New Prius C owner. Several Questions

So yeah, pretty much what everyone else said. The pC is a niche car designed for a particular area of driving. Ours is my wife’s commuter, and when we got it she was doing peak commute time 10 miles into and out of DC every day which is where the prius excels at good mileage. Well, mostly. Like others pointed out, sitting in gridlock is bad because the engine will end up running when you draw the battery down from not moving.

Her commute is not ~50 miles (one way) almost exclusively on highways ranging from 45 mph in traffic to 70-80 when miraculously everyone gets out of everyone else’s way. Mileage drops significantly when you go above say 65, though depending on the roads you’re driving on going a little faster can net better mileage due to increase in potential energy/not having to work as hard to go up slight hills, etc. The pC’s acceleration at speed is definitely anemic, but I’ve never been concerned I couldn’t accelerate out when I needed to. It’s significantly more powerful than my old ‘88 ranger which rolled off the line with 94 HP, and that got 12 mpg downhill.

With her current commute of 500 miles/week in those conditions she’s getting around 47 mpg combined. She has some drives which are significantly higher, and some which are lower. When she’s in traffic the whole way and never breaches 60 she’s hit damn near 70 mpg for most of the trip.

The 42-55 mpg around town isn’t terrible, but I bet with some judicious improvement in your right foot you can make that climb pretty easily. Not talking about hypermiling, just being more conscientious about what your foot is doing, when using more gas is wasted, etc. I rarely drive the prius now, but around town without thinking about it I easily climb over 50.

Our other car is a newer Accord hybrid. It’s bigger, it’s heavier, it has more power, and I can damn near fit the prius in the trunk. In town and while driving super carefully to be efficient I can barely reach what the prius does effortlessly. So occasional spurts above 50 mph, with an average in the mid 40’s (still recovering from cold winter temps and snow tires effecting my average). On the highway going at speed it will drop to the low 40’s upper 30’s depending on speed (can sometimes still get up above 50 mpg if the speed isn’t much above 55). Driving “sprititedly” will drop it to the low 30’s.

So without throwing stones if I’m doing better than you in a bigger/heavier hybrid which can’t match our prius on it’s best day I’d say either your car has an issue, or your driving style does.