MPG Question

There are quite a few threads on this already. If you do a search you will find them.

Basics are:

1. Speed - the faster you go on the freeway, the worse the MPG
2. Temperature - warmer temperatures yield better MPG numbers
3. Elevation - Large hills or prolonged uphill streches kill the MPG
4. Duration - the longer you drive, normally the better the MPG numbers will be...short trips are a killer because the ICE kicks on each time to warm up the emission components.
5. Learning curve - as you drive more, you learn how to better drive the car. Anticipating red lights and coasting more, speeding up a little faster then normal and then coasting back to speed, feathering the gas, etc....all things you learn as you go.

Also, never set the temperature to AUTO. It tends to cause the ICE to run more, hence lower MPG numbers.

Seems like low to mid 40's would be around right for a New York winter. Here in Los Angeles, with 50-60's I get low to mid 50's.

 

A few more ideas:

The climate control thing really drives me nuts! In fact, having the heat on at all in the winter causes the engine to run excessively. I think it's worse than the A/C for fuel mileage. You may find that warmer weather helps. It's also important to go gentle on the brakes -- the first 1/2" (maybe more, maybe less, I can't really judge distance with my foot) in the pedal seems to be where you can get regen without the friction brakes necessarily grabbing. You want to drive gently up to each stop so you don't have to push the pedal further than that.

Short drives are inherently inefficient (3 miles you say?), because the engine's just getting warmed up, though long slow drives are good. If you get really picky (as I am), you may notice that coasting above 8MPH the car tries to regen, and below 7, it tries to "creep" like an automatic, even when you have the brake on. If I'm slowly rolling up to a stoplight and the engine's already off, I stick it in neutral at 7MPH to not waste energy on the creep thing. Personally, I'd rather Toyota just ditch the creep thing, but I can see why they do it.

Another trick I use is, when driving with the engine off and encountering a downhill stretch, I throw it in neutral before passing 40MPH; this keeps the engine from starting at 41MPH. Obviously, you shouldn't do this on a busy road, where you might need fast acceleration to avoid an accident, but I live in Maine

All told, in the winter, I tend to have trouble getting more than 45-48 (sometimes as low as 40), though in the summer my average has been more like 55.

Cheers!
-Ben