New Prius C owners please post

We picked up a pair of chili C Prii a little over a week ago. One hiway trip from Houston to Dallas area with lots of AC use, high speed driving and two adults plus some stuff. The MPG came out to 47.3 on the way up, and 48.5 on the way back down. In town with four of us, AC use(Texas), slow starts and gliding I got 50.8 going to dinner the other night.

I have my tires at 45PSI cold, and we drive moderately, not economically yet. Still learning the tricks. My son is more aggressive and is getting mid 40s with mostly highway driving and high AC with 65-70MPH regularly.

 

First road trip after breaking in. About 150km one way. 3.7L/100km (63.6MPG) on the way over. On the way back, hit a bit of traffic and ran AC all the way, 3.5L/100km (67.2MPG). Simply amazing.

 

I am averaging in the mid 50's, although for certain trips I "hypermile" and have gotten it all the way up to 64mpg for a sizable trip of about 10 miles. I've owned my Prius C for just over one week.

Keep in mind that fuel type can make a difference, the more ethanol in the fuel the less the fuel economy will be. It can be up to 10%, but isn't always near that number. You can find ethanol free stations as well.

The difference will be slight (mathematically ethanol has about 25% less energy than gas, but you're talking about 25% efficiency loss of only 10% of the overall fuel), so if you are getting 55mpg with ethanol free, under identical conditions you would get 53mpg roughly from 10% ethanol. And not every manufacturer puts the full 10% in, its "up to 10%" so it'll be marginal difference at best. BUT, its still 1-2mpg less, which if you're a numbers person does add up. For a full tank you'll be getting between 10-20 miles less per fill up (based on the size of the Prius C tank and the expected fuel economy) with 10% ethanol.

However, the cost to search out an ethanol free fuel pump and then add in the premium cost they charge (its usually .30 cents more to buy ethanol free when you find it) you aren't saving money at the end of the day with ethanol free fuel.

Complicated, but its the way it is.

 

Hey there, I had my new Prius C 2013 Moonglow almost three weeks ago. Awesome car, I love it.

My very best MPG so far was 73 MPG (3,2 L/100km), on a 20 miles ride, a mix of city and highway. But my average is more around 65 MPG.

 

What are your main techniques ? I am getting 55MPG average but traying hard and eassy in my driving style. Would you share them please ?

Hey there, I had my new Prius C 2013 Moonglow almost three weeks ago. Awesome car, I love it.

My very best MPG so far was 73 MPG (3,2 L/100km), on a 20 miles ride, a mix of city and highway. But my average is more around 65 MPG.[/quote]

 

Replaying to charbonneaueric: What techniques have you been using, 65MPG sounds very good to me, I hardly get 55MPG traying it eassy witn my driving style. Thanks, Juan

My very best MPG so far was 73 MPG (3,2 L/100km), on a 20 miles ride, a mix of city and highway. But my average is more around 65 MPG.[/quote]

 

We picked up our new Habanero Prius C Two on Friday. I recorded the following mileage on three trips we've taken so far:


Trip 1:

Distance: 46.3 miles
MPG: 51.9 EV: n/a
Average Speed: 36 MPH, Travel Time: 1 hour, 18 minutes
Notes: From cold start, ECO mode, mostly highway, AC set to Auto, 75F, outside temperature 85F

Trip 2:

Distance: 55.5 miles
MPG: 56.3 EV: 19%
Average Speed: 37 MPH, Travel Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Notes: From cold start, ECO mode, mostly highway, AC set to Auto, 75F, outside temperature 85F

Trip 3:

Distance: 5.4 miles
MPG: 42.1 EV: 61%
Average Speed: 11 MPH, Travel Time: 30 minutes
Notes: From cold start, ECO mode, stop and go city driving, AC set to Auto, 74F, outside temperature 88F

Over time I'm curious to see what the aggregate MPG rating is over a year of driving including cold weather driving during Boston winters.

