New to Me 2006 Prius

Hi all,

Bought a Prius back in the beginning of September and just now getting around to posting on here. I've always been one to analyze MPGs and hypermiling when I have a car that is specifically used for good gas mileage. Never did I think I'd be driving around in a Prius LOL My commute went from 30 miles round trip to 100 round trip so I figured I'd get something that would ease the wallet pain. I'm getting paid to drive the extra miles so I'm not losing out but would still like to save money where I can; I'm a penny pincher. I bought a Stinger GT over the summer and I'm not willing to put over 25k miles/yr on it. She's a garage queen and will stay that way (crying inside because winter is coming).

So far, I've put about 2500 miles on the Prius and it's run great so far. Bought it with 221k miles and you can hardly tell. Fuelly is a fun app I've used over the years to track MPGs. Currently, I'm sitting at 40.7 AVG with my best tank being 47.1 MPG. I'm sure it could be better but I understand that mileage and age of the battery have to do with the decline. I was driving an 06 Grand Prix before the Prius and was getting about 29 MPG; quite a positive difference!

Some quirks in the beginning was the well-known combo-meter failure, low tire pressure light, and CEL.
- I replaced the combo-meter last week and all is well now. Speedo wasn't on, car wouldn't turn off or lock, no cruise, back up camera, the usual defects from the combo-meter not working. Bought from Matt at Texas Hybrid Batteries and was a pleasure working with him, just waiting on the refund of the core charge. I know it's not that big of a deal to not have the speedo on but I figured I'd better so I don't run out of fuel at some point.
- I'll live with the tire pressure light being on. I'm sure it's a bad sensor but all of the tires are inflated to 40 PSI and I check them weekly to help with MPGs.
- The CEL light came on about two weeks ago when I turned the car on. P0420 which deals with the catalytic converter. Had Autozone clear it, I put a can of SeaFoam in it and we'll see how that works out. Hasn't been on since but it still has the factory convertors, they lasted well past through life-span; I won't argue.

I plan to keep it at least through winter but maybe longer. I changed the air filter, wipers, and plan on doing the spark plugs at some point over the winter. I've had plenty of cars in the past from sports cars to beaters to grocery getters. I like the change and every car I've owned has something special I can remember. I'd like to take it to 250k miles but I probably won't have it that long LOL see; I'm already talking about selling it!

Cheers
Ty

 

I'll check out those techniques, thanks. I might be able to put the tire pressures that high but with winter coming and the roads becoming slick, I wouldn't want them too hard (ice rink). The tires on it have decent tread so I might hold off until I need them. The cost of new tires offsets the 2 dollars I may save at the pump from the extra mileage from the LRRTs. I'll be checking in from time to time since there's a lot of good info from this forum.