Mpg

[mudzs]

I have had my GS300 for 3 weeks now and the fuel consumption is far higher than expected .Is it worth me going to LPG , will it make a terrific amount of difference .The only other option i have is to sell car :( and buy a diesel toyota colarado (the car the wife wanted in the first place ).its a mk 1 GS300 sport 30,000m full lexus history aspen green, 11 months and a week warranty ;) (lexus ).any advice welcome .

[Rodders_UK]

What MPG are you getting?

[mudzs]

around 22 mpg i think but i have had car 3 weeks and put in nearly £200 it just drinks it .i had had T5 volvo before and thought that was bad but this is worse (better car though).I wouldn't mind but we have not realy been far in it.p.s if i go gold do i get fuel dis :D count

[Chris.S]

I know it sounds silly but make sure your tyres are correctly inflated.

[mudzs]

i,ll give it a go .Is there anyone else with a mk 1 sport that i can compare with.

[Keith Bowler]

Hi Mudzs

From my experience I think you are getting a good return at 22 mpg.

If you look at the road tests for the Mk1 GS300 you will see that the average mpg for urban driving is 20 and up to 30 at a standard 60mph.

I have had mine now for about 7 weeks and I am averaging about 20mpg as most of my journeys are short. It amkes no difference if you have a sport or not as both cars have standard 3 litre engine.

If it is any consolation I also run a V6 Rover vitesse which returns about 22mpg on average and about 30 on a run.

I would never expect to get any more than 25mpg out of a V6 but then I do like to 'drive' my cars.

I beleive lpg is a viable option but some members on this list are not convinced its right fotr the Lexus 3 litre engine. That aside I have seen GS300's for sale with lpg conversions and I almost bought an LS400 with lpg conversion.

Hope the foregoing is of some help.

[mudzs]

I am thinking i should try to sell it as i do highish mileage a year although i might leave it a couple of months and enjoy it a bit. I realy wish i had looked into it a little deeper at time of buying ,still cannot fault car and love driving it .If anyone knows of a toyota colarado for sale let me know as i think this will be replacement car (how boring).

[torrent]

20 mpg would appear to me to be a bit on the low side. I have a GS430 and get around that mark myself. It is the only blip on an otherwise fantastic motor. I knew before I bought that it would drink fuel but this is not really too much of an issue for me.

I can't imagine how you will be satisfied with any other car if you do have to let your GS go. In any case, good luck with the decision-making.

[Mike246]

Hi Mudzs,

I've had my GS 300 for over 3 years. It has a trip computer on the SatNav which I sometimes leave on while driving to get an accurate measure of MPG under all sorts of conditions.

Driving in London traffic gives about 16. Not good, but it's a heavy 3 litre automatic.

Motorway steady-state at 70 gives 32. The cruise-control really screws things up as it is constantly providing throttle inputs. An open sun roof or high air-con doesn't help either.

A 2 litre auto would be better but not much. To get significantly better overall consumption, you need to go to a manual.

[lexussport]

I can get 28/29 mpg average out of my GS 430, I can also get 15mpg average. Its all down to my right foot, it's nothing to do with the car!

[torrent]

Do Lexus sell an economical right-foot?

Where'd you get yours from?

:P

[Greenlex]

Hi Mudzs,

If you sell the Lexus and buy a Toyota Landcruiser Colorado, what sort of fuel consumption do you expect to get from that?

I would think you will do better with the Lexus than the Colorado that has the aerodynamics of a house brick.

JK

[mudzs]

colorado is 3.0 diesel manual so it has to be better i think they are about 28mpg Only prob is they want about 12 grand for one with 90,000 on clock so not good value for money when u consider my Gs300 has 30k and cost me 10 grand .

[MAC_600]

I've got a GS300 Mk1 and find that in town I get around 18-20mpg, on a long run at say 80 mph with cruise control I get 25 mpg and with a bit of both 22 mpg (No suprise there then <_< )

I too expect to be doing highish mileage, 30,000 + a year but would rather have to shell out the extra bit of dosh and have the comfort than go for a more fuel efficient alternative in the same price range.

If you are going to be doing higher mileage then you will get nearer the 25 mark, so 30,000 miles at 75 pence per litre (£3.41 per gallon) will cost you £4,092. Assuming you get your alternative Toyoya and say it does 30 mpg which I think would be the best you could expect, with diesel at about 78 pence per litre (£3.55 per gallon) you are still looking at £3,550.

For the difference of £542 per 30,000 miles I can't see the point unless you go for something giving you around 50 mpg.

MAC

Please note this reply has been amended to hide the fact I was an idiot - 75 & 78 pence per gallon - WE WISH!