I'm surprised that after thirteen years of driving a peppy and nimble 2000 VW GTI (5 speed w/ 1.8 liter Turbo) that my impression of the Prius C is as good as it is in terms of handling and acceleration. I've not pushed it hard respecting the 1K mile break-in period, however, for normal (i.e. safe and conservative) driving, this little puppy is nimble and fun to drive in contrast to so many of the reviews I've read/seen. It's not fair to compare a Prius C to a VW GTI, I don't expect the 0-60 performance of the GTI, but back in 2000 I cared more about performance and handling, and the GTI was the perfect choice. Now in 2013 the priorities are different, I care more about fuel economy and overall reliability. The GTI has 176,000 miles on it and during its lifetime we've spent as much on maintenance and repairs as was originally spent on the car. I'm pretty confident the maintenance and repair expenses with the Prius C will be a very different experience.

This forum proved to be a valuable contributor to my pre-purchase car research and continues to be a valuable source of Prius tips and wisdom! Thank you all!

 

I have had my 2012 Prius C for about a month now. My best trip so far has been 5.8 miles at 91.1 mpg. Today was the first time I used Eco mode(short trips only so far) and have noticed the mpg is much lower. I know short trips are supposed to be lower, but thought that was odd. I hit between 50-56 mpg regularly.

 

Fuel economy on short trips varies a lot more. I just use ECO mode On all the time.
Isn't driving on only electric power a wonderful feeling?

 

Yes, it's awesome, but living in Pennsylvania can be tough... Tons of hills haha

 

That 91.1 mpg ride was not typical, and I am willing to bet is was primarily flat roads with maybe some of downhill sections, only 1 or 2 stops at most, and speeds in the 25 to 45 mph range. I have had similar amazing short runs. Your trips with ECO on were certainly not the same stretch of road, or not driven in the same manner.

If you are watching either of the ECO gauges on the dash (the ones with the curved green line that gets red at the upper right end), then you will see how uphill and down hill stretches along with even very slight changes in the pressure of your foot on the gas pedal can make a drastic difference in MPG. Watching this gauge was a real revelation for me, and an excellent learning tool for adjusting my driving techniques to improve mileage. One of the real shocks was the first time I noticed that after going into the red PWR zone, letting off on the gas just a little bit was enough to get back into the green zone, and as long as I was on a level road, the car did not slow down. This may have been the combination of hybrid technology and Toyota's CVT that allows this, and may not be typically obtainable with a regular car, but it was still amazing to see.

If you are averaging 50-56 combination city/highway, then I think you are doing everything right.

 

You are correct. The 91 mpg trip had no complete stops and I was coasting down a hill for about .5 of a mile.

As far as "Eco Mode", I drove my normal commute to work and hit 52 mpg, which is in my average range for a normal work commute. The only difference I noticed, with Eco mode, is that going uphill takes longer. I will keep trying it, but so far, Eco Mode didn't impact much today. It is a very small sample though

 

I don't think eco mode does anything but remap the pedal (to make it less sensitive and discourage acceleration) and make the auto A/C a bit less aggressive. So you should see a change in time to go uphill if your foot was in the same place, but if you give it the same amount of "go", it shouldn't make a difference.

 

60 mph is still 60 mph... the only difference is that you have to press the pedal harder... ECO mode doesn't slow down time...

 

This makes perfect sense, thanks.

 

I'm coming up on 8000 miles and mpg continues to run 47 to 50 mpg. Another long trip of some 750 miles including passages thru the smokies yielded 43 mpg gatlinburg to cherokee in 34 minutes with overall 48 mpg for the 750 mile trip. You have no idea how nice that is.I'm looking forward to the new Prius C based on the new Mazda2 chassis, hopefully with a hipo model with 150 hp and 'only' 40 mpg.

 

With respect to how difficult it is to refill to the exact ame level, I find my calculated mpg has matched the display within 2% over some 18 tank refills. Only 6% within any single refill.

 

Depending on if you use the same pump? Extremely difficult. Hell, even using the same pump can be difficult. This is why topping off is the only exact method (*note: I neither condone nor dissuade anyone from this choice)

 

I don't think it is though. Aside from the known downsides of doing it, it STILL doesn't close off all variables. The only "exact" method is averaging over many tanks, where the impact of those variables will generally reduce, the more data is collected.