1.4 miles to work and 1.4 miles back from work

Guys, not everyone can walk or ride bikes. And even those who can do not always live in bike/walk friendly places. Also, some of us must have a car at work for planned and unplanned trips. We can make those suggestions, but should not judge.

 

As everyone has already told you, the Prius needs to warm up before its hybrid system helps much.

With your short commute there is another problem. The little 12v battery is not getting properly charged. You need to get a BatteryMinder (BatteryMINDer® Plus AGM/OPTIMA Maintenance Charger / Desulfator-Conditioner 12 Volt – 1.0 Amp | All | Battery Chargers by BatteryMINDers.com) to maintain your little battery or it will have a short life.

JeffD

 

At 1.4mile you are in warmup cycle so NO way to get EPA+ like mileage. That is the distance I drive to get Starbucks on my to work which is 17 miles away total and I end up with 50-60mpg depending on weather. That forst bit to starbucks is usually 35-40mpg best case. This is the type of driving the Plug Prius will solve but at that distance all I can say is bike it as a plug in will be expensive for a 2.8 mile daily commute.

 

Why are you people hassling this poor guy with impractical advice? Sheesh.

I suggest getting a new job further away or moving further away. Then you'll see your mpg go up big time.

 

keep the heater at 65 and fan at lowest setting or off it not needed. minimal warming up of the car.

 

Now you just sound ignorant. You should try hugging some trees. Maybe then you'll understand why environmental concerns are important.

You were given good advice in this thread. A polite person would thank those who gave it. If you utilize the techniques you might save some money.

 

It is not our fault you bought the wrong car. The Prius gets great gas mileage over a great distances. Driven very short distances, many cars rival it for economy. (The Prius is also a horrible car to not drive for months at a time) The good news is, this is an excellent time to sell a Prius as gas prices are up, so folks are interested. With your commute, you should be able to drive a Leaf all month before remembering to plug it in.

I explain Prius Mileage with this graph, you were hoping for the Red Line, Prius actually gets the Green Line. Driven far enough they are the same.

 

my commute is about the same distance and mph. i'm averaging around 40mpg so i must be doing something right.

 

I have a short commute every day and average 40 MPG. Here are a couple of things to try that have worked for me to squeak out a few extra MPG.
1. Try to warm up your engine faster by accelerating briskly. I know it's counter intuitive but I'm getting better results doing it.
2. Forget the HSD display when the engine is cold. It lies to you because the the ICE will run when you are driving in the left side of the display when it is cold. Use the instantaneous MPG display and try to keep it above 50 MPG. When it absolutely refuses to go above 50, that's when you do an agressive pulse to warm up the engine.

Give it a try and let me know what happens.

And rather than being sarcastic instead of helping this guy, maybe a few of you experts could experiment with 1.4 mile trips with your vast knowledge of limited fuel consumption and make some constructive comments. The only reason he made the tree hugging comment is that certain senior members of this group pissed him off.

 

Well, this comment just put you on my ignore list. I come here to answer legitimate questions, not listen to someone whine about having too short of a commute.

Tom

 

I could have sworn there were more helpful posts than not but after looking back through it appears I was wrong. ksstathead always gives great advice, especially for short commutes so I guess that stuck with me. Regardless, this is the internet and one must learn to grow a thick skin. Lashing out with angst against "treehuggers" is not cool, especially on a Prius forum. That's kinda like going to a diesel truck forum and proclaiming I'm not some redneck loser. That would get me nowhere.

Back on topic...

I would take ksstathead's advice. A plug-in upgrade could be fun but the payback period would be insane and with a low yearly mileage it would not pan out economically.

 

Getting 50 MPG versus 30 MPG over 3 miles will save you .04 gallons, which, at $4/gallon, is a grand total of 16 cents. Even if you made that commute EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR, you wouldn't save even $60. If I saw someone driving a Prius for such a short distance, I would assume they were doing it because they are a tree hugger (no offense to tree huggers). The economic argument just isn't there.

 

None taken and I completely agree with you. It really isn't a big deal economically. Despite being a treehugger, I despise people who buy the car just to make a statement. A real treehugger would walk the distance or ride a bike.

 

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I can't think of any reason to drive 1.4 miles to and from work, unless I was handicapped. I walk that distance everyday and then take the train the other 24 miles.

landp: not to judge, but maybe if you elaborated the reason for such a short drive, rather than walking or biking to work-this might help gather some tips and less snipes

 

There are many good responses that you can choose from. The fact is you choose to live 1.4 miles from work and you choose not take advantage of it. Instead you waste gas with a car that does not even warm up for at least 3x that amount of milage, and your mad at us???

Man up, get a bike, walk, but your not going to make a Silk Purse out of a car that your using improperly!

 

I'm sorry for your frustration, but it's akin to complaining about being in a higher tax bracket (I doubt that would elicit sympathy either).

Maybe you could try to carpool with someone. If this makes you drive out of your way, you could increase your MPGs a lot. Note this won't save you any gas because you will consume more fuel overall. But you could ask for some gas money from your peeps.

Finally, try this -- start your vehicle and let it idle for two minutes. Then proceed with your commute. See if this helps. You could try a 1 minute or a 3 minute idle as well. My point is to let the engine idle until it decides it doesn't need to warm up anymore (it will shut off). The only way to know for sure if it can help is to try.

 

Some of us are out to reduce overall fuel consumption, not necessarily maximize the MPG display. That is what the environment and our national security really need. As a frequent fair-weather biker, my annual pedal commuting is nearly three times your total annual commute distance. And if I lived as close to work as you, I'd almost never drive there.

For a 1.4 mile commute, your mpg appears quite reasonable. While it is pitiful compared to the 57 mpg I achieved over 38 total miles today, it still beats the 29 mpg of my first 1.4 miles on the way home this evening. (46F, climate control off. Morning commute starts with too much elevation change to give a useful mpg.)

You already know how to drive to very good mpg. If you want better, there are several pieces of good advice in this thread. Do you plan to try any of them?

 

I have similar "issues" living only 4 miles away from work. In the morning it's 0.5 mile to the highway, 2.5 miles at 55-60 mph, and 1 mile at 35-45 mph with a few lights. I live in New England so in the winter I get around 39-41 mpg. It's starting to warm up a little so now I get 42-43 mpg. I'm going to try some of the suggested tips. My car only has 8k miles on it and I've taken it on some long trips and gotten 49-52 according to the FCD. When calculated the actual is usually ~2 mpg less than the FCD.