If you're wondering about alternatives... http://www.greenwheels.com.au/buyersguide/ NO SUV gets a better grade, only Fiat 500 Sedan & other minicars get better miladge. PS. I know that the site rates new cars by poluttion, not mpg. Be great to find one that looks solely @ MPG, preferably with older cars/trucks. I have little doubt the mini truck will come out on top, at least in the 4x4 category.
i'll be picking up my mini truck this week, i'm eager to see what it gets MPG wise. but i know from my old toyota truck, when i babied it and short shifted it, it ran poorly, clogged up the catalytic converter, and smelled terrible. i had a mechanic tell me to put the spurs to it and run it hard... believe it or not, running the gears our further improved the fuel economy and performance.
Shell Gasoline gets better miles per gallon I was using just what ever i come across and whatever was the cheapest gas,until my brother in law told that he was getting better mpg out of his Ford F-150 using Shell gas. So I decided to give it a shot and I was getting 34 to 35 mpg with the other gas and now that i switched over to shell i am now getting 38 mpg. So it is some difference in the gas you buy
My Mits was runny poorly and someone warned me they saw me fill up at the one we call "Last Gasp". Told me the bikers all filled up there after the toy-ride and on the way back to PG they all stalled out from water in the gas. Sure enough I'd done 3 fills there. Went back to Petrocan and it runs fine again. Won't use anything but theirs or Chevron ever again.
The imperial oil depot in Toronto..park across the street and watch the tankers coming out..every gas station you can think of leaving with tankers from the same depot..Do they add something once its in the ground or is branding just b.s?...I can see some underground tanks maybe getting water in them or unscrupulous dealers adding some water to try and scam some $
my dad has been in the petroleum industry for about 25 years now. he's done everything from driving the tankers to running the refineries as well as formulating everything from pump to race gas. a lot of independent tank lines deliver fuel for the branded stations. so just because it comes from a "no name" tank lines doesn't mean it's a "no name" fuel. but you are right. the base fuel is all the same and each company has their own addatives for their own deliveries.
perfect example is right here in Saskatchewan. there is "Co-op" stores here with their own gas stations, and a refinery in Regina. When that big storm knocked out the refineries in Alberta, the Co-op refinery in Regina was supplying fuel to Esso, Gas bar, Fast Gas, Mohawk, Husky, Shell and Petro Canada.
30-32mpg is typical for our Mitsu. I have had as bad as 20mpg but that was before a new air cleaner element and plug cleaning. I run 13" tires on alloy wheels so that tweaks the outcome for sure. I think the claims for 40-50mpg are pure bunk!
Not really. If you measure it at low speeds and do your sales pitch from Canada where the gallons were bigger! Even GM is running ads here quoting mpg, because it looks so much better than L/100 kms. Might get themselves nailed for it though, 'gallons' aren't a legal measure here anymore.
ya i caught my dad on that figuring out mpg. he was going miles per canadian gallon.. well miles and gallons are for usa so should be american gallons if you want a true MPG rating right? he doesn't really understand liters per 100km yet... lol say 10L/100km. so 10 liters @ pump prices of say .959 atm would = $9.59 an hour on the highway lol.
I've got a 2002 Subaru TW2 van with fuel injection. I put new plugs and air filter in. It runs great but can only manage about 28 MPG. I drive all speeds (up to 100KPH for about 5 miles at a time to and from work). Is there anything else I can check or replace to improve my mileage? I would also like to mention that whenever I come to a stop it idles rough for about 2 seconds and then smooths out. Any ideas would be helpful.
17 kilometers per litre last tank = 40 mpg US gallon approximately..or around 46 mpg gallon imperial gallon
I'm running at 7.5L/100km around the lower mainland right now, that's about 37.5 miles per imperal gallon ....
