how come your camry did 40mpg? how fast were you going? When my camry was new, my dad treated this with zmax for the first couple years we owned it, and taking a few trips doing a slow speed of 65mph we pulled off 35-38mpg avg. Now, my car is lucky to get 30mpg on the highway, it avgs 29 now, and makes me sad :(

How I get 40MPG (highway) on this particular camry: (1) fuel up with 100% reg (87 octane) gasoline (no ethanol) ...just 10% ethanol in the gas mix lowers my mileage 20%. Cross state lines if you have to. Best gas I ever fueled up with was in Canada...but at $4.50+/gal. (2) use specific spark plugs from your toyota dealer ($45 ouch) and change them every 50K miles. (3) always use 5W30 motor oil (recommended on filler cap), and change every 3,750 miles. (4) keep up on the maintenance schedule...change the air filter, transmission oil, etc. (4) I use redline fuel treatment for upper cylinder lubrication and fuel cleaning ($5 to treat 100 gallons.) (5) drive no faster than 55 to 60 mph. Fuel economy seems to drop off after 100 kmh (62.5 mph) (probably designed that way because Japan uses the metric system.) I've gotten the best mileage driving just 50mph on a deserted highway.

you shouldn't change transmission fluid

I've not yet run my 98/4-banger completely out of gas; but have gone close to 30 miles in city after light came on. Best mpg I ever got (133,000 on it at the time) was 38mpg on a tank cruising at 70-75mph (w/AC) on I-80 from CA across NV to watch Speedweek at Bonneville Saltflats. Took the poor thing out on the salt a couple days (5 miles across salt and some 8" water just to get to where the races start). Spent the evenings of the next 3 weeks trying to get all of the salt off of, and out from under, it. Lots of surface rust on the underside now, and one of the rear alignment bolts is seized up; but, I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Little beast continues to run great at 141,000. It's replacement (whenever it decides to die) will be a hybrid.

Second the not changing tranny fluid- too many things can go wrong.

why do people think they shouldn't change trans fluid At 5000 I change everything to Amsoil oil power stering trans brake fluid every brake I get a new Camry every 5 years use the old one for work I chande my oil every 10000 miles Bosch filters 240000 on old camry

There are several tghins that can attribute to lower fuel mileage.First off, if the check engine light is on you will need to scan the codes and make any repair needed.Some tghins that can effect fuel mileage.1) low tire pressure2) dirty air filter3) colder outside temperatures4) more aggressive driving( like letting your teen drive it)5) Fuel quality6) more city driving instead of highway

There are several tghins that can attribute to lower fuel mileage.First off, if the check engine light is on you will need to scan the codes and make any repair needed.Some tghins that can effect fuel mileage.1) low tire pressure2) dirty air filter3) colder outside temperatures4) more aggressive driving( like letting your teen drive it)5) Fuel quality6) more city driving instead of highway

There are several tghins that can attribute to lower fuel mileage.First off, if the check engine light is on you will need to scan the codes and make any repair needed.Some tghins that can effect fuel mileage.1) low tire pressure2) dirty air filter3) colder outside temperatures4) more aggressive driving( like letting your teen drive it)5) Fuel quality6) more city driving instead of highway

I just crushed a 700 mile tank of gas myself this holiday weekend with my 1998 Camry XLE. Emptied my car out of all excess junk and weight, filled the tires to 38 PSI and spent much of the trip sweating with the windows up going 50-55mph, even on 65mph highways (got a few dirty looks). I occasionally cracked the window to cool off or used AC on low setting when it became unbearable. Always drove with load and maximized DFCO use, turning overdrive off to engage DFCO when coasting between 30-45mph. I found that the gas light starts to flicker when you have approximately 3-4 gallons left in the tank. When going uphill, the gas drifts away from the sensor and the light turns on. When going downhill, the light turns off. Once you get to the point where going downhill does not turn the light off (it's on all the time), I have approximately a little over 2 gallons of fuel left. I was surprised at how much is still in the tank when the light goes off. At 30mpg, you can easily go another 100 miles after you first see the light. I drove until I thought the light persisted even on downhills for about 40 miles, but the light turned off around the 690 mile mark on the last big downhill! I thought I would only have maybe 1 gallon of fuel left (starting to get dangerous), but when I filled my 18.5 gallon tank at the 700 mile mark, I only put in 16.273 gallons. Incredible! I still had over 2 whole gallons left. Do the math and I managed to hit an astounding 43 mpg. I thought the OP's story of 40mpg was unattainable, but I managed to crush it. Had I kept driving, I could have possibly hit 800 miles, but I would run the tank dry, not something I'm interested in. Only reason I stopped at 700 miles was because I was getting nervous, but after I saw the light turn off on that downhill, I knew I had nothing to worry about. My only fear was running out of juice on an uphill! Had I driven a little more slowly on the first half of the trip and used AC more sparingly, 800 miles and change is certainly achievable. It also rained, making the roads wet which cuts gas mileage slightly. I don't think I will attempt that any time soon, because that means another 14 hour trip, but it's certainly possible in the best driving conditions. Air temperature is the biggest mpg boost. The hotter the better. My car gets maybe 5mpg more during the summer. Just thought I'd share my story. From the little research I've done, it seems I now hold the record!

Imsrpseive brain power at work! Great answer!