks for the laugh.:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Stubble, it's not that funny. The 2009 Corolla owners manual is written in computer geek talk accompanied by tiny electronic drawings. So while the manual is fine for the few owners who have a degree in computer science, it is difficult for ordinary people to figure out the vague, abbreviated directions for operating the 4-speed automatic transmission and difficult to comprehend the drawings.

There is a night and day difference between the clarity of a 1989 Corolla manual vs a 2009 and best of all was the 1978 manual which had large, actual photographs of the controls.

Dont feel bad.
I had a rental Rav in Arizona.
I thought the mpg sucked.
Then on the last day I found OD.

I can't really believe you had the Corolla in third gear and not 4th. Boy, that must have been a little loud with the chipmunks in the engine running at 65 mph. You couldn't hear the engine revving very loudly at hwy. speeds and you thought that was normal? You must be new to driving? Don't feel bad, when I drove my 07' Tundra off the lot, the salesman at Toyota thought by shifting the automatic lever on the floor left to 4 meant it was in top gear instead of just leaving it in D for 6th gear. I corrected him and he felt really stupid since we were BSing with one of the sales managers at the time. I have drove my 5.7L Tundra in 4th gear going 60 mph and it is really loud and torquey, but very poor on gas as expected.