Is 300 Sportcross: Fuel Consumption

[Gamble]

Hello there, ppl,

Just bought a IS 300 Sporctoss (2001, aut), a relative of mine bought an exact same model at the same time (diff. color :), same mileage.

Now we have more or less similar driving styles, we drive on similar roads (most of it on motorways), BUT:

his car gets about 22-23 mpg and I can't get anything better than 15-17.

Is there a list of standard procedures/checkups one should do to exclude any kind of engine/car trouble and just blame it on the driving style? I'm pretty concerned that I have to stop at the gas stations so often :)

Thanx in advance for any input!

[lee_iceman]

You try driving there car and they drive yours for a day or so and see what the results are then

[Gamble]

I had this in my post, somehow it's gone :) Yeah, that's what I was thinking too, but we can only do that somewhere in January and I was eager for solutions asap :) Thanx

[Sharkman]

Do you use aircon a lot (and does your relative too?). 15-17 seems ok for a sporty driver and 19 is nothing out of the ordinary. Much more can only be achieved with the less powerfull IS 200.

[lexicon]

As always I guess it depends on your style and type of driving but that seems pretty poor - I average 26-28 (90% motorway) and have got 32ish on occasion (was really trying coming back from Scotland).

Might be worth getting your Air filter, MAF and Oxygen sensors checked/cleaned/replaced.

Also an ECU reset is worth a try.

There's not much difference between the 200 and 300 - I only get about 2mpg less than my 200 managed.

[Matus]

Do you have the same tires - brand, type and width?

I would start with checkinkg the tire pressure and then with I'd look for the amount of unnecessary things in boot.

After a drive check if one ot the wheels isn't hotter than the other (locked brake).

Does the engine warm up properly?

If everything seems to be OK, then you will have to go to the garaze and check what lexicon wrote.

[Gamble]

Do you use aircon a lot (and does your relative too?). 15-17 seems ok for a sporty driver and 19 is nothing out of the ordinary. Much more can only be achieved with the less powerfull IS 200.

We're talking about UK mpg or US mpg? :) I was referring to UK/imp. measurements.

19 mpg (imp./UK) = 6.72 km/l = 14.8 l/100km

...which seems pretty much for a european car (I assume... was driving a BMW 330d (yeah, diesel) before, much more aggressive than Lexus and fuel consumption never was more than 9.5 l/100km (=+/- 10 km/l = 29.7 mpg)

I was hoping for something like 11-12 l/100km (official Lexus fuel consumption WITHIN a city is 11.7 l/100km!) in average, which equals 23.5 mpg and 8.3 km/l...

And I was somewhat off on the fuel consumption: my relative gets out of his car: it's 26-28mpg... and he's a sporty driver.

(recalculated all according to: http://www.tdiclub.com/misc/conversions.html)

Thanx for advice all, I'll drive it to a Lexus dealer on Wednesday to read out the computer for errors and I'll examine it thoroughly later in January (they're fully booked with repairs untill late January :| )

[TED]

Do you use aircon a lot (and does your relative too?). 15-17 seems ok for a sporty driver and 19 is nothing out of the ordinary. Much more can only be achieved with the less powerfull IS 200.

We're talking about UK mpg or US mpg? :) I was referring to UK/imp. measurements.

19 mpg (imp./UK) = 6.72 km/l = 14.8 l/100km

...which seems pretty much for a european car (I assume... was driving a BMW 330d (yeah, diesel) before, much more aggressive than Lexus and fuel consumption never was more than 9.5 l/100km (=+/- 10 km/l = 29.7 mpg)

I was hoping for something like 11-12 l/100km (official Lexus fuel consumption WITHIN a city is 11.7 l/100km!) in average, which equals 23.5 mpg and 8.3 km/l...

And I was somewhat off on the fuel consumption: my relative gets out of his car: it's 26-28mpg... and he's a sporty driver.

(recalculated all according to: http://www.tdiclub.com/misc/conversions.html)

Thanx for advice all, I'll drive it to a Lexus dealer on Wednesday to read out the computer for errors and I'll examine it thoroughly later in January (they're fully booked with repairs untill late January :| )

On a trip back from Strasbourg to Paris last week on A4, driving at 140 km/h all the way I got 10.61 l /100km with my IS300 (sorry I can't convert into UK mpg), which is pretty close from what I was getting from my former IS200.

[Sharkman]

On a trip back from Strasbourg to Paris last week on A4, driving at 140 km/h all the way I got 10.61 l /100km

Did the same route early this year and at approx. the same speed and came to 9.6 / 100 km. with my IS 200 sportcross. Thinks the 300 will really start drinking in city traffic.

[Gamble]

Yep, was driving from Holland to La Plagne (France) and back last week: 150 km/h on cruise control and consumption turned out to be between 11 l/100 km (last part, up the mountain and back down) to 13l/100km, which is acceptable. Once back in Holland, I understood the problem: dutch drivers :)

Had to brake and accelerate MUCH more than in France or Belgium. And I thought belgian and french drivers were the worse of all... :) (no offense!) :P