First Tank

Congrats on your new purchase. 41 mpg feels good doesn't it? Just wait until summer. 51 no problem!

 

I'm averaging about 50 on my second tank....thats pretty good right?

 

Sounds about right. According to the MFD, I got 48.2 MPG on my first tank. I'm about 65 miles into my second tank and the MFD is reading 55.2 MPG for this tank. Sweeeeet.

 

I just crossed the 2,000 mile mark and have finally "Trained" my new Prius to finally hit the 50 mpg mark. Avg. is about 47 at the moment. The trade in (a 100K 02) knew how to hit 50mpg all the time..... jf

 

I'd say that's excellent rookie mileage for this time of year, much better than the low to mid-40s I got in my first winter. I know you've had some warm weather recently (and your climate is a little warmer than mine anyway), but you've exceeded the (new) EPA estimates. Congratulations!

 

You guys are doing a tad better than me. I got 48.1 mpg on my last tank. This is my best tank ever...so far. I am trying hard to get 50 mpg this winter, but I guess I'll have to wait till its gets a little warmer.

 

I'm still on my first tank, but the dealership didn't reset the numbers when the filled up, so I think my average is taking into account the test drive and all the short jaunts the car took while at the dealers. I'm at about 33 MPG and have been using the tips here to try and raise that, but I'm unsure as to how quick it will catch up or if I simply need to wait till my second tank and fill up/reset to see what I'm really getting. Still, this is a good start (I think).

 

Yeah, I think that's why the average MPG for my first tank (48.2) was a bit lower than I'm doing now on my second (53.5 so far). I'm driving it pretty much the same. The only difference is I increased my tire pressues slightly to 38/36 (they were at 34/34 on delivery and for most of the first tank).

Short trips (<5 minutes or <5 miles) are definitely a drag on your MPG's, as has been stated many times on the forum. A single quick/short errand can sometimes drop my tank average by as much as 1 or 2 MPG. But then I'm able to get the average back up the next time I take a more extended drive. This is because the engine is cold, and it is consuming gas to heat up. I expect the hit won't be quite as dramatic in the warmer months.

 

Driving from the Fresno, Ca area to San Diego, 350 miles, I'll get over 50 on the other side of LA then it'll drop to about 48 into SD, it's the hills that kill. Driving to and from work I'm looking at @45 on the MFD and calculated is @38. The temp is going up so I thnk that has something to do with it. After the first really cold day I filled up and MFD read 42 and caculated was 55, I think that had something to do with the fuel tank bladder. Now that it's warming up I expected low caculated and the MFD to start going up.

 

Just logged my first tank and averaged 50.35 MPG based on the gas pump reading. Forgot to write down my MFD millage into my little black book, but the last I remember I was approaching 54 MPG.

My previous car was a Saturn VUE and at $2.799 / Gal and 406 miles I saved $24.78 driving the Prius.

I have also been using the MFD MPG and the Trip A reading to calculate average MPGs to and from work. I have come to the conclusion that my work must be at a higher altitude then home.

I learned a lot from different forums about the glide techniques. I have recorded about three 5 minutes segments at 100 MPG on the history chart during the first tank. I live in a densly populated area so I don't get a lot of alone time on the roads but when I can I slow it down and maximize my driving techniques.

 

Who trained who?

 

Do you conclude this because you get better consumption driving home than to work? I suspect this is because mornings are colder so more energy required to warm up.

 

Yes my conclusion was based on the difference going to work and coming from work. I have only had the car for a week and the temperatures for a couple of days was pretty flat throughout the day. My initial thought was that it was due to elevation change. I will have to use my Garmin GPS that tracks elevation and see what the difference is.

This morning intirely different story when it was 15 degrees driving in and I saw a noticable change in the "to work" MPGs. I'm sure that was the cold effect. I can't wait to see what I can do when it gets warm.

 

I just bought a 2008 Prius on Friday. I'm experiencing a rather strange issue, though. The MFD says I'm getting ~40 mpg (I reset it before I drove out of the dealer's lot), but I've only got about 170 miles and I've already burned through half of the fuel tank. That math doesn't seem to work out, considering the range ought to be about 500 miles. Am I missing something?

 

It may also be the tank bladder. I assume it's been cold even in Maryland, so the tank doesn't hold all that much. Search "guess gauge" or "fuel tank bladder" on this site and you'll see what I mean.

 

It was indeed full from the dealer. I'll keep tracking of course, and I'll see what results I get on my first tank that I fill myself.