I need Prius driving lessons

dont worry about it. check out the specs more to know what you got than to adjust. pump a bit of air in the tires if you want... i would start at 42/40... this should help you get a few extra miles on the life of the tires and boost your mileage.

check the oil to make sure its not overfilled although i think that Toyota probably put the word out to the mechanics to double check that... lot of words on that subject here.

and most of all, its probably your driving. 70 mph with A/C can do it especially if you have to hit the brakes AT ALL. if in heavy traffic, you are probably gonna see a big improvement in mileage if you drop it down to 65 and increase your following distance.

 

One-way trips, even 50 miles, don't count when there is a noticeable elevation change, even after you become practiced. There are a number of downhill stretches where even my Subaru FSP can get 40+, even up to 48 mpg, over that distance. Your Prius mpg will be very disappointing on the uphill legs of those stretches, but you should be much happier with the round trips.

In case you haven't read similar material, I'd recommend a couple articles on CleanMPG: Beating the EPA for the basics, later followed by ...Warp Stealth in the Prius II for more advanced Prius-specific material. Save the P part of P&G for last.

 

I averaged about 48mpg today but there were a lot of hills to go up and down. This is also the first 50-70 miles or so. Plus I tried out every mode and used POWER mode as well as coasting, tried out the cruise control, the works. I should have gotten less. The first tank doesn't count. You don't know how much gas the dealer put in or if it's really full etc...
Power mode works very well in traffic at the lights. If no cars I'd probably use Eco mode, but a lot of traffic today.

 

I assume the Prius is no different than the Camry Hybrid, but my understanding is that when you put the selector in neutral you are not charging the battery. That defeats the advantages of the hybrid system.

 

Well on my car it doesn't seem to charge the battery very much if you are coasting even with the car in D, but it sure slows it down fairly quickly for a Prius.

 

Mang, so much work when you have a car that will give you good gas mileage just using it without thinking about it. I think it's easy to get obsessed with MPG but think about the averages over the lifetime, how much less pollution you are spewing out, and just use the car as a car and drive. That's my plan. When I get my Prius I'm not going to obsess over the mpg. I drive like a reasonable person and I assume Toyota built this car for folks who drive reasonably. Yes?

 

Yes, they did, but it is amazing how one can become hooked on the mpg thing. It's all that instant feedback in your face. It has changed my driving style for the better, and I am more aware of how my former habits wasted fuel.

 

I figure just going from my current 19/20 mpg now ('98 Saab 900) to a car that on a 'bad' day will get about 40mpg is a huge win. And anything above that is appreciated (gravy). Hence my experience when I do purchase a Prius will automatically be a good one since I'll already be way ahead of where I am now (mpg-wise). That said, my current car has 6 way power seats and the car is going on 12 yrs old! C'mon Toyota.

 

I drive a 2001 Prizm with a manual 5 speed transmission. Essentially a Corolla. The radiator says 'Toyota' on it. Tanked up yesterday and got 34.9 MPG. So when my Prius arrives, I will have to work towards 70 MPG to save as much as you will.

 

The elevation change is what did that to your fuel economy then. On another note, I find one gets really good gas mileage overall when driving in the mountains ... as long as you're coming out of them on the other side. Tough on MPG on the way up, but getting infinity MPG for the ride down makes up for it and then some.

 

MPG for 10 miles level and steady will be higher than 5 miles up and 5 miles down, other things being equal. You cannot lift against gravity for free. But the 5 miles down sure helps more than just letting a non-hybrid idle.

 

Or my wife who likes to sit on it in a 30 MPH zone until she is about 50' from a stop. And she wonders why her mileage is worse than mine.

Every little thing counts - tire pressure, acceleration, not slowing any more than necessary, never stopping if possible, using CC on the Interstate, combining short trips so you don't do 5 trips on a cold engine. Do you REALLY need that cup of whatever necessitating a 2 mile drive to the grocery store NOW?

To the OP, if your 8 miles were all short trips and on a cold engine, you could have dropped the MPG from the Interstate driving substantially. It takes a lot of 70 MPG miles to recover the 35 MPG miles back to an average of 50 or 55. The 'city' miles can be quite low (OK, not low compared to other cars) if there are a lot of stops or you jump on the Interstate for a mile.

 

Your frustration with the initial MPG likely proves what I have been suspecting... the Prius will take a big hit in the MPG when challenged, more so compared to nonhybrids in terms of percentage.

Most people get impressive MPG with hybrids because they are adapting their driving style to maximize MPG. So if this is your first hybrid and you drive it just like you were driving your previous nonhybrid, the difference in fuel economy between the 2 will be disappointing most of the time.

 

Um, didn't you just contradict your self? If it really IS rigidly enforced, no one would be going even +5 let alone +15. Clearly the chance of getting caught or the financial pain if you do get caught are not high enough to convince people the MAXIMUM speed limit on the sign is the MPH you aren't supposed to exceed.

 

Ah, no Prius YET. You will drink the Kool-aid my friend. Just you see if once you are routinely getting 50, 55 MPG on a tank you still think 40 MPG is OK. You will be crying when you see 40 MPG!

 

You missed my point. A doubling of my gas mileage at the very *worst* is still good (than what I can get today in my current car). I expect to get better than that, on average, over the life of the car, without having to become an expert in hypermiling, P&G, etc.

Now, might I *want* to learn how to do those things? Yes, perhaps I will when the time comes. But I'm not going to drive myself crazy (pun intended) over it either. Frankly I don't want to spend every ride in my car analyzing the mpg. Sure it's nice for those who feel inclined to do just that, but I'm expecting to get decent (perhaps even great) mpg without having to obsess over it or go to special Prius P&G school.

 

Oh yeah you will It's like a mobile video game and it's just as addictive as your old Atari favorites too

 

No I didn't The '95 Odyssey that my '04 Prius replaced got mileage similar to your Saab. In 91K miles, I have saved over $6K in gas alone. I don't P&G but I do make use of Glide and EV and *I* didn't intend to get all caught up in 'how low (or is it high?) can you go either.

We'll see. I agree, some spend more effort than others. I have NO idea how people can average 60+ MPG in a Gen II, I can't get close to that. But I feel pain when winter comes and the 'always over 50 MPG' tanks become rare and it is more like 'can I hold 45?'.

And congratulations on cutting your future fuel use in half! We all benefit.