Anyone else have advice before I trade this thing in?

Ditch the 17" wheels and DON'T drive like a granny. I have a 12 mile commute to work, I keep the AC on and I get low to mid 40's and I am happy as a pig in !@#$%. I love my Prius!!! 31k trouble free miles!!!

 

I wonder if this little experiment may prove that the short trips are killing your MPG.


Now I know this is a NO NO but let the Prius warm up for 5 minutes before driving it. Keep the AC on High to insue the ICE runs.

Assumming your trips generate about 3 bars on the consumption display..... Now when you drive it since its warmed up this should (???) eliminate the poor first bar, thereby increasing your overall MPG reading.

Comments on this are welcomed becuase I'm just making a wild guess here.

have you tried manually recording your fill ups and miles to determine the real actual MPG?

- hope this might help

Al

 

i wouldnt sit and idle. you will find its difficult to keep the engine running when the car is not moving. the air conditioning wont do it for me.

once a week i take a co-worker to the bank to cash his check at lunch. i sit in the parking lot waiting for him with air on. the car almost never runs the whole time i am sitting there. frequently if its hot out, like yesterday, i was down to purple on the battery and the car still didnt start up until we started moving again.

also, my commute to work is 8.7 miles. all surface streets. its takes me about 23 minutes 98% of the time.

my other option is the freeway. that is 11.2 miles and about ½ the time it takes about 15 minutes. unfortunately, about 10 % of the times, it takes about 20 minutes. (my exit is now the #1 exit for state workers in an area where most people work for the state and drive alone)

so since my work hours have changed to 8 AM from 5 AM, i drive the surface streets because i have time, the drive is much nicer and i dont have to do I-5 which is a blessing.

so to say that 10-15 miles is a short commute is not really the problem because i feel that my mileage is excellent, exceeds EPA and has been consistent enough to not be considered a fluke. and even if you factor in the pump error (because of the accuracy of the Prius MFD i now exclusively get gas at a station that im reasonably sure that gives more gas than im paying for.) im still doing very well.

i make weekly 55 mile one trips on the freeway and always lose a good 2-3 mpg doing so. without those trips, i would be way over 60 mpg.

 

It's against my usual nature to agree with so many people, but... I've has my Prius for 7 months and 5K miles. The first couple of months, I was averaging 39 mpg on a 10-12 mile commute - 40% street/60% freeway - and was very happy with it. Currently, I'm getting around 42 mpg - exactly twice what I averaged in my '94 Accord EX - and I'm very very very happy with it.

I know that it's "low" (HAH!) because of (1) the type and distance of commute (2) the fact that in the morning my average freeway speed is at least 70 (3) I keep my windows open most of the time - just don't like A/C even though it's now in the ninty's in downtown LA.

Maybe if I change some of these habits I'll get a few more mpg, but if I don't - oh well! It's a great little car - very comfortable, great pep - so I have no reason to bitch or moan that I'm getting only "average" mileage. Average that is, for Prii.

Forget the need for numbers to post. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

tires, black car in florida, short trips, are gonna equal lower mpgs.

You also need to consider, gas not used at stop lights. This is not part of the calculations, but should be.

 

I'm in no position to know one way or the other about the tires and rims...and after 19 months of Prius ownership I am not convinced that oil at or slightly above the full mark will impact mileage (mostly because I've let it go like that and not seen any effect -- or harm). I'm not convinced that A/C takes much of a toll either since I've driven mine in both Florida and New Mexico, using it a lot for much of the year (and I get as high as 52 mpg on an all-hwy tank, mid-40s on an average tank and *never* below 42 mpg). Short trips are a killer, for sure.

There are lots of techniques for improving mileage -- most require learning to read what you're seeing on the Energy screen (and, unfortunately, this can keep your eyes from where they really need to be for a lot of the time). But if you don't want to go quite that far, I'd offer you one word....the single most important word, in my opinion, for getting the most from your Prius. One word that requires the biggest change in your driving habits:

Coast. Coast, man....coast.

Keep an eye on traffic lights ahead of you. When they turn red, don't drive up to them and then have to brake and lose all that momentum. Instead, coast as much as you can up to them. When you are approaching a corner where you intend to make a turn, same thing -- coast up to it. There's something odd about the Prius throttle (and someone actually explained it to me so that I knew I wasn't imaginging things) -- and you can see this on the Energy screen and your instantaneous MPG readout -- but if you keep your foot into the throttle, even if it's just enough to hold a set speed, the HSD reads the throttle as needing torque -- and you can see the mileage stay down. But if you make it a practice to lift your foot off the throttle once you get to your "cruising speed" and then gently place it back down, your mileage will instantly improve.

In fact, if you learn to feather the throttle in this manner so that the Energy display shows no arrows to or from the battery, you'll have reached a state known in some Prius circles as "gliding"...and not only will you rack up 99.9 mpg distances but there won't be any power conversion to or from the battery (which is inefficient every time it happens). The more times you can glide, the better. And if you can't glide, then coast as much as you can...it's almost as good.

 

I would say put the Prius wheels back on it, and live with the mileage you get by driving locally mostly. I drive really nothing but in town miles (i.e. within 20 miles of my house at all times), and I'm averaging low to mid 40's in mpg, and I'm fine with that, believe me. My car at this point has similar mileage, and I do expect it to get better with time. But not like the sticker claims if I only do local driving. Like I said, that's fine with me. I do about four trips a year, each about 1500-2000 miles round trip, and I'm betting I'll see the benefits on those trips...that was one of the major reasons I bought the Prius, for those trips.
Sorry to hear you're not satisfied with it, but don't trade it in, I think you'd regret that more.

