Wow, crappy gas mileage on a 260 mile round trip from Charlotte to Asheville NC

It's probably a combination of the temperatures, speed and all those hills.

I usually measure my mileage by the tank, otherwise I could log a 999.999 MPG "trip" by shutting the car down and letting it roll down a looooooong hill (****.) or I can get Hummer-like mileages by letting my car warm up in the parking lot for 20-minutes while going nowhere (####.)
So yeah, an interstate road trip through the mountains in early March will yield lower mileages than...say a bunch of leisurely 35-mph drives along the beach in May.
Don't get too exited about the hills. You may get a false high MPG going down a hill but you had to get the car to the top of the hill first.
The C-type is a good frugal car.
One of the Prius gurus said that if you have to drive a Prius 'different' than a 'regular' car, then you're missing the whole point of the car.
FWIW?
41MPG was probably VERY efficient for your route at this time of year.

Good Luck!


(****) Don't do this. It's against the law, it's moronic, and we have to share the roads.
Don't Neutral glide either. That's close enough to being the same thing.
(####) It's not against the law (yet) to do this, but make sure that your car is equipped with a proper remote start, and you're not.....say, warming your car up inside a closed garage.

 

The combination of cold and rain was a large impact. The cold, wet air is more dense and this directly impacts mpg. I typically average 47-48 mpg per tank but this week with the cold and rain I am down to about 45 mpg. This is in the flatlands of the coast and averaging 60-65 mph!

 

Sounds like you've spent a lot of money to buy a new car not saving much on MPG instead of keeping your old Civic at 42+ mpg at 80 mph any time of year. The commercial for new Cruze is 42 mpg but I'm sure not at 80 mph any time of year.

 

Yeah.
I had a Metro XFi that got 55-60 all the time, in any weather, at interstate speeds.
The trouble is?
It only had one airbag, no anti-lock brakes, no traction control, the rear brakes were actually drum instead of disc, and it probably was a little bit dirtier than Priuses are.

Priuses are supposed to be GREEN(er).
That isn't always the same thing as being fuel efficient, which is probably one of the reasons that they diddled with the "official" MPG ratings a while back.
Weather will impact fuel efficiency in a Prius, at least it does with my G3 more noticeably than with my other vehicles.

Good Luck!

 

prius Citycar. my wife's hycam averaged 42mpg at 70mph thru the carolina's.

 

Hi !!
It sounds like your hybrid is doing what it should: getting 48 mpg overall while driving fast on the highway.
I usually go 55-60 mph on the highway and I get about 55 mpg.
The prius c is designed to not use the hybrid/traction battery all that much on the highway anyway, but the car has some nice aerodynamics.
So it sounds like your car is operating like normal.

 

My co-worker used to have that Geo Metro and when I asked about MPG he said he got about mid-30 in mileage, so either he's full of sh.. or something was wrong with his car.

 

Brad, the rain creates puddles of water in the grooves trucks gouge into the highway. Trying to overcome the drag this water causes takes energy. Then the temps have been cold which is another issue altogether.

Sounds like your car is doing well. Once you get some miles on the engine and the weather finally warms up, I think you'll be quite surprised at what kind of mileage it's capable of.

Enjoy that new car smell

 

epa doesn't test highway mpg at 70mph.

 

I understand your frustrations - I'm hardly ever happy with my Prius C on the highway speeds regarding the MPGs I get. Driving out to Chicago the other day (200km trip) with temps around 30F and wind, I netted about 36MPG - driving at around 71-74MPH. Pathetic.

I would not have gotten this car had I known how many factors would impact it's MPG rated. Would have rather owned a pure gas car that could get 40MPG on highway at normal speeds.

 

My first road trip with my PC3 was up to Kelowna and back (google Coquihalla highway) and it was horrific! 37mpg! Then back up and down at christmas with snow tires+packed snow/ice along the coquihalla peak and merritt connector - 42mpg. Next time up and back with no major snow/ice and snow tires (and a slightly heavy foot I admit) 44mpg.
Just took off my snow tires yesterday - car now at 10,000km and noticed a big difference with snow tires/steel rims off - gone 43-47mpg to 50-53mpg coty/highway driving.
All the toyotas I've had - hybrid or now never reached their good fuel economy until after 10,000km.