new owner gas mileage

You have nothing to worry about. Read the stickies and other threads about gas mileage. You're off to a fine start.

 

I'm on my 5th tank. I started with a low 40's MPG on my first tank, and through some very slight modifications to my driving habits I'm working on a 53 MPG tank (~200 miles so far).

Low 40's I think is perfectly resonable for someone who drives the Prius like they would any other car, and not even remotely a sign of something wrong with your car. That's still a very high number if you compare to real-life numbers of most other cars, and if you're interested in maximizing your efficiency, there are lots of pointers in this forum for how to do it. The EPA numbers set a high mark for the average driver, and set the average driver up for some disappointment, but you can and will do better. Patience is the key.

 

You're doing fine.

The car is new and there is a break in period. Plus you'll be relearning how to drive.

My first few tanks were in the mid 40s, 44-46. Then suddenly the next one was 47, then 48 then 51. My best tank was 52. I have some hills and some short trips so I don't usually do better than 52.

But you will relearn some driving habits with coasting to stops, not stomping on the gas when you start, and pulse and glide.

Wait until you've got 1000-1500 miles on your car before you start to worry about mileage.

It's all in the articles you've been directed to.

 

I think the mileage depends on what type of commute you have. I've had my 2005 Prius BC for over a year now, and have close to 15,000 miles on it-- I typically average around 40-42 mpg per tank. I never run the gas down to one bar, so I can't say exactly how many miles I would get per tank, but I would estimate 400 miles to the tank. However, when I drive, most of my trips are a few miles, and usually under 10 minutes or so, which I understand to be the worst situation for fuel efficiency.

For me, I get much better fuel economy when I do long trips on highways, which kind of goes against the EPA estimates where city mpg is better than highway mpg. When I have driven lots of long trips, then I usually get more like 49 mpg per tank. I've almost never seen over 50 mpg avg for the tank. I do live in the suburbs of New York, though, so its very difficult to do ideal Prius driving.

 

I have no idea what the terrain in MD is like, but I just moved from Chicago (i.e., flat) to central Arizona (i.e., mountainous and hot). I used to average 440 miles per tank, but here I'm about half that. It's a huge disappointment based on what I'm used to, but I would've been really worried too if I started out averaging 200 something per tank. So even if your next several tanks don't get you to the 400's, it's probably not you or the car, but the terrain & weather.

 

I picked up my Prius on July 19. I'm approaching the 2500 mile mark and can tell you that your mileage will improve as the car breaks in and you learn the best ways to drive it. My first tank was 48.6 MPG, and I'm getting 52.5 MPG on my current tank. My day is filled with a mix of city and highway and plenty of uphill and downhill driving. It's all about timing, and only you can tune your driving habits to take advantage of the car's fuel economy. I drove from Cincinnati to Atlanta on a tank of gas and still had fuel left for driving once I arrived.

My honeymoon with the energy screen (the one that shows the flow and recovery of energy) ended after a day or two. I look at the consumption screen (the one with the bars and average MPG) when fine-tuning my driving. For me, it's much easier to let the motors do their thing when they need to while I concentrate on keeping the bar on the far right above to 50 mark as much as possible.

Also, do not freak out when you need to cook up a hill or something and you see the bar drop or the current MPG on the energy screen drop. Instead, keep in mind that getting 25 MPG going up a hill is still getting much better fuel economy than many cars on the road are able to realize.

 

Happily, I find myself in more or less in Stage III with tastes of Stage IV. I can often tell by feel, sound, or circumstance whether I'm dead-banding. I think switching between the energy and consumption screens may help me fine tune further, but when I sense that I'm dead-banding, I switch to the energy screen and most often see nothing but black. When it's not all black, I may be applying just enough pressure on the accelerator to run on battery. Only more time behind the wheel will improve my driving.

 

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It could be that the tank was not filled all the way when you picked it up at the dealer. Usually when I'm ~130 miles into a tank, there's only 1-2 pips gone from the guess (gas) gauge. Usually takes between 75-120 miles for the first pip to drop off, then from there they go away more frequently (every 20-50 miles~it definitely varies). If you're concerned about it, maybe you should stop into a nearby gas station and top the tank off and start over?? Your mileage is pretty good, I wouldn't be the least bit concerned about that. I think my first tank was 45-46.

 

I'm getting 56 mpg on my second tank and I'm about halfway thru it. I had some serious success with my standard accord (getting 39 combined) but had to take weird steps to get there (turning the engine off downhill, etc). The key things are obvious: don't turn gas into heat, just into motion. If you race to the red light and fail to anticipate slowing traffic you brake (and braking never recovers the energy you expended moving the car, prius or not). If you zoom up hills or accelerate too fast, or circle around for the best parking space instead of parking near the entrance, or cruise at high speeds, efficiency drops. Same with underinflated tires (haven't even checked the new car yet) and failure to link trips (warm engines are happier engines). I also don't carry any junk around with me and I don't use AC. There are obvious changes in the prius, vs my accord, most notably figuring out how to back off and go to EV mode once at cruising speed. It ain't brainsurgery--just have to tolerate getting passed by SUV's a lot.