I recently got a 2008 touring Package 6 as a replacement for my get around town car. Little did I know that living in a small town will be a huge detrament to your fuel economy in this car. My destinations are short and all the good prius driving practices and tricks cannot save me from these trips. Unless I need to take a trip out of town I guess i'll have to be happy with 30MPG as that's what it looks like I'll be getting. I should have purchased a different car or waited for a plugin. At least I can leave the car for my wife and use the CRV instead. Being that the temps haven't got above 50 and are still below freezing at times in the morning perhaps the summer months will improve things a bit.
Well what were you getting with your other car? Most of my trips are 4 miles long. In winter I average 36-37 mpg and in summer it's 47-48 mpg on these trips. But that's way better than what I got in my old car (Camry), and with lower emissions to boot. Just because I don't have a commute that's good for hypermiling doesn't mean I don't use less gas with this car than I would otherwise. Plus I get 50 mpg or better on longer trips. And that's without trying very hard.
My previous car was a 95 saturn that got 25MPG doing the same thing the Prius is doing, though I wasn't driving it for economy as I do the prius. I just didn't realize how much the short trips would affect the Prius. The saturn would lose 5MPG doing the short trips (1-4 miles between any trip). The prius is losing 15-20. Since my trip to work is downhill I even shift to N to help fuel economy and don't end up using the pedal much.
I strongly suggest an engine block heater. It really helps blunt the MPG-killing effect of those short trips by getting the car up to normal operating temp more quickly. You don't say how short they are, but if they're no more than 10 minutes, I bet you'd see an overall 5-10 MPG improvement. If your wife drives longer distances, I would indeed let her use the car. Might as well confine the gas hog (relatively speaking -- I know the CRV does pretty well for an SUV) to the short trips.
I do almost nothing but short trips now that I'm not commuting, and I'm still pulling in the high 40's MPG. There is a break-in period on the Prius, like every other car. And the tires. Check your PSI on the tires. Give yourself some time to get good at the hypermiling thing. Be sure to combine trips whenever possible. Oh, and an engine block heater may be right up your alley!
You definitely want to do some reading on here and try to optimize your routine. I believe that running in N is probably doing much more harm than good. You generally want the ICE to be loaded after startup so that it will heat up as quickly as possible. You do sound like a good candidate for the block heater and grill blocking. I believe folks have found that can take your warm up cycle from 10+ minutes down to 1-2. Once you get out of the warmup mode you should go from 25-35 up into the 45-55 territory. Sorry I'm not that much of a warm up expert due to our mild winters. I think it broke 90 today, maybe mild is a bit of an understatement Rob
30 MPG is too low. We live in a small town, and if we don't get out on the open road we still get better than 40. In the summer we usually average 56 MPG, in the winter 45. Either your trips are incredibly short, or something is wrong. Tom
Agreed on the block heater, and throw in an EV switch while you're at it. You can use it to prevent a lot of excess engine run during warmup phases, which it sounds like you'll spend most of your time in. Having the engine continue to putter along while you're in a glide is silly almost any time, so best to force it off when appropriate. . _H*
This is probably the best advise - in a two car household, the most fuel efficient vehicle should be used for the longer trips when possible.
Thank for the input folks. I have read a lot of MPG articles and do pratice what I've learned. I don't recall where I read the use N while warming up the car but i'll try not doing that. According to the MFD it does double the gas milage on my downhill trip to work. Let me tell you a bit more about my typical trips. Work - 1 mile to or from work. I go home at lunch to help my wife with our baby. Yes I know I should ride my bike but I often have to do other things during the day. Town trips - downtown trip is about 4 miles and takes about 10 minutes. With muiltple stops you end up pulling these short 1-2 milers that don't take hardly any time. Grocery stores (most common) only a mile or so from work so you end up with the worst case again. My tires are only rated to 40 so I have them at 38/36. I don't run the heater or the Nav system but will run the stereo with my ipod and turn on the blue tooth at times. I pulse and Glide as I can but have been incorrectly running in Electric mode (yellow arrows) too much (not that the short trips allow it most of the time). I've thought about the block heater but haven't read enough on the grill blocking to be comfortable with that. EV button is not something I care to deal with. If they ever got the plugin conversion cheap enough I'd consider having that done.
Hi Mon..., Until you get into stage 4, pulsing and gliding will reduce your mileage, I think. And those short trips you will probably not making stage 4, till its 80 F outside , and then at the end of your 4 milers. The EV switch is probably the best suggestion for mileage. Do not use it to run the battery down tho. Just to kill the engine in a downhill glide, like Hobbit suggests. Shifting to neutral does not shut off the engine. Its still running if it was running when you shifted. During warmup, the engine runs much of the time even when there is no activity on the screen. And while it will show better mileage, the engine is using gas without any benefit. Whereas in the normal warm up the battery gets charged during these periods, and probably results in a better trip average, even if not as good a downhill segment mileage. Without the EV switch, your not going to be able to kill the engine during Stage 3. Which is probably miles 3 and 4 of your four mile trip. And when the weather gets warmer it ll be mile 1/2 of your 1 mile trips. In the average winter cold weather, I get a prolonged Stage 2, right where I have a down hill run. And can get good mileage there. But its a bit coincidental.
BTW, driving in neutral is illegal in most states. Of, course pulsing may be, too, since you will exceed the speed limit. (Like everone else does who doesn't drive a Prius does! hah, hah!)
Mondrin, you might want to look into a neighborhood electric vehicle like the 2002 Ford Th!nk Neighbor or a Chrysler GEM. These are street-legal fully electric vehicles with a typical range of ~30 miles and a top speed (stock) of 25mph, though they can be reprogrammed to go a bit faster (Th!nk can go up to 35mph). My Th!nk cost me a little less than $6K and does at least 1,000 miles a year, just running around town.
