Longer trip fuel economy test of our 2016 Toyota Camry.
Recently we made 580 miles both ways trip and one tank of gas or about 14 gallons wasn’t sufficient to cover the whole distance.
How I estimated fuel economy of 2016 Toyota Camry
Driving conditions
Temperature – 65 F – 80 F
Elevation – 594 – 600 feet
Terrain – Midwest highway practically flat surface
Weather – sunny day, no rain, no major wind gusts
No traffic jams
Speed
80% of the time – cruise control at 74 – 75 mph. Sixth gear is on with minimal acceleration/deceleration factor and downshifting to fifth gear.
Approximately 20 miles – drive mode 60 – 65 mph because of construction.
Less than 10 miles – city driving at 30 – 35 mph.
Load factor
Two adults 150 pounds each plus 35 pounds toddler in the car seat. In addition there was less than 40 pounds of extra cargo in the vehicle.
Distance and stops
The whole trip was slightly less than 600 miles in total. The fuel tank of our 2016 Toyota Camry was filled up just off the highway were I start monitoring the fuel consumption. Final destination was approximately 4 miles off the same highway. No stops on the highway.
Fuel tank capacity and actual gas volume
2016 Toyota Camry has 17 gallons fuel tank according to owner’s manual. Since brand new I’ve never filled even 14 gallons of gas after fuel gauge shows warning signal and 21 to 26 mi distance to empty lights is on. There were no exceptions this time. In other words, I estimated how far the car will go on about 13 gallons of gas.
Monitoring the fuel consumption
During cruising on the highway, computer showed up to 39 miles per gallon fuel consumption, but most of the time current fuel economy was 35 to 36 mpg. It was going down significantly when you off the cruise and accelerating to pass slower moving vehicles.
Actual results
After 445 miles traveled on the highway under practically perfect driving conditions, the warning light “low fuel” went on with notification – 23 miles distance to empty. I drove an extra 7 miles to the nearest gas station and filled 12.9 gallons of gas in empty, according to the fuel gauge, tank. Based to my calculations, actual fuel economy of our 2016 Toyota Camry on the highway is about 35 miles per gallon of regular 87 octane gas.
Accuracy
I cannot say it is 100% accurate results as I didn’t go to absolute empty fuel tank until the vehicle stopped, but just for myself it gives me an idea how far our 2016 Toyota Camry will go between fill ups.
With this test comes slight disappointment. EPA estimated fuel economy on the highway is 35 miles per gallon what I was assuming is some kind of “average” and depend on driving conditions. According to my test, 35 mpg is nearly the top of what is 2016 Toyota Camry is capable of. If there will be an another passenger inside, I will put more load in the trunk and travel in the rain, during winter or constantly up/down hills the high probability the vehicle will consume much more gas.