Happy?

I have to believe there's something wrong. I can drive somewhere without a thought and get 55 mpg these days.

I would talk to my dealer first, then based on what they say, decide on my next steps.

Good luck.

 

parking brake on?
3 fat hookers in the trunk?
are sure you bought a prius?
new cars all look alike these days

 

Something is DEFINITELY not right. Have you checked the tire pressure? Bad 12Volt off the lot? Over filled oil? All three previously listed things together? I try to hyper-mile and get slightly over 50 with 17's. Sometimes, I am in a hurry and just drive it like I stole it. Then I get better mileage then when I tried to hyper-mile. Maddening. I know the Gen III's seem to like EV mode more than the Gen II's. Really don't know what to say.

 

Also, hills, short trips with cold engine, curvy roads where you're on/off the accelerator? I just drive the car, no hyper-anything, and I've only gotten mid to high 30's a few times in our 2014 Four, but that was fully loaded for vacations at high speeds (75+) on generally uphill grinds, against the wind or on/off the accelerator dealing with 18-wheelers. However, since this is still your first tank, don't assume the tank was actually full. I'd fill it, reset one of the trip meters, drive it for 200-300 miles and see how it goes. The other thing to check is the mpg display that is shown when you turn the car off. This display shows what mpg you got from the time you started the car until you turned it off.

 

Go find a back road flat as you can find, warm up your car, reset your mpg screen.
drive 50 -60 mph you should get between 50 - 6o mpg.

 

Maybe that's it: you're fighting your way out of a mpg "hole"? Is this the trip meter then, untouched since purchase? The more miles on it, the harder it is to budge. Wait 'till you tank up and reset the trip meter, and start calculating as well.

 

^^^exactly^^^ how many people post here about bad mpg's on the dealer tank of gas?

 

I like the 2015 where when you shut down, it displays your trip mpg and fuel cost. On my way to work, which is 2 miles from home, I often get around 30 mpg

 

Did you reset the trip meters when you bought the car, or at any time since?

If not, those mpg figures don't count because they include whatever cold start and test drives and other low-mpg misbehavior of everyone who touched the car before you. Reset them now and start fresh.

 

She does not have to wait:

Warm up the car engine by driving for about 5 minutes, then zero the trip meter and go for a 10 mile r/t trip at 60 mph on the highway.

 

True. Still, good to track mpg tank-by-tank, gives good feedback regarding your overall mpg. I don't use trip meter for that, instead record odometer. Well I do reset trip A too, but just for feedback during the tank, and as a cross check of the two odometer values.

 

OP is a new owner. KISS

 

When we first got our Prius, I started using Trip A for mpg between fill-ups and Trip B for mpg on our road trips. Once I found out the CONS mpg differed from actual, I recorded the trip data and the odometer reading in my spreadsheet, so I could track how actual mpg differed from the CONS display. Now it's become a habit and I don't like to reset the trip meters for other purposes.

That said, this is Susan's first tank and we all know how useless the displayed data is for the first tank. Therefore, I think Sagebrush's idea to simply reset a trip meter, drive a bit over a flat section of road at 50mph and check the results is a good idea. The only thing I guess I'd add is to also drive her regular route, if she has one, to see what the display says. That should give her an idea of how the car performs under somewhat controlled conditions vs her regular routes. If she does any of this, I hope she reports back.

 

I try to fill my car at the station at the highest elevation in town, then try to go as far as possible with the mpg reading 99.9
It's 20 miles of down-angled streets from the foothills to the harbor.
The route I take is almost all downhill.
Plus it's a nice drive.

 

The 2015 Gen Prius is not much different than the 2004 Prius or the PiP -- at least not in ways that would ever explain your poor fuel economy if you drive them the same over the same routes. So yes, something is amiss, and driver remediation at the dealership is not it.

Three easy to check things that might be causing a lot of energy consumption:

1. Flat (or almost flat) tyre
2. Partially released emergency brake
3. An almost dead 12v battery

 

Susan,
I meant check the 12v battery voltage under load.

 

you get the first 20 gratis?