35 mpg Prius blues.

You won't see proper mileage until about 5000 miles. It takes that long to break in the car.

 

What kind of trips are you taking? Very short trips lead to lower mileage. For example, when I leave for work in the morning with a new tank of gas, I usually get between 35 & 40 for the first 5 miles.

There's some good info here about the Prius stages of operation.

 

Hello there, well first off, there is indeed a learning curve when it comes to driving the Prius. You are correct you will not find that statement ANYWHERE in the owners manual.!!!

That being said, stop using cruise control, I find it wastes gas! 2nd kinda keep a eye on the MPG meter in the MFD screen. I have found that in some instances, say going uphill, you can have it floored and get really crappy MPG, or back off on the gas pedal and notice that you are not slowing down, but the MPG's are better than they were. As far as goosing it up to speed, yes I do that and the back off just till I start to slow down, apply just a touch more gas and I'm OK. I am avg 47.7 or so. My first tank was a pathetic 41.2 so I have been learning to drive, and its paying off!!!

Read the Pulse and Glide threads, they are very helpful in the tips and tricks!!!

Good Luck, lets hear back on how its going!!

73 de Pat KK6PD

 

It does indeed take a little time to "learn" how to drive the Prius for maximum efficiency. My wife averages 49, I average 51. Lots of threads on this site give great tips on how to improve mileage -- from tire pressure to taking alternative routes.

Welcome to PC -- take advantage of the advice available and keep us posted.

 

Without using any 'tricks' you should be getting roughly 46mpg combined mileage.
Using various tricks you can get above that.
Other than the suggestions and links already offered, if you want more assistance, let us know how long your trips typically are and what type of driving (city, highway, etc).
Common questions would also be what is your tire pressure and have you checked the alignment of the wheels?

 

My Prius now has about 2700 miles. I'm averaging a pretty consistent 53-55 mpg. Do I hypermile? Not really. But I was taught how to drive by a product of the Great Depression. I never put my foot on the gas pedal any harder than I have to get up to speed, and then hold it there (which is a lot easier in my Prius than my 01 Blazer). I try never to stop at a red light. If I have to, I try to stop far enough back to start rolling just before the light turns green (it's easier to get 2800 lbs moving from 1 mph than from 0). I never brake any more than I have to (per my mechanic my Blazer's brakes should last 160K miles- I had them checked at 80K!). I go the speed limit or 5 mph over most of the time, but I won't go over 70 mph, even if the interstate limit is 75 here in CO (my Dad always said it was just too hard on the engine). I've had few problems with any of my Detroit cars and SUVs over the years- even though most of them have "much worse than average" records from CR.

I have found that driving in traffic, trying to keep up and stay out of the way, along with the a/c can really hit the mileage hard. If you drive in traffic a lot, and it's warm, it may be hard to get much more out of your car at this point. Short trips and that first five minutes are rough. Fortunately my commute is about 30 minutes each way.

Is the quasi-hypermiling worth it? Can't say. It's just the way I learned to drive 36 years ago. I am looking forward to the mileage getting even better maybe after that 5000 mile mark!

Hang in there. Compared with my 14 mpg Blazer, 36 mpg would be great! And a Prius is a lot more than a hybrid Corolla!

 

I'm skeptical of attributing this to break in. Our Prius has less mileage than yours and our first tank was at 46+, second at 48+, third is in the same range. Note that on this last tank the first 45 miles were in some really congested traffic conditions and short distances that netted only 40 mpg, but the average has risen back up to the 48 range half way through the tank. I mention this because it illustrated to me how much driving conditions can effect results. On trips of 10 miles and over we are getting 50+ mpg. Most of our mileage is only 6 miles.

The best way to determine if it is you or the car at fault would be to have some other Prius owner drive it awhile (say over some fixed distance) for comparison with your own experience. If they get similar numbers to you then you will know it isn't driver error.

1. Tire pressure is the easiest thing to check. What are you setting it at? I'm running 42/40.
2. Oil level is the next easiest thing to check, but it is unlikely to have much impact unless the level is well above the mark. Ours came from Japan 1/4" overfilled, but I didn't drain it--I'll take care of it on the first change at 1,000.
3. You aren't running premium gas are you? or any containing ethanol (if you can avoid it.) You should get the best mileage with 87 unleaded.
4. If all those are good, then the next thing to consider is alignment and how the car tracks. If it doesn't track straight, then have it aligned (you should get a freebie below 12K). We've seen no indication of alignment issues on our car, and it is the first time we've had a new car that arrived without needing alignment.
5. About the AC...if you have it maxed all the time then it is likely knocking several mpg off. If so then as temperatures cool and your need for AC dwindles you should see mileage improve. I realize how hot Florida can get (lived nearby in Southwest Georgia, and at various points in Texas), but you might want to experiment with milder settings (temp., blower, recirc, etc.)
6. Related to #5 if the car is sitting outside and is baking in the Sun that might be having some impact as the battery pack will be hot on start up. Like you it wants some cooling to be at its best. Granted, there might not be much you can do about this either at home or work. The good news is that when temps moderate this shouldn't be a concern.