Sambar MPG FYI I have accepted the fact that 28 to 31 mpg is all that there is for this SC, TT2. It runs smooth, pulls hard, will do 75 mph on the freeway, starts out fine in second gear, but it seems that 45 mph in 5th would be optimal for top mpgs. Most driving around here is at 50 on two lane. I won't be the independent road block for a couple more mpgs. People have llives to get on with, and I'll not be the one slowing them down. It may actually be a little better mpg as I am running on oversized 13" 70 series tires, but the trade in rpms to roll resistance should keep me pretty much in the same place. I'm with all the folks saying, "30 mpg, live with it." It's supercharged, baby! Rick Melloh 2001 SC TT2 2002 9-5 Linear Wagon 1987 535iS (sweet) 1987 4wd 'Burb 1995 Kubota B2100 1995 EZ Go 36v cart (I love listing all this scrap iron)
I make 30 miles per US gallon to be about 7.65L/100km or roughly what I'm getting right now. That doesn't sound so bad really ....
Part time. The 2001 SC TT2 has electronic 4wd, a little button on the top of the shifter is pressed to engage or disengage on the fly. A green "4wd" indicator light comes on in the dash display. No high/low range. Technically, it's a 6 speed with an extra low gear at the bottom. Only when engaging extra low, will the 4wd automatically engage. In a straight line, it appears to burn two tracks on a dirt road in 2wd. In 4wd it definitely "locks up". Backing up on a grade in gravel (our driveways), I have to put it in 4wd or it won't go anywhere. One wheel tries to dig a hole to you know where. That rear engine/tranny is too small to make the rear end heavy enough for good traction. I have to remember that the extra low forward gear is much lower than reverse. It is possible to go forward into situations that are impossible to back out of, due to a lack of power in reverse. My brother-in-law recently pointed out that the chassis is so stiff that while observing me tooling around in the "back 40", in 4wd, on uneven ground, a wheel often comes off the ground churning when quartering over dips in the terrain. Everything is lumpy around here. The brother-in-law, from Illinois, fell in love with the Sambar and is now actively searching for one in his vicinity. He's the Greenup, IL road agent, and loves a smart truck. On his visit, he got up early every day he was here, warmed the frost off the Sambar and took it for a drive. He couldn't keep his hands off. It was a touching tribute to the Sambar.
Yah, I've come to the conclusion that the Turbo 660 Every would be way more comfortable to drive around, it even has a lower rear end ratio for less revs... Well, I shouldn't complain, the N/A one is doing fine by me, just have to rev it out in 3rd a bit because 4th is spaced a little farther out than optimum ....
Well, I just to Seattle and back today. Weird weather on this trip, wet snow, hail, rain, and beautiful blue sky all on a 2½ hour drive! I kept between 80-85 Km/hr most of the time (verified using GPS) which is about 4500rpm - 4800rpm and averaged 7.1L/100km which is about 39.6 miles per imperial gallon. Van behaved great on the highway except for the sidewinds, I think I'll have to fit the sideskirts on and try that again and see if they help with that. I got passed by everything on I5 though!
