Dear flblue, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with a good number of the postings on this issue. Hopefully, my car doesn't blow up or something when I start it next time!
I drive an '07 4-speed automatic with a 4-cylinder motor, and I'm completely satisfied with it. Of course, I'm not sure what type of driving you're in to(racing, cruising around, etc.).
In fact, probably one of the biggest selling points of my car was the gas mileage. In CR Magazine, that was one of the only negative things they could find about the Solara V-6. In their tests, the "overall" MPG was 21.
I'm getting 29.5 MPG consistently, and my driving is a normal combination of stop & go/freeway driving. And no, y'all "head bangers" out there; I don't race!
I did a cool experiment on the night that I took delivery of the car. I drove damn near everywhere in Houston using only surface streets to see what the "true" city mileage was. It took some time, trust me, but I finally got it, and it came out to be 23.5 MPG.
Then I jumped on the freeway to see what kind of results I'd get. It took a while, once again, but I finally got it to 33.5 MPG. Both of those numbers, believe it or not, were only 0.5 MPG lower than Toyota advertised; I was pleasantly surprised.
I'll have to continue this post at a later time, flblue, as I can feel the "V-6'rs" chompin' at the bit.
Talk to you later.
Take care,
James
Houston, TX