Costanza, I never argued that you can or can’t achieve 30 mpg on hwy. As you can see from past posts in this forum, we all can achieve the 30 mpg on hwy under special driving conditions and if our only objective would be get the best possible mileage. My problem is with the word AVERAGE. If the GS would not have the mpg calculation on display I would not even bother to calculate it.

Lets do some simple math for people who do not think that 1 mpg difference does not matter:
Lets assume that a lifetime of the 06GS300 is 250,000 miles and lets say 10 years ( not that I will keep it so long). At 25 mpg average it represents 10,000 gallons of gas! What will be the average cost of supper unleaded during the next 10 years? I assume $5/gallon. (Don’t laugh; in Europe already pay more today.). So, the 3% difference in mileage will represent $1,500 during the lifetime of the vehicle.

Now, I have 3 cars in my family and we drive about 65,000 miles per year (together). That means 650,000 miles in 10 years and we will burn about 26,000 gallons of supper unleaded gas. Does anybody still think that 3% does not matter?

 

Funny way of thinking... Factory says 30mpg, you get 29.1mpg and you are not satisfied. Mpg number depends on variety of things, the longer the measured trip the more variables come into play. All those things affect mpg numbers: 1. Road surface. Quality of the asphalt. 2. Percentage of uphill and downhills during the trip. Even the smallest little barely noticeable uphill affects mpg. 3. Weather conditions. Humidity of air. Air temperature. Very hot and dry air lowers mpg numbers to some degree. 4. How much you use cruise control, your driving style. Are you bit more agressive with accelerator pedal or do you use it gently. 5. How heavy the highway traffic is, do you pass lot of slower cars, or can you keep your own tempo.
So relax Enjoy your car.

 

I've commented before regarding the excellent gas mileage I get with my GS300 AWD. For the record, my window sticker showed 21/27 mpg and I've never seen any other rating on other GS300 AWDs window stickers.

With about 5K miles, 100% freeway driving at about 65mph, I consistently achieve between 30-31 mpg. The cruise control is on, air conditioning on for at least 1/2 the time, and I keep my tires at about 35 psi. I'm not driving to optimize gas mileage, I' m just driving as I normally would on the freeway. I couldn't be more pleased with my car's frugal usage of gas.

 

DaveJ,
Congratulations to your mpg results! Based on your post your mpg performance is 15% better than advertised. I do not argue with that and I just wish that we all would achieve this mileage.

Itsuki-23,
I do not think that it is funny. I will give you some other examples related to auto industry:
Battery: They are warranted for 72 months. I can tell you one thing; I had 12 cars ( 8 of them new cars) in last 20 years. NONE of the batteries lasted 72 months!
Tires: None of the tires lasted as advertised or warranted.

Again, I do not complain if a battery lasts 4 years. I complain that it is advertised as 72 months battery.

In both cases (battery, tires) the manufacturers give you a prorated warranty. I hope that you understand the business aspect of a prorated warranty.

I also do not complain about the 29.1 mpg. What I am saying; the 2006GS300 RWD does not achieve the stated 30 mpg AVERAGE highway mileage. I want to stress again the word AVERAGE. Well, you may consider buying let’s say the Infinity M35 with 28 mpg fuel consumption and the GS300 with 30 mpg fuel consumption. Although the M35 has more power and lower price you decide to buy a more efficient car. Isn’t this a reason for buying hybrids? Does it make sense buying hybrids and pay 10k premium if you can not trust the advertised mileage? If you are driving freeways only you will get almost zero benefits. Please check out: http://autos.yahoo.com/newcars/lexus...1AYdT3AAUZKMcF

 

Maybe your's doesn't, but others do...such as mine.

 

my06GS300,
There are 2 things I care about out of the EPA estimate. The first is that it be derived consistently, so that I can get a relative comparison of one car to another. I have no idea whether it is done this way, but I certainly hope so.

The second is that I would want it to reflect a real-world scenario. Do you consider your test a real-world scenario? I'm guessing most people don't drive around with 4 adults loaded in their car on an every day basis. I surely don't. Now, I don't know the criteria for the testing, but I'm gonna guess it doesn't include a car loaded with 4 adults. Someone please chime in if you know the criteria, that might help clear things up here.

In your test you came within 3% of the estimate with 4 adults in your car. I'm not a statistician, but that seem to be a reasonable margin of error to me. Also, you don't mention whether you had luggage or anything else loaded in the trunk, but if you did that would certainly have an impact on mileage.

In my view, this isn't a case of false advertising. It seems to be a case of 2 tests administered in slightly different fashions. After all, many people are reporting getting in excess of 30 mpg, under different circumstances. If you really want to slam the estimate with credibility, find out how the EPA tests are administered and do want you can to mimic that.

For the record, I get about 20 with almost exclusively city driving on my GS300RWD. That is below the estimated 22 city, but I realize that I do the worst kind of city driving for good gas mileage. In my 10 mile daily commute, I never get above 40 mph, I stop at numerous stop signs/lights, and my engine gets turned off and started 4 times as I drop kids at school on my way to/from work. I'm can live with that.

 

LongJohn,
I do not want to be pain I the a.s, but the GS is a 4-5 passenger car. I also weight about 220 Lbs. I also stopped once each way to use a bathroom. For sure, if the car will be driven with a 120 Lbs Japanese guy on empty stomach with only quarter full tank, no AC running, empty trunk, 55 mph speed and preferably driving down the hill, than the car will reach 30 mpg or more with ease. You just did not get my point.

 

Well guys, we've been caught. I get my 30+ mpg by stripping the car of all seats and driving my GS by remote from another car behind it. And even with that I have my GS draft a truck the entire way. I also do in-flight fueling so the car doesn't have to stop for refueling. How are you 30 mpg guys and gals getting your 30 mpg?

 

JATO baby!

 

You're right. Someone is definitely not getting the point here.

 

There are "standards" in place by the EPA for this testing. Manufactures are allow to test the vehicles themselve but their equipment must meet EPA spec and it is not uncommon for the EPA to send out Enforcers or Offical Observers to confirm this. Also the EPA has info on their site here: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/how_tested.shtml

--Pete

 

Now if we are going to go back and forth about this 3% and we have people giving numbers all over the country Take note: "Fuels Vary in Energy Content Some fuels contain less energy than others. Using oxygenated fuels or reformulated gasoline (RFG), for example, can cause a small decrease (1-3%) in fuel economy. In addition, the energy content of gasoline varies from season to season. Typical summer conventional gasoline contains about 1.7% more energy than typical winter conventional gasoline."

As well more at EPA's Site: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml

 

kb

Thanks for the link. Here is what I found:

Adjusting Estimates
In the 1980s, an EPA study found that drivers were typically achieving lower fuel economy than predicted by EPA laboratory tests. As a result, EPA required the laboratory-derived city and highway MPG estimates posted on the labels of new vehicles to be adjusted downward by 10 percent for city estimates and by 22 percent for highway estimates to better reflect the MPG real-world drivers can expect.

I calculated the lab test. Based on the 22% reduction for real life the lab test would show 38.5 mpg.!

 

That abosolutly makes sense in a way the Lab has control over every thing (humidity, temp, etc) in essence and even no driver. THis goes to show that there are really so many variable in both testing, and real life and even in how the numbers are derived. --Pete

 

29 or 30 mpg sounds great to me. I get only 19-21 in my IS.