39.6 mpg. Way to go oldatsunfan. That sounds exactly like what we had hoped for in our mini. You should be real happy with that. That pretty, blue, little bus pushes a lot of air. I'm impressed. They may be slower, but the minis with normally aspirated engines seem to give the good mpg. Skirts should definitely help in those crosswinds, and you should get beter mpg too (hard to imagine). My neighbor with a real '71 VW bus has skirts and says they make a big difference. I don't like passing big rigs on the freeway. They toss the Sambar TT2 around pretty hard. I am loath to try it with rain or snow added to the mix. I like to find a big rig going 60 to 65mph, settle in a safe distance behind and follow. If they slow down, I slow down. If they speed up, they'll probably leave me behind. Its a totally different driving experience from my old '87 535iS or our turbo Saab 9-5, where one simply puts everything behind and keeps an open road ahead. Too bad the Beamer only gets 23 mpg. 80 to 85 Km/hr on the I-5?! That is 49.6 to 52.7 MPH. That must be scary for everyone. I'm sure that little engine would enjoy 5500 to 6000 rpms every once in a while. It would even be good for it, and you might not get rear-ended and thrown into the puckerbrush. A big rig driver going 75 mph and texting his wife on the cell phone would hardly know he hit you. Thadump! "What the hell was that? Oh well, miles to go....." Rick
Well, it was interesting at that speed Rick! I got passed by a genuine T2 transporter and the guy did a double take when he passed me and slowed back down to have a better look! I don't think anyone really minded, I just stayed in the slow lane and everyone went around me eventually .... I noticed that the N/A engine in 5th gear would hold 85km/hr on the uphill stretches easier than 80km/hr which tells me that it is producing peak hp closer to 5000rpm than 4500rpm. Wish someone had a dyno chart on the N/A 657cc Suzuki motor somewhere so I could tell better. I really didn't want to push the van too hard, breaking down in the US in the snow would suck! I did have the beast up as high as 105km/hr once .... I got a lot of looks when I got passed though, no driver, heh! My friends in Seattle that are into old Datsuns loved it though. The oversized, all season tires really helped on the drive down on the highway. Going through the snow (it was only ½ inch deep and slushy) was interesting too in the dark. Driving I really need to fix the exhaust now, had the stereo way up to cover the engine noise. I was really hoping for a sub 7L/100km on that run, I guess I'll need to fiddle around with the engine next. I had changed the oil out for 10W30 just for that run and I'll do a short oil change next month to 5W30 for the winter here. Lots of stuff to work on for sure since the van was a project when I bought it. I think I'd cheerfully trade the N/A engine for the Turbo version though, even at the expense of a little fuel economy, after all we have some to give up eh?
eh.. its my larger truck but im going to track my mileage to arkansas and back. I leave on monday. i got a bigger motor, but i weigh more to... 2l diesel and 1450kg tare. dads subaru is 640kg.
Who know's, Jason, maybe a turbo 660 won't hurt the mpg performance at all, other than by changing the way that you drive. Do you know for sure that it will? It sure doesn't cause a setback in all the big Saabs we have owned. If a 3800 lb luxury sedan can get 30 mpg, why can't our 1685 lb mini get 35? Aerodynamics, power to weight ratio, gearing? I think a little of all of these. They are geared crazy low so they can break inertia on the heavy load capacity relative to hp/torque. I was fantasizing about taking the Sambar to a local trap next summer, checking out the 1/4 mile elapsed time and giving the crowd a good chuckle. I could probably win a trophy in my displacement class. Good for a laugh. Better yet, show up with a few more minis for some real competition. We could burn up a whole afternoon waiting for a half dozen minis to cover the 1/4 mile. Hey Stuff99. Saskatchewan to Arkansa, whew, that's a long, long road trip. Good travels to ya. Heading south for the winter? Sounds good to me. Rick
You know Rick, I think it would balance out with a turbo 660. The rear end ratio for the Suzuki changes from 6.8 to 6.4 for the turbo 5 speed I believe and it sure would drive the van better with a 25% increase in power. I think the milage on the highway is largely aero limited, after all it's like driving a fridge end on down the highway ! As a side note that long Seattle run did use a bit of oil, which I expected at a constant higher rpm, good thing I went with the 10W30. I wonder how an automatic goes with the Turbo, there's an Every up by me for sale now, Turbo 660 automatic with a lot of work done for a pretty reasonable price too! I must resist temptation :sly:!
16 kilometers per litre last trip(95 kph average) with 300+lb passenger (seatbelt was a riot he finally got it on and it wasn't coming off) so approx 4 litres per US gallon=64 km per gallon=41 mpg..odd cause with just me in it I never get that good mileage at that speed hhhmmm:sly:
Perhaps it's because the extra weight up front dropped the nose down enough to improve the high speed aerodynamics?
