something's not right

i think the biggest thing that is affecting your mpg's is your speed. nobody gets good gas mileage doing 75 miles and hour. also this time of year, a/c eats up your mpg's.

 

I probably should not be one to answser, but have faith, they will come. It is my understand that long drives at highway speeds are not the Prius' forte. At least, not without pulse and glide. The "stop and go driving" that you actually claim is not "all" of your driving, Is actually the Prius' forte. Remember, the Prius extends MPG by storing energy from breaking and slowing down to power the motor generators, thus saving gasoline. Long runs at highway speeds w/o breaking or downhills are not condusive to taking advantage of the hybrid system. That's my novice optnion. Much better and more accurate opinions and advice will follow. Welcome to the group. I hope it works out for you. But then, as great a car as the Prius is, it is not the best car for everyone.

 

Maybe no one is lying, maybe you don't have a lemon and just maybe it is the driver? I see you blamed everything else but left out the possibility it may be a driver defect.

As someone already said going 75mph is not the prius's forte, it has been said for every 5mph over 55 you lose about 5mpg. My first tank i drove 65 to 70mph and averaged 48mpg. My second tank i slowed to going around 60mph and averaged 55mpg and now on my third tank still traveling at 60mph but raised my tire pressures to 42/40 i am at 59mpg. I also have been practicing the different driving techniques such as pulse/glide and warp stealthing i've read about on here as well as just simply slowing my speed down and staying in the slow lane.

you can't drive a prius like any other car and expect to get the epa or above mpg estimates, you have to take advantage of the hybrid system to get the most efficent fuel use and as anything in life this can take practice and patience

 

mfarmer, slow down a little and coast when you can. You'll get the hang of it. On another note - you should recycle more - my kids would appreciate it.

 

I think you are correct in saying this car may not be the right car for you. I notice when I am rushed and push my Prius and always staying on the gas I only get 43 mpg. I find the Prius made me understand, "slow down and smell the roses."

 

I never have the opportunity to drive the Prius in urban settings where I am going to be driving for hundreds of miles at a time, BUT, I recently did a week long, 1,700 mile trip of mostly two lane highway and freeway driving. I got 57.7 MPGs on two of the three tanks.

One of the keys to obtaining good highway mileage is to not adjust the gas pedal for every little change in road or driving conditions.

It's hard to deprogram yourself from doing so, but try not to do minor adjustments of the gas pedal.
Maintain lots of clearance between you and the car in front of you.

Let the ICE run at one constant speed as much as possible. This is the most efficient condition an ICE can run under.

Let the HSD do the minor adjusting . . . don't do it yourself with the gas pedal or expect great mileage using the cruise control . . . it sucks for MPGs.

If your speed drops off or speeds up a MPH or two, so what . . . you are getting great gas mileage!

 

I'm sorry you aren't happy with the car or its performance. It seems unfortunately clear to all that this is not the car for you. I wish it were -- even more so, I wish you were able to enjoy any portion of the experience (aside from the bluetooth connection!).

I think your expectations were more than a bit misplaced. I am guessing you've never come close to the advertised mileage for any other car you've had. Have you ever been in the habit of recording gas purchases and calculating mileage? Perhaps this would have given you the first indication that your driving habits will never gain you any reasonable gas efficiency.

At the same time, you are getting incredibly higher mileage out of your "lemon" Prius than anyone else out there who drives like you do. Also, if this really is the very beginning of your use of the Prius, you'll see significant increases in gas mileage as the car breaks in. Take a look at John1701a -- he clearly says he just drives the Prius and doesn't try to treat it any differently than driving any other car. He is now above 100,000 miles with a lifetime mileage in excess of 48 MPG.

How does your employee drive? I know you've said "like a normal person," but I'm just wondering if it is anything like the way you drive. The Corolla is rated at 35 MPG highway (your arena for driving), so I wonder if your employee is upset at getting "only" ~90% of the EPA estimate. After all, even your first efforts are getting you 38 MPG, out of an advertised 45 MPG highway -- that is more like 85% of advertised mileage. Considering the way you drive, I'd say that's pretty high mileage.

