Talking to a work mate tonight and he has a VRX 05 model..He has been getting terrible fuel consumption and wondered if this was a common thing or can someone maybe suggest a reason..He is getting average of 12.9 litres per hundred around town driving easily and not much better on a trip..
In my kj verada I get about 10.5 around town and 8.6 to 9.2 on a trip,so a big difference..Any ideas..

Around town, that figure is not too bad, everything depends on the action of your right foot if everything is setup right on his car. Get a mechanic to do a checkup on the car, make sure the Air Filter isnt stuffed, running right oil, etc... You should go for a drive in his car and see if there is a noticeable difference between your cars, maybe there might be something wrong with his car, or maybe "driving easy" means different things between the two of you. Also, read the Instant Fuel readout on his trip computer at different speeds; at 80k's on a flat road, it should be about 6.5L/100K's and at 100k's it should be about 8ish/100k's.

If you constantly hammer it, you shouldn't expect good fuel economy. Out on the freeway (like on a drive to Melbourne from Sydney) I get 8.5 Litres/100 Kilometres, but if I drive fast and hard around town, I'd be expecting 14-16L/100K's

i just bought a 03 TJ VRX and my readout says 9.6l constantly.. when the amount of km/s gets to 220km left it turns to 2 lines so i don't know exactly how much more though i went a further 60km and started hearing the engine complain..

my 380 was heaps worse on the juice than the TJ despite claims they are more fuel effiecient. i reckon my territory will be close if not more fuel efficient than the 380.

Mine sits on about 10.7 most the time.

When work put me at a place closer to home I was doing lots of short trips and for a little while it jumped up to 11.7 but yea seems to worked its way out now.

Is it a AWD VRX or a FWD? The extra weight of a AWD will make a difference. 12.9 is a pretty good figure for short trips around town. The TL/TW models are heavier then the previous models due to better side impact protection and other "twiks" to the chassis. I average around 14 or so in my TW AWD VRX around town on short trips (less then 10 km's) But get much better on the open road around 9 with a fully loaded car.
Cheers

My FWD 05 VR-X sit's around 10.5-10.7 around town, but if I really baby it I can get just below 10.

Define around town though?

I do 90% of stop start stop start trips, every 5-10km. I get 15L/100km and that is being gentle on the throttle too!

My trips are stop start pretty much, every 10-15km.

Define around town though?

I do 90% of stop start stop start trips, every 5-10km. I get 15L/100km and that is being gentle on the throttle too!

exactly

i can get 12L/100km or up to as bad as 17L/100km depending what part of sydney im working in each week... if im in the city constant 1st and 2nd gear take offs its terrible... if i go out west a bit where theres a bit of time spent driving in 4th/5th gear at 60-70km/h it drops right down again..

be interesting if you guys reset your trip computers and swapped cars for a week :)

just wondering as i'm new to the whole triptronic gears.. is it more fuel efficient to use the manual settings and change gears that way or just the auto? also at lights is it better to put in N? does it make a difference? i noticed putting it in N, it idles a tiny bit higher..

Define around town though?

I do 90% of stop start stop start trips, every 5-10km. I get 15L/100km and that is being gentle on the throttle too!

Same - I think a lot of it has to do with driving the car whilst cold; I usually drive 5 minutes to the train station each week and my fuel economy is always north of 15L/100 - the reason I believe is I am effectively driving the car with choke on so to speak.

Longer city driving and the number drops off to 12.5-14L depending on my right foot.

just wondering as i'm new to the whole triptronic gears.. is it more fuel efficient to use the manual settings and change gears that way or just the auto? also at lights is it better to put in N? does it make a difference? i noticed putting it in N, it idles a tiny bit higher..

Leave it in D - the 'box automatically goes to the highest gear possible for your speed/application of throttle.

Use neutral if your stoped for ages at traffic lights - I usually don't bother.

idleing in neutral when stopped at lights, or train tracks etc etc is a good idea.. there is less load on the engine..

Thanks for the replies guys..I will relay some info to him tonight and see how he goes..It is only front wheel drive and we live in Gosford NSW so there are lights but not like in Sydney or larger city..His daughter is on her L's and drove it for most of last week at 60 / 70 and still got that bad economy so there may be something needs a little fondle to fix it up..

I have a TW VRX AWD and it is alot thirster than my wifes TJ AWD.

The TW get no better than 14 in Newcastle using E10 and I just drove 1500km on the open road using 98 unleaded and sat on 11.1 for the entire journey.

The TJ is better and gets 11 to 12 around Newcastle and 10 on the freeway when she goes to Sydney.

I have more of a heavier foot than her but when we switch cars the difference is not that much.

lol my tw fwd sits at about 15L around town lol. i have a heavy right foot :PP

2000 3.5l sports manual heavy foot. 12 to 12.5 AVG