Poor mpg 37/38 / Pulls legt when breaking

you're posting in the wrong forum location.

 

How many miles are on the '08? Maybe its just not broken in. I took a hit when I put on brand new tires but not that much. If it's a brand spankin' new car I would give it a few 1000 miles before panicking.
Also, do you know who and why they put aftermarket tires on a new car? I would imagine you would have to deal directly with the dealer you purchased it from to resolve any issues.

 

Tell the dealer to shove it up his butt, tell the dealer you want to discuss this with the Toyota Zone rep. Now you probably lose about 2 MPG because of the aftermarket tires, and because they are aftermarket you probably have to go and get it aligned from a reputable shop yourself. Armed with the fact that the car is properly aligned, if the problem persists, go back to the dealer. He's just sore you didn't by it from him, but that's retarded since your coming to him for the juicy warranty repairs!

 

Have the alignment checked by a reputable alignment shop. There is a big thread in the fuel economy forum regarding this.

http://priuschat.com/forums/fuel-economy/48463-40-mpg-67-a-3.html

Make sure you read Dogfriend's link/story in case your rear alignment is out of specs.

 

If the alignment doesn't correct the pull left problem, have the tire shop swap both front tires (left goes on right, right goes on left)then take a test drive, if it's worse, it's the tires.
A simple X pattern rotation works for this case.

ZC1

 

"juicy" and "warranty repairs" don't belong in the same phrase.

could be an issue with the tires- zc1's suggestion is very simple and could answer the question quickly.

 

I had a problem with my 04 Prius that was similar. After rotation, the Goodyear Comfortred tires started "humming" at 25mph, vibrating and it actually felt like a bad CV joint used to feel. Dealer checked it out again, and found a tread separation on one of the tires, on the circumference belt. Didn't notice it much before because it was on the rear. Anyway - they couldn't fix it so I bought 4 new tires from TireRack (Kumho's) that are just great. The mileage went back up to 48-52 also. Alignment is super critical on these cars - they want only a very little bit of toe-in, whcih makes them a bit "darty" on the road, but works okay.

Other possibility is the rotational sensors on your brakes. They can become whacky and start braking erratically - I had that happen early in the life of my Prius. They replaced the wheel sensors and it was never a problem again. The pulling totally disappeared.

Good luck!

 

I have had my 08 Prius for 2 months now and I get 37-38 mpg on it, every tank of gas. I always assumed it was due to the short city drive i had.

 

This happened to my Prius, too (i.e. pulling to the left on braking). My mileage dropped from 50 to 43 mpg so I knew something drastic had changed. After a little investigation, I found the left-front tire was about 20 psi lower than the other front tire. Pumped it up to where it was supposed to be and, viola, the problem disappeared. I figured I had developed a slow leak in the tire or valve stem and watched it closely for the next couple of weeks but the pressure never deviated again. Not really sure what caused the low pressure...

My problem turned out to be simple to isolate and fix. Hope your is the same.

 

Well, it depends if you want traction or mileage. I was getting about 43 mpg with stock tires but they were crap and car was unstable on wet roads expecially in windy conditions at high speeds. So I changed to 16" rims with proper rubber and mileage dropped to 34mpg. However, the car was stable