Umm... it'll definitely get significantly worse in the winter, esp .since you live in PA. If you really want to see poor mileage, be sure to throw in lots of short drives (<10 minutes) in stop and go traffic, esp. in the city.
That's a good point. I bought my 08 at the end of March, so I've yet to experience winter mileage. ... Brad
You can most likely compare to your previous vehicle, Since I don't know what it was I will say it was a Hypothetical vehicle rated at 30 MPG highway, if you only got 26 MPG you would be about 13% lower then EPA. If your driving style nets you a 13% lower then EPA then it makes your Prius get 40 MPG. Me on the other hand even the wife manages to pull down 54 MPG on the interstate now that I taught her the buffer zone theory.
We get pretty nasty winters, and our winter mileage runs around 45 mpg without a block heater. I suspect the key to our relatively good winter mileage is that we don't make short trips. Most of our driving, when we do drive, is 25 miles of 55 mph road to the "big city" (population 16,000), a bunch of short stops for shopping, a longer stop for dinner, and 25 miles back home. In the summer, driving the same route, our mileage runs around 56 mpg, with the record being 67 mpg. If I throw in a few short trips around our village, I can easily pull that mileage down to 46 mpg. Tom
Do you live or work or drive through a hilly or mountainous region? I have a 2006, I live on a hill, and the hill kills my gas mileage. I average about 42 with my goodyear comfortread tires. (I think I averaged more like 44 with the stock tires.) When I go visit my parents, they live fairly high up on a mountain. It kills my averages, and going down the mountain never makes up for the poor mileage when I go up.
Re: Hills! To the original poster, I don't think if I really tried I could average in the 30's for an entire tank. I live in the mountains, and I usually get over 50 for every tank! So, I don't think hills are your problem. Like John said above, try adjusting your driving habits. If climbing a hill I'm getting 20-24 mpg, at the top I let the ICE stop running, and I'm getting 9999.99 (on the scan gauge) or 99.9 on the MFD, or in other words, inrfinate mileage on the way down, which far outweighs only getting 60 or 80 on the way down. Try a different route, or alter your habits and see what happens. Even with hills, you should be able to get over 50 mpg per tank...... Good luck all!!
I disagree. Last winter I was expecting to maintain lifetime average with the grill blocked. The lifetime average increased and is still increasing. Some cars are destined for poor fuel economy because they are the wrong color.
The real key is trip length. You need at LEAST 15 min to get to max efficiency. Average trips should be 30 to 45 min. I have an 05 with 152,000 miles and have averaged 42 over the life of the car. I have recently pumped up the tires to 42/40 f/r and have gone up to 44 MPG (and this is 195s instead of 185s). These MPGs are AVERAGE over the length of ownership. Single trips and tanks can vary wildly. My girlfriend gets 50 MPGs but I age an epoch while she drives.