Caution: If you decide to pick up a Corolla for its overall cost effectiveness, please do not expect to get better than 29 MPG (that is equivalent to your 38 MPG out of a 45 MPG rating on the Prius).

I'm assuming you're looking ONLY at the hybrid Aptera. Your type and distance of driving could put the all-electric version into the same "not for me" category as the Prius.

Oh . . . let us know how much you get for selling the Prius next year. I'll be interested to hear about the size of the loss for getting rid of that lemon.

 

If you don't want to understand how the car works, then you are unlikely to ever get decent mileage from it. You don't even seem to have bothered to check the car out before you purchased, or to do a proper check out once you took delivery, so you have no idea if the car needs a set up adjustment or some modification in driving style, or if it is just the wrong car for you. Due diligence and RTFM apply here, and so does looking at what the hypermilers are doing--not to drive like a granny, but to understand how this car really works. They've figured some stuff out that is really helpful, regardless of how fast you like to drive. It's not the same as what you've driven before. It's a bigger difference than going from automatic to manual transmission for example. It's not speed or acceleration that is likely your problem, but driving style. If you fight it, you will be getting poor mileage.

My suggestion: if you lack the patience to try to understand it, sell it to someone waiting for a car that actually has some idea of what they are looking for. You should be able to get your money back out of it and the new owner can figure out what you don't care to learn. That would be a win-win.

If you want to take a deep breath, relax, and ask for help in determining if there are set up problems then you will likely get a lot of help here. If you expect someone else to do all the work for you, then you will likely be disappointed.

Do you grab unfamiliar scuba gear and a new dive computer and jump into a 100+ ft. wreck dive without even getting it wet first? Or do you know your equipment, study the manuals enough to be familiar with the basic functions/differences and do a check out dive before you take it out for a week of intensive diving thousands of miles away?

 

Hardly!

If the 2010 Prius renders current model Prii obsolete, you may as well drive any other car straight to the auto crusher as they would have become outright archaic.

Hey wait! That sounds like a good thing.

 

I drive from CV to RB on 805 & 15 and back daily hitting 80 mph in stretches but also crawling through heavy traffic. I get 48-50 mpg week in and week out. You must be working the night shift if you can go 80+mph for long stretches around here. 2 * 35 mi * 200 work days = 14Kmi. Are you heavy footed on the other 16 Kmi on surface roads or doing it on short deliveries? That'll kill your mileage.

 

Really? You just finished telling us they came up short. One was pretty close at about 95%, but the other was less than that -- in the upper 80s. Sounds a bit like what you've gotten from the Prius. Of course, if you could just get that 38 up to 40, then you'd be at the same point your wife is on her Lexus.

Again, just out of curiousity: How do you track mileage? I'm assuming the Pathfinder is like the Lexus and shows you a lifetime MPG number. If that is the case, then the number likely is pretty much what is going on.

I don't think you really are far away from expected mileage. YOUR expected mileage, that is. You and I drive differently. I've always kept close track of mileage on my cars, and I've always exceeded the EPA numbers. You also keep track of mileage, but you are always below the EPA numbers. There seems to be some consistency there, so why be upset that when driving the Prius you get a similar percent of the EPA numbers?

Hmm. Speed limit is 55. Driving at 75. One third again above the limit seems to be fast to me -- it doesn't to you? So your car can handle it, the road can handle it, but perhaps it just doesn't fit with trying to conserve fuel, reduce pollution and get away from foreign dependence on oil. I know -- you don't care about those things (you made it clear from the start). And, uh, well, uh . . . it is against the law.

OK. Now you've hit weird for me! I agree with your assessment of the bluetooth and the stereo. Well, the stereo may not be garbage, but it just doesn't compare with the sound I'd expect from nearly any car offered for sale in America. I also agree with the "quirky cool" (it just hasn't worn off for me). The weird? You had never been inside a Prius before making the purchase!!?? Weird. An impulse buyer!

Thanks for sharing your story.

 

Penn and Teller are hardly an authoritative source on, well, anything. That's entertainment masquerading (unconvincingly) as news, at best.