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A mini truck test drivers testimony 57 MPG

Discussion in 'General Truck Info' started by Griz, Feb 10, 2009.

  1. Griz

    Griz Member

    I loaned my 5 speed Daihatsu to a friend and ask that they write me a report on how it went. Two days later we had a ice storm & I got a call asking if it was ok to drive my truck on these bad road conditions. I said it was ok with me but to be safe. Here is the report:

    2-9-09
    I don't usually write to car companies, but after two weeks of hard driving,
    I just had to let you know what I thought of the Daihatsu mini-truck.
    In a word -- "wow".
    The first week was the week of the ice and snow storm.
    In fact the mini-truck got caught out in the parking lot at work during the
    ice part of the storm. I didn't expect much from the defroster, but lo-and-behold
    it started working right away, and the ice melted in no time. I thought the
    drive home would be dicey, but the push-button four-wheel drive took me
    the entire 17 plus miles of my commute without one slip, skid, or slide.

    When next I drove the mini-truck, the snow had fallen and frozen,
    but the four-wheel drive worked just as well as it had before. I had
    absolutely zero problems getting around, which is more than I can
    say for the postal truck I passed bogged down in the snow.

    As I mentioned before, I have a 17-plus-mile commute one-way to work
    from Broken Arrow to downtown Tulsa. Thirteen of those miles are on
    two expressways. With only three cylinders to its name, I knew the Daihatsu
    was not going to be cruising at 75 miles per hour. It had no trouble at all,
    however, in maintaining the minimum speed of 40 on Highway 169 and 35
    on the Broken Arrow Expressway. My average speed was 50.6 mph.
    Curiously, no one tailgated, honked, or made obscene gestures ever.
    I did get a lot of smiles and waves. I think they realized I was pedaling
    as fast as I could. Actually that speed, through a five-speed manual
    transmission coupled with the attitude that the expressways were
    nothing more than streets without stop signs enabled me to get
    57 and 54 miles per gallon.
    I'm sure a motorcycle could do better, but a motorcycle doesn't have a heater,
    air-conditioning, am/fm radio, clock, and cassette player
    (if you can find a cassette to play in it). A Prius might do as well,
    but you aren't going to get a Prius for $5,000 either.
     
  2. Mighty Milt

    Mighty Milt Active Member

    i typically attribute these high MPG claims to bad math. everyone gets confused calculating kilometers to miles. most of the people i have seen were figuring up kilometers per gallon not miles per gallon. and upon recalculating find that it is more in the 35mpg. 1KM = .62miles. if you take that 57 (probably kilometers per gallon) and multiply it by .62... it will be 35 which is probably the actual MILES per gallon.
     
  3. rayallen

    rayallen Member

    Milt...I agree with you but hey look at the fun you can have just driving it. Muskogee Oklahoma has one of the best 3/8 mile dirt circle race tracks in the country. I went there for a while today and noticed the owner looking at my truck.........wonder if we are going to get a class to race there, hehe. Okies get them trucks ready, we are racing, hehe. ray allen
     
  4. oldsnowman

    oldsnowman Member

    yep you are right...gas mileage is not important when it come to these little trucks...there just tooooo much fun to drive.
    there has been a lot of talk about gas mileage on this forum so i did my own, and milt is right, a lot of people have trouble converting:). but i grew up with standard miles and gallons and the best i ever got was 35 mpg on the hyway (at 100kph) and 45 mpg in town. now i was being good and not trying to race the guy next to me at the lights, this is not the real world but that what i got, but rippin' up the town is way more run:D:D...i do a lot more of that.:cool:
    wyatt


     
  5. Rickster

    Rickster Member

    My favorite gas mileage story happened to my dad. About 20 years ago he was helping my grandma (his mom) shop for a used car. They found one that was about 15 years old and low miles owned by a (you guessed it) little old lady. The car was a good buy, but my dad wanted to make sure the fuel economy was decent before they sealed the deal. He asked her about the gas mileage and she said that she filled it up in March (this was May!) and she had been to illinois and back and just recently had to fill it back up!

    Illinois! Heck that is like 800 miles from Oklahoma. So my dad repeated what she said back to her, but he said "you mean you drove that car to Illinois and back on one tank of gas?" And she said "oh No, I flew to illinois and satayed a month with my sister". Old people, you gotta love em, cause your gonna be one someday.

    He bought the car and she drive it until she died 10 years later.
     
  6. Windmill

    Windmill Member

    That was a good story Rickster.
     
  7. jtpc

    jtpc Member

    I can see close to 40mpg if only in the city with coasting and all. This is with a well tuned/maintained 2004 Daihatsu.
    So yeah, 57mpg is pretty much impossible. :)

    I like my mini-truck, but I sure wouldn't be caught driving it on 169 to Tulsa. Just too scary! I have to be careful in my big truck when in the Tulsa area. City drivers are nuts.
     
  8. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    I gotta remember that one, Rickster! :D And nice post, Griz!
     
  9. oldsnowman

    oldsnowman Member

    i should ad to my last post...canadian gallons are bigger (about 4.5L) than us gallons (about 4L) so we can go farther on our gallons, so our mpg is going to be higher. i think my truck would be doing about 31mpg on the hyway on us gallons, and about 40mpg in town. i hope this help people sort out some of these mileage claims.:)
    wyatt
    remember it all for fun...this spring i am going to do a rippin' around town gas mileage...its going to low but its going to fun!!:D
     
  10. ukmicro

    ukmicro Member

    Bear in mind I use UK gallons 4.54 litres = 1Gall
    55mph highway gave me 36MPG Speed was checked using GPS and that also worked as my trip counter.