 

The main factor is:
Length of commute and driving technique. Everything else helps a little bit, but you'll get the biggest benefit when the length of the commute is longer, and your driving technique is hyper-miler level.

An EBH can help improve your mpg if your length of commute is low.

 

I was getting in the 50 mpg area since my first tank living in a hilly area and in often times 80's-90's sunny heat. One thing I don't do is "gun it" or use cruise control. Or blast the AC. The car cools down very well between LO and Mid and 78 degrees.

Search "pulse and glide" on these forums.

 

short trips (less then 10 - 15 minutes) is a real killer. As previously stated make sure your tire pressure isn't low. 38 PSI all around is a good starting point (I go 44 front 42 rear). I know its hot in Florida, what I do when its hot here is I leave all 4 windows down until the first 5 minute trip bar shows, then I roll them up and turn on the A/C on Auto and leave it set at 75 degree's. Most of my tanks in the summer are in the upper 50's MPG with a few 60 MPG tanks here and there.

 

Is it you, or the car ?

Let's check the car first:
Warm up the car first with about 5 - 10 minutes of driving, then go for a 20 mile round trip on the highway at 60 mph on cruise control with AC off or set at 80 degrees. Choose a time that traffic is not going to interefere with the test. If you get about 54 mpg for the highway part of the test, it ain't the car and you can come back here for critique of your driving.

If it is the car first things to check are tyre pressures and complete emergency brake release.

If you do not know how, the manual will instruct how to zero the tank manually for the start of the test.

Good Luck !

 

Dance lessons, no.

But you should realize that the EPA numbers are obtained with a set of predefined conditions. All you can demand of your car is to have similar results, given similar conditions. Once you know that your car matches EPA (or others) given the same driving conditions, you can be confident that the car is operating within spec in other conditions as well.

E.g., if your car is used for multiple short trips and the engine cools off each time, you speed to red lights, tailgait, average 80 mph on the freeway, and blast your AC all the time and never bother to ventilate the car, you are nowhere near the EPA testing conditions and expecting your results to match EPA is unrealistic.

If you test as I outlined above, you will have a test run that many many Prius owners that have come before you have validated as what the car is capable of. Don't go defensive on us, get methodical.

 

I suggest you check your tires. I had a flat tire when I first got my car, well after about 1000 miles. I had it repaired, but it wasn't until I had a funny sound coming out of the wheel well did I take it to the dealer. They took the breaks and looked at the suspension. They didn't find anything, but ever since that incident I get better mileage. I wish I knew the reason, but it worked. Not only did the scrapping sound stopped but I get better mpg's. I can't complain!

 

You do have to learn to drive a prius differently then a normal car, but also the mpg should go up as the car breaks in, i have almost the same ammount of miles on my car as you do and my mpg has gone up with each tank so far, first tank was 48.3, second was 55.6, third was 59.1, 4th was 60.5 and my current tank at the moment is reading 60.9(was 61.9 but did a couple short trips yesterday). Most of my travel to work and home is highway also.

 

You do need "dance lessons" if you want to exceed 55 MPG or so, but you shouldn't need them to get into the high 40s or low 50s. Here are things to consider:

* Short trips will kill your mileage. There's obviously not much to be done about this, but it's something to know. If most of your trips are a few miles or less, you'll get low-ish mileage.

* I know Florida is hot, but blasting your A/C at all times does reduce your mileage. If you can stand it, try setting the auto-temperature at 76 or so (78 is even better).

* Check your tire pressure. Low pressure can knock a bunch of MPG off your average. If you run pressures in the range of 40 PSI in your front tires and 38 PSI in your rear tires, you should see an improvement in mileage.

* You are driving in "D," right? You should almost never use "B" mode (engine braking) unless you're going down a very long, very steep mountain. Basically, you should *never* need to use it in Florida.

* Try to be a gentle driver. By the way, this is recommended for every car, not just the Prius, and is a good idea for things other than gas mileage: it's easier on the car's components, it keeps you safer, and it keeps your blood pressure down.

 

You might have a lemon, you might not. The problem is that you haven't given us anything to go on to help make such a determination other than relating how poor your car's gas mileage is.

Folks will do what they can to help, but from a distance we can't "virtually" check your tire pressure for you, your oil level, run your car for a few minutes in cruise control with the AC off, have the alignment checked, tell if you are running premium or ethanol, tell if you are parking in a garage/carport/in the shade/Sun, or tell you how fast you are driving on highway trips. In other words, we need some data other than your mileage before folks are going to say, "yep, sounds like a lemon."

The tire pressure warning system lights up at something like 75% of whatever it is set at (somebody correct me if that is wrong.) So if it was initialized at placard 35/33 it wouldn't indicate until ~26/24, and your gas mileage would likely be pretty bad with tire pressure in the mid 20's. (The dealer might have initialized it at low pressure to begin with which would be even worse.)

 

Would you please let us know about your previous vehicle and the mileage number?
My previous car was Honda Accord 2.2L and I got 14 mpg on short trips during winter, and the current Prius runs 35 mpg on the same situation.
I'm a happy driver to drive a great (2.5 times) mileage car.
By the way, my best record is 80.7 mpg per tank for long trips.

Ken@Japan