[Glenn]

Hi all, I have a GS300 SE 1999 (up for sale!) and my latest addition to the family is an IS300. In my GS I never get more than 22mpg and about 24mpg in my IS300. The only thing I have noticed with the GS300 is that I get slightly more mpg's when I fill up with Shell Optimax petrol But it's more expensive so it probably doesn't make much difference at the end of the day. So I would say that 22mpg is pretty normal.

Cheers

Glenn

[roadrunner]

I had a Toyota Colorado until about 18 months ago and had baught it after a bad experience with a Discovery.

My experience was that you would need a long run and a light foot to get anything like 28mpg.

around town it was nearer to 22-23mpg and it was nowhere near as good (fuel consumption) as the Disco (admittedly manual) where I could get 32- 36 on a run.

To my mind the auto box on the locked up the torque converter at far too high a speed and unlocked it too early.

Sadly I could not afford to run it at that mpg and I lost a lot of money in depreciation.

[randyreindeer]

This may sound a bit daft but well worth checking out. I had a sticking front brake caliper on my car which didn't exactly help my fight against visiting petrol stations.

All is not lost however. Speak to stej who is having a great time running his on LPG.

[JCC]

I used to get about 25-27mpg from my IS200, but that was only because of the economy gauge in the fascia that kept dipping to 10 so I would leave off for a while. I get about 21mpg from the GS300. Town traffic is worst. I am sure I can hear my wallet wince when I floor it in power mode. But hey you have got to have some fun.

[SteJ]

128 miles on £8.20's worth of 'juice'. Had the motor for a couple of months now, can't fault the performance, and strange as it sounds, the economy!

Fortunately my LPG conversion was done, and then upgraded, before I bought it, so I'm reaping the benefits without the initial outlay.

I think your looking at around £900 for a conversion, so I suppose it depends on how long your going to keep it and how many miles etc.

The car will run on both, and you can switch over mid-journey without noticing any difference.

I do about 250/300 miles a week commuting, with both motorways & 'A'-roads involved. Getting a return of about 22mpg on the gas, giving it a fair bit of clog when traffic permits.

Bung us an e-mail/PM if you want some numbers etc. for the conversion company.

Steve J.

[peter-flint]

Keep the tyre pressures up air con off and the auto shift out of the sport mode and take your right shoe off you might get it up to 28 mpg, otherwise spend your money on fuel and enjoy yourself. :D :D

[mudzs]

Is the lpg in the boot and if so how much space will i lose as with 2 small kids i need all the room i can get .

[SteJ]

LPG tank is 'doughnut' shaped & sits in spare wheel well. Spare on mine then sits elsewhere in the boot. This is probably one of the main two downsides, the other with mine is the size of the tank itself. I haven't run mine dry, as I'm not sure what the crack would be if I did (I'm still an LPG novice yet), but I have only managed to squeeze 30 odd litres in, and they only fill to 80% capacity due to a pressure thing. I think it may be 60 litres less the 20% air space.

I have 3 kids, smallest being 5. The boot isn't massive to start off with, but for about 90% of it's use, my car is only carrying me and a bin-load of CD's doing the old rat-race waltz. You would still be able to squeeze a pram in, but hopefully I won't be needing to try that out any more!

We all went to the sea-side at the weekend, and I found the spare wheel, turned face down with a plastic bin bag in it was great for wellies and sand-ridden buckets & spades!!

I have thought about making some sort of plastic cover, so you could put stuff inside the wheel, reclaiming a bit more space.

Just for the record, we also run a Shogun 2.5ltr Turbodiesel, which will get about 30mpg on a towing run to Cornwall, but averages about 20/22mpg for the rest of the year.

[UKPulse]

Keep the tyre pressures up air con off and the auto shift out of the sport mode and take your right shoe off you might get it up to 28 mpg, otherwise spend your money on fuel and enjoy yourself.  :D     :D

Definitely... keep the aircon off! Leaving it on easily costs me around -2mpg in an IS200 :(

Or get a bike Mine does 160 miles on a 17litre tankful, and that's with plenty of 0-60 in 3s blasts

[thepoisondwarf]

Just returned 27.2 mpg from our GS300 Sport (1997, 54k miles) going from London to Chippenham and back - about 200 miles.

Previous tank consumption was worse - then I checked the tyre pressures, these are really critical.

The handbook suggests 34psi for the standard fitment, I am assuming the same pressure is ok for the Sport.

[mudzs]

27 mpg you must have been very light footed i drove mine 60 miles yesterday mostly motorway and got 23mpg :(