2010 prius, 31 mpg, Toyota doesn't care

Sigh... more trolling as always. We can't help people who complain w/o giving us sufficient info. It's unproductive for us write replies consisting of guesses and more questions when posters may not even return to answer them. In short, we can't help people who won't help themselves. I discovered this long ago, which is why I wrote the questionnaire. Many of us are willing to help, provided there's sufficient info.

Please educate yourself on the EPA tests at http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...uth-about-epa-city-highway-mpg-estimates.html which I pointed to several times in the thread. I suspect that it's very likely the EPA tested/verified the mileage figures themselves on the 3rd gen Prius since it is the highest EPA rated vehicle on the market. There's a good reason to.

In many cases, I don't doubt that some folks are experiencing "poor" mileage. The question is, whether such mileage is reasonable given their trip lengths, temps, commute, etc. We've had people discover their tires are at 28 psi or lower, they have short <5 minute drives, are driving it wrong for mileage (e.g. trying to accelerate in electric only), using the heater in a way that causes the ICE to run to provide cabin heat, "warming up" their car for minutes for going, etc.

I really wish there would be a portion of the test cycle consisting of short city drives starting from a cold engine and that it'd be required on the Monroney sticker.

 

This is not an advertisement, it is a federally mandated label carrying numbers determined by federal regulations.

Any 'false advertisement' is the fault of Congress, which requires the label, and the EPA, which determines the size and format and location and content of the label.

If you find any Toyota obligation here, please let us know, so I can apply the same obligations to Ford and Subaru for my earlier vehicles.

 

According to the referenced EPA page, the new 10,000 GVWR labeling threshold applies only to SUVs and passenger vans.

The threshold for pickups and cargo vans remains at 8500 pounds.

 

Then don't. You have a choice not to respond to any query.
In this case, it looks like the Prius owner's gone for good.

Bottomline, the Prius bad weather mpg sucks big time.

 

A couple mpg off is not a problem but 8-10mpg lower in winter is an entire class in itself. To the "regulars" here, the poor winter perf is well known but I can totally understand the shock to the average consumer who has spent 30k+ on a supposedly 50mpg car.

Unfortunately, Toyota's problem is unique in this sense being the only manufacturer now selling hybrids in volume to the "average consumer".

Yeah, Toyota does brag about the 50mpg in its ads...
http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/commercial.html

 

That is yet another reason why I believe fuel economy should be expressed not as Miles Per Gallon, but instead as Gallons Per 100 Miles, similar to the liters/100km used by the rest of the world. This would make most of that 'average consumer' shock disappear.

 

Congress/EPA indeed does a disservice by posting such low mpg estimates.

I've beaten EPA estimates on every car I've owned, and beat my wife's mileage by 5 to 10 mpg every day. The EPA estimates cause consumers to set their expectations too low.

As to the Prius and mileage in the winter, I did 110 miles today at 25 degrees and got 63 mpg on the MFD, which corresponds to about 60 calculated. Grill blocked.

 

Wow, that sounds pretty deceptive. Most of the priuses do not get 31-37 mpg.

 

The Prius doesn't start as a $30K car. One equipped w/$30K of options doesn't perform any better mileage-wise than a base model at ~$23K. In fact, one with 17" wheels (model Five) will get slightly worse mileage.

EPA mileage ratings are supposedly the only ones that car manufacturers can legally advertise.

Sure, but others end up wasting their time. It's unproductive. Many of us are willing to help. It's easier to not have a lot of wasted back and forth (or in some cases, no reply to begin with). That was the pattern before I ever wrote the questionnaire.

Good lord! Name currently shipping mass market cars w/better winter mileage. How many are there and what do they get in the same conditions? How about in non-winter conditions? Indyking, who kept complaining about his winter mileage drop decided to dump his Prius and buy a car that gets even worse mileage.

What is your motivation here? You don't own a Prius. You do all you can to troll by slamming Toyota and Priuses and spreading misinformation. It seems you're motivated to dissuade anyone from buying a Prius and influence current owners to get rid of theirs. Why? Why don't you go start slamming other cars on their respective message boards in the same way?

I really do think you work for or have some connection or financial interest in/with a competitor, competing dealership or suppliers to a competitor. Or, you have some financial interest in seeing Toyota or the Prius fail or TM's stock fall.

 

We've been getting also about 30mpg in our new (~1000 miles on odo) 2010 IV. But this seems reasonable because we've been driving lately in bad conditions:
very short trips
3 kids, 2 adults, about 570lbs worth of passengers!
It's been very rainy in Seattle
No driving style tricks used by wife
our neighborhood is hilly

When I'm on the freeway, no kids, dry, and I'm using tricks (drafting, varying speed, etc) it goes up to about 60mpg for a ~60 mile trip.

Adding one other thing:
We have a 2001 Honda Odyssey also. A few years ago I decided to try 1 gas tank's worth of hypermiling (as much as it's possible to do that in an automatic minivan with a huge engine!) to see what the difference would be between that and "normal driving". This was in the summer. We usually get about 18-20mpg in that car, but managed to get 27mpg that time. But driving like that is exhausting and has a low Wife Acceptance Factor.

 

^^ Welcome to PriusChat. But please skip any dangerous drafting. In the long run you can get better mpg by controlling you own speed, instead of letting someone else control it for you.