My car has jumped about 2 MPG over the last tank (my car just hit 5k miles)- yes I have slightly aggressive driving habits (traded in the g35 for the prius I've read that the Prius' MPG improves as the car breaks in and should be at its best around 15k - how true is this? What have you folks experienced? Thanks!
Mine is too new, but on this afternoon's commute at 70 mph avg I got 45 mpg. Nice. Need to know what will be at 80... I also switched from another powerful car: Is350...and I want to continue driving at the same avg speed but saving loads of gas...
You'd have to track the changes over a longer period of time to know for sure. A 2mpg difference could be due to a number of other factors including but not limited to, temperature barometric pressure and humidity (density altitude), wind speed and direction, changes in driving patterns (even minor ones), errors in calculations both manual and MFD, and maybe you held your mouth just right. It seems to work for fishing.
Things seem to stop getting better & better due to to break-in after maybe 10K miles. You've got half the battle taken care of though. You KNOW you drive aggressive. My poor car pool bud just can't get it. Even so ... he's tickled the 50mpg mark now and then, and his '08 is just crossing the 10k mile mark. Keep up the good work! Take note of your instantaneous mpg while accelerating. Figure if your acceleration mpg is below 30mpg, you won't be seeing 700 miles per tank range. But it is possible ... and maybe even addictive! . .
It is frequently said that the Prius has a break-in period of 10-15k miles. From a purely mechanical point of view that would seem to be realistic. I believe that there is also a driver's break-in period as well. It also seems to be about 10-15k miles long. Driven as a "normal" car, the Prius will get very satisfying FE. But it takes a while to learn to take advantage of the HSD's many subtleties, such as finding the "no-arrows glide" state by feathering the go-pedal. Then there is the matter of realizing that changing your route, even just a little in the first part of your daily commute during the warm-up, can make a huge difference in MPGs achieved. There are many other seemingly minor nuances of driving for max- FE/MPGs, --"driving without brakes," no arrow acceleration, etc. -- each requiring recursive attempts to successfully meld them into the most appropriate strategy for your individual driving situation. Metaphorically, the driver has to accept that the HSD -- inscrutable and arbitrary as it may appear to be -- is an excellent role model; taking advantage of many small, seeming inconsequential gas saving strategies/tactics slowly, but inexorably, adds up to significant FE/MPG gains at the end of the day, or at the next fill-up. But then again, thundering along at 75+ MPH is anything but subtle, and from what I've seen reported by those who do this, you're pretty much limited to the steady running state FE of about 42MPG, IIRC. I'm not saying that's good or bad. It just is what it is; the natural and predictable outcome for this particular driving style. Happy Motoring.
Look at the bright side. My commute is about 40 kilometres each way, yours is under 2. I get reasonable economy, I use 4.3 litres per 100 kilometres (L/100km) while you might use at worst 6 L/100km I can do my commute 20 times, that is 10 times each way, in a fortnight covering a distance of 800km and use about 34.4 litres of fuel in the fortnight. lets say you do your commute 60 times in the fortnight, that is 30 times each way. You cover a total of 120km in the same fortnight using 7.2 litres of fuel. In a fortnight I use 34.4 litres In a fortnight you use <8 litres Whos fuel bill would you rather pay?
