While researching the GS before purchase I saw a number of discussions about gas mileage. Since my CPO purchase a few months ago I've been trying to track the mileage pretty carefully. I've been intending to post this for a while now - the question a few days ago was the kick I needed.

A few notes:
* 2016 AWD GS 350 F Sport - mostly driven in Eco Mode
* The Trip OD was reset at each fill-up
* The cars mileage calculator was reset at each fill-up
* In general I waited for the low fuel indicator to come on before filling up.
* In Oregon we're not allowed to pump our own fuel - in most cases I tried to go to the same pump at the same gas station with the car facing the same direction to minimize any difference for the manual calculations.
* Most driving is on city streets - maybe small bits of interstate driving for a few miles to get from one part of town to another. (unless noted).
* My driving style is mostly laid back but with this car it's hard to not want to have a little fun now and then.
* After the car tells you that your range is 0 and you need to fill up NOW there's probably at least 20 miles left. I had to push this once and did 11 miles past that and there was still over a gallon of gas left (given how much it took at fill-up). I think the light on this car comes on earlier than other cars I've had - probably between 3-4 gallons, vs. closer to 2 gallons in the other vehicles.

I don't see a way to post a table so I'll try to just use spacing. I'm sure on phones things will get a bit wonky. These are in order of fill ups.

Miles on tank / Gallons at Fillup / Manually Calculated Milage / Cars Calculated Milage
295.0 / 14.50 / 20.34 / 21.2
235.2 / 14.67 / 16.03 / 16.5
225.7 / 13.56 / 16.64 / 17.4
318.0 / 13.59 / 23.40 / 23.9 *mostly interstate highway - trip
270.7 / 11.94 / 19.92 / 23.5 *same trip - more hilly/winding road
333.9 / 15.71 / 21.24 / 21.7 *mostly highway - end of same trip
245.1 / 14.77 / 16.59 / 17.4
263.9 / 14.92 / 17.68 / 18.0
254.2 / 15.03 / 16.92 / 17.2
282.5 / 16.11 / 17.54 / 18.0

A few thoughts and observations:
* Those w AWD cars will likely get gas mileage which is quite different from those w RWD cars. I know this from watching the mileage I got in my Infiniti vs our Subaru. It's probably more significant than what the EPA indicates.
* Hills seem to make a significant difference - I have a decent set of hills to get over each day between work and home. There are a few ways I can go, one way has a few more significantly steep sections, one is longer but not as steep. I'm tracking this a bit more now to see if there's much of a difference. I also noticed this on the highway trip with a couple of the tall steep passes in the southern part of the state.
* Stop lights also seem to have a pretty significant effect. Our blocks in the main part of the city are short (400 ft square) and the lights on many streets aren't timed well at all. If I'm in that part of town mileage seems to drop noticeably. When you're resetting the cars calculated mileage each fill-up you really see how certain things affect the mileage more - especially early in the tank obviously since there's less data to average.
* On previous cars I've seen tires make a difference and on an AWD I would expect that to be the similar. The tires were replaced either right before the car was turned in or as a CPO so they may not be the best for that.

While the mileage isn't great, my expectation was that I wanted to get slightly better milage than my 20 year old Infiniti that's FWD and has nearly a 100 HP less. I think the fact that the car has almost 100 more HP, is AWD, and a bit heavier yet still gets decent mileage is pretty amazing. Sure, gas milage could be better at the expense of HP - but would you really want to drive this car with only 211 HP?

I'll likely be tracking the mileage for a quite a bit longer - I've just always done that - I could probably tell you the mileage I got on every tank of gas on the Infiniti in the 17 years/150,000 miles I've had her.

I'd definitely be interested in comments and thoughts - maybe my mileage really is out of whack and I need to have it checked out but I'm not sure that's the case given my driving conditions. I'll likely update this in a few months ago with more data.

 

Thanks, this is very interesting.

 

Notice that you have two (2) different MPG screens in the Driver Information Center (DIC).
One has the header "after reset" and the other "after refueling". While I have an ES300h not
a GS350 the displays are the same. Try resetting the MPG screen every three (3) months, at
the beginning of each season change... Now open the main dash screen and select Info.
Open Fuel Mileage and select Past Record. (reset for the Winter season skewed 11/12 to 3/31
because those are the dates we installed/uninstalled the Blizzak winter tires!). We have always
known that cars (even Hybrids) use more fuel in the winter but here is empirical proof.

 

What's that?!?!


I see similar readings and there's usually reasons for the big differences (+/- 3 or 4 overall mpg).
Stop lights and traffic are a true killer. I can drive to work to avoid the busiest times and get better mileage. Also with traffic I'll use the throttle a little more for merging/passing, where open roads it's easier to keep a steady speed.
Another is weather - mpg will go down with the AC blasting or using remote start for any reason.
How about drive throughs? Coffee, baconator, nuggies, whathaveyou
You're definitely correct about hills. I have a LOT of hills around me and I have a tendency to let all hell break loose going up a few because the acoustics of the area + intake sound = happy time.

 

This is definitely a key point. It's been fun resetting things and watching how different conditions have an effect.


Luckily AC is less of an issue here in Portland than when I lived in a few hot/dry, hot/humid areas. But it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Definitely just letting the car idle can have a huge imact. I let the car idle in the driveway one night because I was on the phone on the cars bluetooth and I watched it drop. Crazy.

YES! OMG....if you have recently reset the MPG calculator it's almost terrifying. I watched it drop multiple miles off in just one run through a long drive through line. Luckily coasting down a few hills quickly fixes that

I completely agree with you on the "Happy Time" - there's one hill that once in a while I really enjoy just punching it - sadly no major acoustics in the area (too many trees) but it's still very fun.

 

One of the things I keep in mind is that this engine has essentially been around since 2005 with a tweak in 2015 to add VVTi and the Atkinson cycle (not a motorhead so please forgive any misstatements here). So with such "old" tech I kept my expectations grounded and did not expect mileage consumption to be competitive... just better than the 17.5 MPG I got form my '03 G35. I started recording the fuel consumption at the beginning just to compare Actual vs. the trip computer to see if it read high or low... but I just kept recording after every fill-up, so here I am... every fill-up since the odometer read 15 miles. And that's correct, I haven't filled up since march 19th, in fact only drove it one day for about 30 miles since then.

Edit: To highlight best and worst tanks. Best was traveling 90% highway averaging 85mph for most of the trip. Worst represents many short trips occurring within my usual commute, a mix of suburbs and highway.

 

Is the second one that you show tied to resetting the trip OD or resetting the first MPG (the after reset one)?

Sadly I can't look at this right now because my GS is getting it's partial PPF removed and replaced with a full frontal.