Mileage: 19,356
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Dishonest trip meter exposed, while B mode gets a fair hearing – 10 April
A few weeks ago I mentioned my intention to be a bit more scientific about calculating the Corolla’s fuel consumption.
Annoyingly, the thing is just too darn fuel efficient, and I still only have a sample size of a handful of fill-ups. Still, it’s enough data to conclude that, actually, it’s a bit of a liar and tends to over-read by a couple of miles per gallon.
Hardly verdict-altering stuff: high 50s instead of low 60s is still pretty good, and I still think the car is generally excellent. I find the misreading computer quite odd; surely it’s not beyond Toyota’s engineers to make it accurate, and I can’t imagine they’re doing it to catch out lazy journalists.
Anyway, economy has recently improved further, but I’m not sure whether that’s thanks to rising temperatures or because I got round to setting the tyre pressures. Probably a bit of both, given that the Corolla has a battery to condition and does a pretty good job of keeping the cabin warm even when the engine isn’t running.
While we’re on the subject of fuel economy, I thought it was worth a closer look at the Corolla’s hybrid system, and I’ll start with a clarification: a few weeks ago I mentioned the B mode on the gear selector as a loathe it’, which prompted a letter from a reader.
First off, loathe is a hyperbolic way to describe my feelings, but years ago someone thought it was a catchy heading, and it’s remained part of the template for these reports ever since. More accurate would be that I find it less useful than it could be, but that’s not quite as punchy.
As a reminder, while the B mode in most EVs and hybrids ramps up the regenerative braking, in hybrid Toyotas, it works to keep the engine on when decelerating and the revs up for more engine braking.
As a result, if you were to drive in B mode all the time, you would get significantly worse economy. To be clear, that’s not what I’m doing. My point is that I never have cause to use it, and it would be more useful if it acted like the B mode in most EVs.
