I just purchased a new 2013 Prius Persona. I am used to the Prius line as I previously had a 2005 Prius. I have only had the car 4 days but I noticed that the gas mileage is less than what it was on my old Prius. I mostly drive highway at roughly 65 mph. My driving style is the same as it was with the old car. I am getting less than 40 mpg; with my old car I would get roughly 43-45 mpg. Will this improve as the car breaks in or could something be wrong with the car?
Is this still the tank you started with or have you done a fill up and reset the trip meters? I would not trust the tank the dealer filled to be accurate.
You've got the wider 17" tires on the Persona. You might gain some mileage from inflating them higher than specified on the car label.
Same tank. I will compare the results after I do my first fill up and reset the trip meters. Hopefully, it will be better. Thank you.
17 inch wheels would drop your mpg about 3-5 miles mpg, but not to less than 40. make sure your oil is not overfilled and increase the pressures of your tires to about 40/38.
Check Tire Pressure, Try 40 psi Front 38 rear. If dealer set at 34, changing will make a huge difference!
The Persona is more than capable of 50mpg while being driven at 65mph in warm conditions and on a long enough trip. 17" tires definitely hurt fuel economy by 3-6mpg (depending on the tires and wheels). So if your conditions and driving style normally drop you below EPA numbers in a regular Prius then you can expect a 3-6mpg drop with the Persona depending on the tires that come on it. If it has the Toyo Proxes A20 then the mpg loss compared to the OE 15" tires is only 2mpg or so. If you have the Primacy MXM4 then I expect the loss to be closer to 3-4mpg.
Mine came with the Toyo 17's and the TRD Forged Rims. I can get 50MPG when running on rural roads up to about 63MPH. If I hit the interstate going 66 to 76MPH, it drops to the low to mid 40's. I'm running 38/37psi. I used to get 53MPG in my '07 Touring. You pay for the 17's in mileage, but not as much as you state. Trust the GenIII to stay in EV mode longer than in the GenII. It will surprise you and help you total MPG.
I bought a Persona in May and am having the exact same problem. I too had a Prius (2008) and consistently got 42-44 mpg so i know it is not me, the driver. I have brought it to the dealer and they have said various things ... like it needs 10k miles to break in. When i purchased the car i questioned them about the larger wheels and tires on the persona. they maintained that will not change the milage and the service department is backing them up on that. However, i believe that is the problem.
Are you pumping up the PSI to at least 38/37? Running below that will hurt mileage. Also, I just broke 12,000 miles and I did see an increase in MPG's after 10,000. Just my .o2 usd.
I have the Prius Plus Performance package with 17's. Car is only 1 month old. First tank from the dealer i had poor mileage...2nd tank was awesome. Now in Nov, it is rainy and cold and my mileage is back down but I am not complaining too much. Check your cold tire pressure..also don't use your heating system until the car has been driven at least 5 min. The demand for heating the cabin will make the gasoline engine start after you pull it out of the garage and that will drop your MPG.
^^^ I believe that when cold, the ICE will start about 14 seconds after boot-up to go through it's warm-up cycle, regardless of your HVAC settings.
You're right. However...when the HVAC is on the ICE will continue running until the coolant reaches a higher temp compared to what it normally does in Stage 1a. It's better to not turn on the HVAC until the car is normally cycling in and out of EV mode after a few miles. And then it's better to use Eco Mode as that will allow the coolant to cool down more before making the ICE come on just to make heat.
My mpg went up 4-5 mpg after the first dealer tank. From 43.5 to 49.6. Love the look of the Persona series
True that! I overheard a salesperson explaining a hybrid system as a gas engine with a large battery...ugh!
