Yay! I'm the proud new owner of a used 2005 super white Prius. It's beautiful, and I've been averaging 50-55 mpg. Now, before I bought it, I did the calculation: gee, I'm spending about 200 bucks a month on gas, so if I get a Prius, that should save me at least $100 each month. Right? Wrong! I bought it last friday, and I've already put 1050 miles on it. I've spent around 40 bucks in gas! At this rate, my gas consumption won't go down at all! Humans have this wonderful ability to scale to acceptable costs and risks. As we put more saftey features into vehicles, drivers do riskier things, and the injury rate doesn't go down much. Similarly, I think I was limiting my errands and travel so much because of my gas guzzler, that now I'm doing so much more with the prius that my gas budget probably won't budge! On the other hand, it has already improved my life. Twice now I've had 2 hour trips between Philadelphia and New York that I would have done all highway, but with a GPS in hand I can take a shorter and beautiful local route, avoid traffic, get the same mileage, stop at a farm stand, and take about the same travel time! Thanks for all the great advice on this board. I've already turned off most of the annoying beeps, and I'll probably attempt an EV button soon.
Yes, immediately after getting the Prius, one does want to roadtrip, doesn't one? I think, like everything else, the honeymoon period will settle down to a good, stable relationship, and you will be driving your regular patterns again
I went thru the same adjustment period, forcing myself to go back to bicycle for shorter errands. It's too easy and fun to take the Prii.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(feivel @ Jun 19 2007, 11:17 AM) [snapback]464663[/snapback]</div> Well even though I'm doing more miles, I'm spending about $50/mo on gas, down from $120. My insurance has stayed the same but there are these damn monthly payments...
MPG is only one component of fuel consumption. You might get better MPG in your Prius, but if you are driving more miles, your fuel consumption might stay constant.
I still drive the same amount of miles a month. I got 1700 miles on mine and I got it on the first of June. I've only put 3 fills in about $75 in my truck it would have been about $270 so for me it saves money and it's not 11 years old with 260,000 + miles on it. Yes there is a payment, but the fuel savings about cover it..
What the heck have you been doing to get over 1000 miles in 4 days? Even when I was a delivery person I didn't drive that much. Before I got my Prius I would try to only go out when I HAD to. And if I did I would go all the places at once. When I first got my Prius I did end up going to all the places I just felt like going to, be it not that many though. Now I try not to go out unless I have to, and if I do I still try to do all my trips at once, but I can still go places I just feel like going. Maybe instead of calling ahead to see if they have my game in stock I just go and find out myself. I have fun looking at all the stuff anyways. BTW, anyone pre-ordered Starcraft 2 yet?
I think it's common to put a lot of miles on when the car is new and you're looking for excuses to drive it. Eventually you settle back into your more normal routine and your gas bill will go back down. Taking the surface roads is a good way to improve your mileage, if you don't mind taking a bit longer to get there. It sounds like you prefer the more leisurely, scenic route, which makes you the ideal Prius driver. Enjoy your Prius, and happy driving!
I can't imagine adding extra driving! Of course, I have been putting 35k miles per year on my vehicles for so long that just thinking about any extra driving makes my head hurt... Not that the Prius isn't fun to drive, just...
Same problem here. We doubled our typical miles driven in the first month with the Prius. I am hoping next month will return to normal.
I agree totally with the original poster of this thread! I have only had my baby since Jan and I already have 7 k miles on it! Fun to drive and cheap!
I totally agree with you. A month after I got my prius, we went on a road trip and put 3000 miles on the car *gulp* Before the prius, I used to think that a 500 mile road trip was waaaay too long for my taste.
I have 46000 miles on my 05 Prius and I got great mileage until this past 6 months. I lost about 4 miles per gallon (down to 47 or 48 mpg) and had the dealer check it out. They found nothing and turned me over to the national folks who said there was nothing they could do for me. I wonder if anyone else has had the same or similar problem.
I think it is very interesting how folks seem to have such varying mpg's, i have always average 46-48 around town when other folks are averaging 50+ I can only assume that they are driving them to the extreme to get that kinda mpg.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BethlehemPrius @ Jun 20 2007, 09:42 AM) [snapback]465160[/snapback]</div> I have gotten the same mileage for 18 months until 6 months ago. We got many of the same places at the same time of year at the same speeds. Now, we just don't get as good mileage as we used to. I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BethlehemPrius @ Jun 20 2007, 09:42 AM) [snapback]465160[/snapback]</div> I was struck by this too, but in reality it makes a lot of sense because while each of us tends to be reasonably consistent in terms of our own driving, and thus get roughly the same mpg, we each have different driving styles from each other, meaning that with the overall fuel efficiency of the Prius, small variations which would barely be noticeable if we had any way to check them on other vehicles, become amplified with the Prius - and obvious due to the MFD. If you take a vehicle that might average at 20mpg and assume that by aggressive driving you may only drop to perhaps 16, or by conservative driving, go up to 24, that's a 20% differential either way, and would barely be remarked on. On the Prius, a 20% variation either way could result in anything from 40 to 60 mpg around an 'average' of 50.
When I first got my Prius, I was going through about 700 miles a week. A chunk of that was commuting, but the majority of it was mindless cruising playing the video game that is fuel economy
I understand mileage varying and maybe I am in the wrong forum, but what I am trying to learn is has anyone else experienced a drop in mileage like the one I described above? If so, did you communicate with Toyota like I did and get no satisfaction?