Dave

 

You didn't say but I imagine that those tires are 205 width at least. Many have reported mpg losses as high as 20-30% with the 17" wide tire combination. And saying that the short commutes are causing most of your problems ignores what you said about the extended trip that yielded even worse results. Tire pressure, above 35/33 but below say 44 will only amount to 3-4% change, not what you're seeing. The short commutes, mine is about 10 miles, will definitely take some technique to overcome. I get roughly 50-52 mpg in the summer and 44-48 in the winter on my round trip commute and I have to really work for all of it. And it was worse when I was under say 5000 miles on the odo. If you can, try to trade the tires/wheels back to the stockers. The tire brand/style will matter too. I remember hearing one guy with 205HR45 X15 Bridgestone 950's that said his mileage went down about 30%. That's down to 35 from 50 mpg! He claimed it fixed the wander problems though but not worth the mpg loss in my opinion.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dpool\";p=\"108935)</div>

I have. Check out my 13707 miles of log at Green Hybrid.com

I was averaging around 45-47mpg from factory before I was filled to 4qts and then I dropped to ~41-45mpg. I was 'trying' and driving slower and more consistently than before, and even adjusted my tire pressures higher. Usually I see my MPG go up the more traffic I hit; not anymore. So, that's about a 3-4mpg hit right there.

Now recently, I got oil changed again to the right level, and MPG is back up to 45-47s (49mpg MFD) again and RISING.

Just today, I was driving home at 9pm, and breezing by all the people on the I-5 south rubbernecking the Disneyland fireworks while on the freeway, and I still came out with 49mpg without even bothering to try.

Oil level does matter.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aclone\";p=\"108678)</div>

I think we have all missed this... the car IS under warranty... I'd take it to the dealer and have them look at it.. you paid for this and should use it.

Bob Andersen

 

Aclone:

Unfortunate that your MPG is so low. As others have suggested, must be tires and rims?

Purchased my Prius on Jan 5. 2005. Average between 65/71 MPG Canadian. Imperial gal is approx 20% more than the US Gal. So, converting my average would be 51/57 US.

 

My mpg dropped from 52mpg on this tank to 42 because of very short trips and AC on in extreme heat here in Ill. (With heat on my first tank was only 39mpg.)Yesterday I had oil, rotation, alignment correction, and a couple extra pounds of tire pressure. I can already detect a slight positive difference. I've never seen 50mpg on an entire tank and also feel a bit jealous reading other posts. But from what I hear, the rest of us in the 40's just aren't interesting enough reading.

 

If you just got the Prius for the fuel economy you might want to read this and think about it for a second. http://priuschat.com/forums/fuel-economy-r...059.html#109059

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdpigott\";p=\"108687)</div>

Yep. Time may be the important factor here. My first five minutes are always low mpg (~25-30), but because my commute is typically 30-40 minutes, I can double that in the long run. If you're only traveling for ten or fifteen minutes total, that could be why you're not seeing the great numbers.

My short trips kill my mileage, too.

 

One more vote for going back to the stock rims & tires. Check the pressures. Once you've done that, plan a weekend getaway somewhere. You'll get a much better feel for your mileage if you take it out for a few hours, and it will give you a baseline to compare your commute against. Pick some place fun that's at least 100 miles away from home. Top off the tank on your way out of town.

Also try changing brands of gasoline. I always buy gas at the same local no-name gas station because it's convenient. After reading something on another thread, I drove out of my way to fill up at a Chevron station. It's probably too early to say anything definitive, but right off the bat I'm seeing a 2-3 mpg improvement. I'm going to wait a few tanks before making a final judgement, but so far looks good. Of course, it will take me 6 weeks to get thru 2-3 tanks of gas.

 

Aclone / Prostar8.20:

Poor performance: First, patience, second, the wheels. Toyota went to great expense to wind tunel test the car, using strange wheels and tires ruins all that. Those 17" wheels may look nice but they are costing you 5-10 MPG performance. Third the real killer is the short trips. I am in the same boat trip wise. The best advice is to learn the car, and do the following:

-Make the car go into coasting mode, electric mode and re-charge mode as much as possible. How do you do it? Easy, off a stop accellerate briskly to 30-35 MPH or as safety allows, ease off (gentle) a little off the gas, until you'll see the mode change on the MFD. After awhile you'll feel this.

-Immediately off the gas when coming to a red light or stop situation, coast & recharging as much as possible. Anticipate this as you can, it is not necessary to accelerate to a stop!

-I have found that on longer legs, with no short stops I can engage cruise IF SAFE, and the car's computer manages all this and does good

The three (3) above steps, practiced will become second nature, and yield you 42-45 MPG depending upon AC usage. I used AC all the time except nights and mornings and got about 43.5 actual MPG.

Hate to see you get disgusted, this car does get the mileage with just a little work on your part. It sure beats the other mileages. And the small box you mentioned won't even touch that mileage, and it is noisy, unconfortable, and weak in accelerating.

 

Just one last thing to add. I generally get 49-52 in the summer and maybe 44-49 in the winter here in San Diego. My mileage is down slight now and some of the reason is probably the very muggy hot weather we're having lately. The AC is on, 77-78 deg, all the time. I remember one trip at night in Vegas, very hot, lots of traffic and the worst gas mileage I've ever seen out of this car. Those short trips, very hot weather, etc all hurt....and of course you already know about the tires. Good luck.

 

ProStar8.20:

Your question was about after a car wash the car you had started performing really poor:

I have been thinking about that one and what could have happened:

Follow Dr Evan (Efusco) suggestions, he's an extremely knowledgeable person, and usually get it close. There is no known fault, check the TIRE pressures, I know of no electrical issues, you would get warning lights on that. Check your mirrors, and make sure they are in the locked view position and not slightly folded. If you have installed bug shields and the likes, make sure the wash has not disturbed them into bad positions. Make sure all your doors are fully shut.