New 2014 Prius C not getting the posted mpg...

Do not spin the tires, other than that accelerate briskly and get it over with, the prius cruises wonderfully.

If highway means cruising at 100 km/hour or less and city means stop and go, I would cruise.

I am going to be curious here, which uses less gas? Even if you get lower MPG, if it is 11 km shorter, you may use less gas. My goal is always to use less gas.

I doubt the accuracy of the fractions, my gen 2 was laughable, and my v is wildly variable. Perhaps the c is better, but I doubt it. I learned to measure multiple tanks as my MPG.

Some personal advice, my opinion, not facts.
The car will train you, and the tires will break in for about 8,000 km, then in 80,000 km when you need to replace the tires, it will dip again for 8,000 km and you will be frustrated again.

Check the tire pressure. In my opinion, Toyota has optimized their recommended pressure for comfort. Raising it to about 40 PSI front/38 PSI rear, (I do not know my metric tire pressures) will improve MPG, tire life, handling and braking, at some comfort loss.

 

how fast do you drive on the highway?

 

Im having the same issue after 3 tanks... Mostly drive in the city (stop and go with ups and downs), but my best mileage has been on the highway on 2 trips I took.

 

i do NOT trust that gas gauge pips. look at it as full, was full, and now not full so fill it asap (anything past halfway). make the odometer and tripmeter your friends; use them well. turn OFF the A/C so the light for it is off. set the heater on something reasonable like 77 degrees. maybe the ICE is running to provide heat more than necessary. my A/C in Hawaii was killing my mileage. but i noticed the heater when i put it above 81 degrees kills it too. i wish we could run the fan manually. somehow on my c the climate control is on AUTO regardless of the Auto light being on. i'm just guessing maybe itz the climate control on yours too. btw the ECO button wastes gas for a LOT of people,,, like lowering the heater fan too much so maybe put the heater hotter than necessary which ends up wasting gas. sames goes for the A/C for me.
-- ps dont get honked at because guess what the c is,,, we got the hot rod Prius,,, floor it like heck and drive like it too,,, i always get over 50mpg nowadays. good luck (obey traffic laws though, ok).

 

I find that my fuel mileage as told by the meter is about 1 mpg optimistic as compared to hand figured.

Miles driven divided by gallons per fill up. Fill your car with the nozzle put to the first stop. End fueling at the auto shut-off. Repeat per fill up.

There are many ways to get the most mileage out of the C. You can find them on this site. Put your C in ECO mode and leave it. Drive without extremes. Accelerate briskly to speed limit and let off the gas to get in EV mode, then use your experience to keep it there as long as you can or drive with it there as often as you can. Experience is a function of time behind the wheel and paying attention to what works for you and your driving area. Not all of us live in places where we can get fantasic mileage. I get 46 or so on the highway and 50-ish in the city. My best tank has been 61mpg, but my commute is only 4.5 miles now and the car is cold most of the trip.

 

And I find that my displayed figure is 2-4 MPG optimistic.

This is a very typical first post from a hybrid owner, almost any brand, and even from some owners of small non-hybrid cars too.

The posted figures are ESTIMATES only. Almost nobody gets the posted numbers consistently.

The absolute best mileage is on a flat road going about 52 MPH and never stopping.
Anything that deviates from that makes the number go down.

And you must use the actual amount put into the tank as measured by the pump.......NOT any gauges in the car.
45 is more than respectable for "normal" driving.

 

Hi NatalieS

Like many before you you are trying too hard too soon, and spoiling the experience for yourself - relax, forget the forum advice for a few weeks, and just drive the car with the traffic to get thoroughly used to it. In particular, quit using Eco mode; it doesn't improve fuel economy, just makes the gas pedal less sensitive if you have a heavy foot, which means less responsive when you really want to boot it! Take the opportunity to find out how the car can really accelerate when you want it to, such as on on-ramps, and in lane changes. It can get a little noisy briefly, but it won't affect your economy unless you do it all the time. You will find the C is really quite capable, while still getting better economy than anyone other vehicle on the road.

You say your display settles around 3.6 in the city and 4.3 on the highway - these are good numbers! It would nice to know what number you arrived home with, but your combined city/highway economy (round trip), given about 70% city driving, should/must be close to 3.8 or 62mpg. The C like most cars is a little optimistic - I find it is typically 1-2 decimal points too low, so your 3.8 is probably 3.9-4.0 (59-60mpg).

I therefore have come to the conclusion that your difficulty is not with your car or your driving, but with your attempts to calculate the economy! There is only one way to do this accurately:
Using your Odo reading or one of your trip settings, record your kilometres for every tank
Fill the car at the same gas station / same pump if possible, every time
Set the nozzle to autofill, and let it run to first shut-off - stop there
Use a calculator, or sign up with Fuelly or similar, to calculate your tank economy. As you are commuting, this should be a good reflection of how you are using the car
Do the above for every tank - for hand calculations combine and average your results (Fuelly will do this automatically). Over a few weeks and tanks you will get a clear picture of your consumption for your driving and driving conditions.

You have to enjoy your driving as a commuter, so decide what is most important - commute time, confidence your car is capable for the job, top fuel economy, or least cost. Usually the shortest route uses the least fuel and is the cheapest, though it may have a worse fuel economy and/or take longer. Your highway travel may be overall quickest both ways, but cost a bit more than now. However, the C is a gas miser, so it may be the best trade off.

After you have taken some time to become confident in your car's capability, then you can start to experiment. I found the first year's driving gradually taught me how to get excellent economy. In my second year of ownership I kept on getting even better numbers without even trying!

Much is written here about tire pressures, Eco mode etc - I added +8 psi to the tires for the first year, but I have gone back to +1 psi, and my economy has only dropped back about 0.1-0.2. I haven't used Eco mode since the first month; if you have a light foot it adds nothing.

When you get your calculating problem sorted you should start to enjoy the choice you have made. All the best!

 

Eco mode helps a great deal here, as it manages A/C better. In other climates, it may have less effect. Since I use cruise control 98% of the time, throttle position is not my concern.

 

If you are getting the posted mileage some of the time, that is doing great. Well, maybe not if it's a momentary thing, say just freewheeling down a steep hill. It's actually a little puzzling that you should concern you. Is this your first car, or first fuel efficient car where you've turned your attention to mpg? It is really one of the ten commandments, or should be:

Thou shall not get the posted mpg.

Until you try like the beejesuz, read up a lot and practice driving efficiently, carefully track calculated mileage, have good weather, level roads, no short trips, and and so on.

Unless you're Wayne Gerde of CleanMPG, that is.

 

Canadian fuel economy ratings are more out-of-touch than US, the testing method is more disconnected from reality.

 

You don't need to empty the tank to calculate your mileage. Just divide the distance since the last fill by the amount of fuel it takes to fill the tank.

I would try driving it like you would your old car and see what that gets you. Sometimes when you're trying to get good mileage, you're actually doing things that reduce your mileage.

 

This is not the best time of year to be watching mpg and hoping to see good results in a prius or any other car.

I'm not real good with converting lpk to mpg, but for this time of year and your location the numbers may look a bit low, but not really to bad.
Across the Lake my range is dropping too as the weather gets colder.