what am i doing wrong?

When I'm on the highway, I don't care what the impatient drivers think. I know that they're going to flip me off and give me dirty/angry stares, so I just look away and let them pass. Screw what they think.

As you saw, you did better than the EPA estimate, primarily by reducing your speed.

How sweet...

 

ODO is trip mileage for that particular trip. It calculates from the moment you turn the car on until the moment you turn the car off. A and B are until you reset them.

 

In my experience they start low and only get higher.

 

I've only owned my Prius C for just under 3 weeks, still breaking it in myself. Its still the best car I've ever owned, I've never felt this happy about a car purchase before. Even when I bought a Honda Insight 3 years ago, I was disappointed by a few issues after driving it for a few days (the biggest disappointment for me was how it was such a light hybrid that the engine always had to run when moving, and the A/C and other functions shut down when you braked as the engine was cut off). This car I've had absolutely nothing to nit pick on, nothing at all that has me regretting it. I love the thing.

Mileage is going to vary, but the good thing about the Prius C are the tools it gives you to maintain a better driving style. I keep my screen on the ECO screen where it shows the price of my fuel as I drive. It helps me maximize all electric driving and reminds me that I'm spending cash when I hit the pedal, which is something very few cars do.

Here's what I've found in mixed city/highway driving. I live in the suburbs, but work in downtown Buffalo. I have a typical commute (morning rush/evening rush). The temperatures this time of the year here average 80 degrees, and this past week its been 80-90 the entire week). I keep my thermostat at 70 since I am not fond of extreme heat, I feel too hot when its set to 73 or 75 as some people do.

If I drive the Thruway to work, the average speed I drive is 75 where I live, and 60-65 as you get into the city and downtown. Based on these parameters, I'm still averaging over 50mpg even with A/C on cooling it to 70.

The driving technique I use is to just accelerate more responsibly. Now, if I need to merge into highway traffic I'm not going to put myself and others at risk by being as efficient as possible, I'll hit the gas at that point, but every other circumstance is different. If I'm pulling onto a city street or in a parking lot, I stay in the ECO zone. If I'm in a parking lot, I even try to stay in EV/ECO mode as much as possible, as I don't care who gets upset "only" going 20-30 mph in a parking lot as that's safe driving.

I have left my car in ECO mode the vast majority of the past 3 weeks. I also never use the actual EV button, I find that not pressing the gas pedal heavily is better, because you can stay in EV mode well into the mid 30's and even up to 40mph sometimes before the gas engine kicks in.

So bottom line for me?

1) accelerate responsibly, its not bad to accelerate fast to merge, but quickly adjust and stay in the ECO zone when possible

2) enjoy driving

That's really all I've done to get 50mpg or more so far. I drive a *lot* and I'm already nearing 2,000 miles in the past 3 weeks. Every tank I've had averages 55mpg or more.

I'm still surprised it takes that much energy to cool from 110F, but... I've never had to live in that kind of climate and I suppose it takes more energy than I realized to cool down temps with A/C.

 

You should activate the ECO button when using your A/C

 

This looks pretty much answered but I wanted to add YES, running the A/C definitely hits the MPG. I generally run it at 74 with two bars here in Florida and get around 50MPG. One day I did a normal drive to get food and decided not to have the A/C on and ended up at over 70MPG.

 

Do you make lots of short trips/
Have low inflated tires (below 35 psig) ?
start and stop a lot ?
drive much in hills around Vegas ?

and yes, if your a/c has to contend with cooling 110F air, or you're not running recirculation, or running windows down, you're mpg will suffer, especially for lots of short trips.

 

These "First Tank" or early, early ownership panic, my MPG's are bad posts should always garner the same responses. You've got to be patient and calculate your gas mileage based on a couple of full tanks of gas, that you yourself have filled.

I give everyone the benefit of the doubt that the problem they perceive is legitimate....and I think a problem existing on a new car is always possible (unfortunately) BUT...too often it is simply that the dealership didn't really fill the tank all the way and/or that the owner is misreading a gauge or hasn't reset a meter.

Seems like 99% of the time, after the owner figures out all the gauges, and figures out what meters to reset at fill up, and actually starts calculating the mileage based on full tanks, and actual gallons added at the pump, that there really was never any real problem.

I kind of blame the dealership and/or the salesman. They need to show new owners how to reset the trip odometers. And if they are giving you a "Free Tank Of Gas" with purchase, they should make sure it's a true full tank. That would bypass and head off a lot of the early ownership, I'm not getting Prius Hybrid gas mileage posts.

But really, if it's your drive off the lot tank...and your first couple of days of ownership. Don't panic, read your owners manual, and just ignore your MPG's. Start any calculations when you can base it on a pump receipt that you witnessed and a starting point and ending point that you can verify. If you run 2-3 tanks and are still getting substandard MPG's THEN you might really have a problem.

Toyota blesses Prius owners with several screens, gauges and meters, and at least at first it can all be overwhelming. After a while it you kind of learn what to pay attention to...and what to ignore.

 

So I guess the bottom line is you do have to drive like a grandma to get better mileage!

 

Better than what? I get better than my previous car by driving the same way as I did in that car.

 

Not me! But my previous car was a 2010 Prius IV.