Holy cow... Duck.. when did you get a Prius? (sorry, I've been out of CsC for a while). Congrats! A couple of things can help: Block the grille. See here: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...62556-2010-prius-grill-blocking-strategy.html Yes, don't idle if not necessary. Use an EBH Don't worry about the climate control. If left in AUTO mode, it won't actually blow anything out for the first few mins because it's smart enough to know it'll just be blowing cold air Use ECO mode. It cuts back on the heat (so it'll take longer to warm up) but useful if you have city driving as it will be more aggressive with shutting off the engine. You can take it out of ECO once you hit the highway since the engine will be running all the time anyway and with a blocked grille, the air flow won't be cooling the engine as quickly The worst tank I got was 6.4 or thereabouts but that included a -40°C day (otherwise mostly -20 to -30). Typically I get about 5L/100km near the freezing mark mostly because my commute is short (~9km). A longer commute will definitely lower that average because the engine will have time to warm up.
Thanks for the tips, mate! My smart cdi became too unreliable this fall. After stranding me and a list of failures all occuring nearly at once, at 288 000 km we decided to jump ship. We'd spent 2-3 months narrowing down the choices, which eventually came down to the Gen3 Prius, Mk. 6 Golf TDI, and the Mazda2. In the end, technology won out. We travel too much to have unreliable transportation. The smart was fantastic but it was a bipolar love/hate relationship. The Prius is a much more sensible, long-term (an responsible!) choice. Look at me, all grown up and justifying spending $30+ k on a new car. I'll definately block the grille - It'd totally slipped my mind that I should be doing that! I also think they let some air out of my tires at my first oil change (which, btw, was $45 - a very welcome change over the typical 3 and 4 digit numbers I used to see on bills coming out of Mercedes!), so I'll have to make sure I top them back up next time I hit the pump. Sorry if my previous post came off as negative; I have high hopes for the car, and it just drives me nuts being unable to keep those numbers low, for whatever reason. -Iain
Ahh I see. Wow that's some close competition and I don't think you could've gone wrong with either of one (and we do have several TDI owners on board here!). Yes it's very refreshing. My smart only lasted 1 year/14,000km. $225 was quite a bit when I'm used to $45 for the first 4 oil changes then $130-$180 for the full Maintenance ("Service B") check. Yes I forgot about the tyre pressure. I'm running 40/38 on the stock Bridgestone Ecopia and 42/40 on the Nokian Hakapeliita R winter tyres. Oh I didn't see it as negative at all (it seems reasonable but if you're used to the CDI's mileage, it's giving the Prius a run for its money). The best I've done so far is 4.0L/100km and 914km on a tank. I have noticed that this Prius' mileage readout is a lot more optimistic than our 2005. That 4.0 tank was closer to 4.2 or 4.3 calculated by hand (vs. my 3.9L/100km record on the 2005 which was identical when calculated by hand).
In the US they use it's the partly fuel mixture which changes to reduce emmissions but more in the efficiency of batteries in cold weather. I thought I had posted it on this forum but you could also try a google search for the answer. I got mine from a US environmental agency but can't find it at this time.
The only reason to idle it while chiseling would be to get cabin heat a little sooner. If you don't mind the cold leave it OFF until you drive away; FE should improve a bit.
