eschwart

Just bought a used 2007 ES350 which seems to be in great condition - the car has received all recommended dealer maintenance etc. However, am getting 21 mpg for 90% highway driving. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going on?

garsarno

WOW. How many miles does the car have? Mine still gets over 30 mpg driving from Wilkes Barre, PA to Cleveland, OH. This is not flat land country. Been using premium gas since new. Maybe the transmission is not getting into overdrive. The '07 models are notorious for transmission problems. It may pay you to have the car checked out by a Lexus dealer so that a warranty issue can be paid by your selling dealer.

dman00001

I just bought a used 2007 with 60k miles and I'm getting 28-30 highway and 25 average per tank running regular gas... something is definitely not right... the overdrive/transmission suggestion from Garsarno sounds like a great place to start to me.

ratucker3

On 2011 ES I'm seeing 23 or so for a tank completely in city and low 30's on tank that is completely interstate driving (regular gas)

eschwart

The car has 75k miles and has been well maintained (according to dealer records). I'm wondering if this could be an engine problem (compression etc.) or a computer issue (timing, fuel/air ratios etc.), or perhaps the mpg computation itself is screwed up.

ESsearch

Stock wheels and tires? A combo that is a different circunference will cause false readings on the computer.

Pete

eschwart

Yes, stock wheels and brand new tires. I'm thinking bad O2 sensor, unfortunately will have to take to dealer to verify. Thanks for the help.

garsarno

That's the best route to go to get the gas mileage the car is capable of.

wmkim

Judging from other responses and my own observations, seems a bit low. I have a 2010 model and do about 65% Non-Highway and 35% Highway...and I'm getting between 21/22 mpg...with that much highway, you should see much better fuel efficiency I think...

raviola4

My experience (with Regular 87 octane gas) has been local driving, mostly 45-50 and below in the neighborhood of 23 mpg. On total highway miles on the few trips we've taken since buying the car as a CPO in Oct. 2009, 32-34 mpg. And that (in summer) is with A/C 100% of the time. Still local driving 21.5-22 here in winter so some drop off but not too bad.

dreyfus

Don't rely on the car's mpg display. Calculate the mpg yourself by filling up, recording the mileage, then filling up again and recording the number of gallons used and the miles driven. MPG = miles driven/gallons used.

raviola4

Understand. To be honest i haven't done that in the ES. Have read alot from sites over past few months on different makes/models that MPG from car computers could be high by 2 mpg. I really should do it the "old fashion way". Got lazy since i'm 62 now and have always calculated the old way.
I should do on next fill-up. Even though winter should give me a better idea of true MPG.

lamikela1

Be aware that if your odometer is off your manual calculations will be off as well. Mine gets around 30 on the highway.

Garbage in garbage out!

eschwart

Found that the computer had been trained for the previous driver and may have been affecting the mpg. I also began to drive more carefully, avoiding acceleration when possible (using cruise control on the highay makes a big difference. On the way home from work today I averaged 34 mpg while on the freeway ending up with 30 mpgtank average as I moved into the neigborhoods. Looks like the original problem was mainly the result o5 improper driving- nothig wrog with the system, So,the car is behaving well, all systems operate nominally.

garsarno

That's more like it. The very best way to measure gas mileage on the ES350 is to fill the tank as far at it will take it (sometimes it can take $5+ more of gas after the first click of the gas pump nozzle). Drive until you are at maybe 1/4 tank left and refill same way. Mileage divided by gallons equal a more realistic mpg figure than the car's mileage calculator. Have gotten 32 mpg of interstate driving from Wilkes Barre, PA to Cleveland, OH (5-1/2 hours) in the summer, a/c going, three adults, full trunk, 93 octane gas, synthetic oil. Oh, plus five cats in their pet taxis!