    Not bad for first long run and that was with A/C on.:)
     
  11. jtpc

    jtpc Member

    That's fine, but we're talking US gallons here. Even with US gallons, 30-40mpg is the usual on a stock truck.
    In canada, using imperial gallons, they would be 50 (imp) gallons from what I understand.
    But yeah, with US gallons, these little trucks top out a little over 40 usually (that is usually with city/conservative driving).
     
  12. confuzed

    confuzed Member

    around town i got 38 mpg (can) but prefer to measure in smiles per mile be it mine or others would drive it if it got 5 mpg that much fun
     
  13. jtpc

    jtpc Member

    :) true, its hard to find little trucks that have the same fun-factor.
     
  14. Windmill

    Windmill Member

    I like that smiles for miles. Would that be "sfm" ? There are days that I hate being at work. I coould be whizing around town in my Mini. Made up a t shirt with a picture of my Honda in the snow. Put a tag across the top that said Snow Patrol 2009. Cannot wait for it to come in.
     
  15. Griz

    Griz Member

    Response to typically attribute these high MPG claims to bad math.
    I couldn't say anything before as I was not the one who did the figuring, but I checked and it was
    "calculated by taking the sum of my known distances to work, to the grocery store, to church, etc.in miles and dividing the total miles by the number of gallons of gas put in the tank when it needed a refill". (using 1 KM = .62 miles)
     
  16. Griz

    Griz Member

    I wanted to pass this info along. I now have a tach on my 5 speed Daihatsu and this is what I found.
    KMH RPM MPH
    20 1100 12.4
    30 1600 18.6
    40 2100 24.9
    60 3200 37.3
    80 4100 49.7
    90 4600 55.9
    100 5100 62.1
    110 5600 68.4
    120 6100 74.6

    This 1997 Hijet has 140 KMH on the speedometer and I have no doubt that it will do every bit of it, but most likely not with me driving. Lugging power was much better then expected as at 20 kmh and in 5th gear it pulled a slight up hill grade with out bucking or even growning to much, in fact it would gain speed up the hill in 5th very easy.
    Mileage test: I put this same truck up on a jack where the two rear tires were off the ground. Put it in 5th gear and let it run. Both rear tires were turning, is that pausatrack? Any way it got a little over 66 MPG at idle of 1000 rpm's. I figured it would never do better then 66 mpg driving.
     
  17. jtpc

    jtpc Member

    Interesting tach info. The only thing is though is that these trucks' speedometers are more inaccurate at the higher speeds. My truck needs to be 100kmh to be going 55mph (according to GPS). (its a stock truck)
    So I'm probably turning 5100rpm for 55mph.

    Yeah, real driving with wind, hills, friction of tires on road will bring that 66mpg down by a good half.
     
  18. Mighty Milt

    Mighty Milt Active Member

    that's is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard!! there is no load on the engine or drive train, no rolling resistance and no real world circumstances. i'm not trying to bash you, but REALLY? you think a truck on jackstands running at idle that gets 66mpg is a great accomplishment? it's a proven fact that these have the aerodynamics of a well formed brick, and at higher rpms they go thorugh gas like crazy.

    you can't do something like this to make a MPG claim... where's the test group? where's the environmental effects on it?

    you might use that as a "control" just to see what the capability of the vehicle is in other circumstances, but honesly i see this claim as nothign more than a joke!

    i had a dodge cummins diesel that got 21mpg on road trips at 75mph, speeding up made that number drop. towing 6000 lbs i could get 17mpg but had to bring my speed down.

    i can only imagine if had put that truck on jackstands and let it idle a 800rpm... i would have goten like 40MPG!!

    just think if car manufacturers were doing that? OMG!! i can see it now

    "hey bob, i just bought a half ton dodge truck that gets 30mpg with a hemi!!"

    a week later..

    "hey joe, you must be saving a ton of money with that truck that gets 30mpg, huh?"

    "well, bob, seems like i'm only getting about 15... i just don't get it.. the dealer showed me they got 30mpg :confused:"

    i'm calling BS on all your claims...

    cheers
    milt
     
  19. jtpc

    jtpc Member

    :) Hey Milt,
    True. I also have a Dodge with the 5.9 cummins and see 20+mpg average and a healthy 16 or so when towing the trailer.
    Can't beat the cummins diesel compared to the new ford/chevy diesels that get 13-15mpg with their new urea tanks for the environment.
     
  20. oldsnowman

    oldsnowman Member

    hey milt...when i read that post about putting his truck on jack stands to do a mileage test i laughed until i could see anymore :D:D. this forum has a lot of well meaning guys and girls on it, and i would like to think people put stuff like this on just to make us laugh, at least i hope so:)

    wyatt
     
  21. MiniBrutes

    MiniBrutes Member

    I would do the same test in reverse. It will probably fair even better yet ;)
     
  22. MiniBrutes

    MiniBrutes Member

    Oh, and fill your tires with helium. It makes the truck lighter so better fuel economy.
     
  23. Rural

    Rural Member

    Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Griz was being obtuse at all.

    Look, there's no way that a truck is going to get better fuel economy than with the wheels off the ground and idling. (Ok, downhill and/or with an extreme tail-wind.) If Griz's truck gets 66 MPG without touching the ground, there is no way that anyone is seeing 57 MPG, or even 50 MPG.

    At least, that's how I took his post.
     
  24. cabinmini

    cabinmini Member

    He should probably check with a GPS to verify his odometer;).
    Jim
     

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