MPG 2008 Prius=28mpg Winter; 35 Summer

This morning in Chicago the weather was in the low teens. Fortunately, the snow that fell last night prior to the frigid cold front didd not stick to the roads and sidewalks.
I park my car in a somewhat heated garage (condo) where I have no access to an electrical outlet. I would love to get a engine block heater but couldn't tap into electricity if I had one. I have the grill completely blocked with pipe insulation material and I think that helps a lot. I drive three miles to work and then park in an unheated garage. My mileage is atrocious. I really don't need mileage tips from any members in California or Florida as I get upper 40,s 50's in the summer months.
When I turn on the car I WANT THE ICE TO RUN! Being cold is not fun and frankly I don't care if your getting 60 MPG and trying to get more MPG's in a sunny warm climate. I want the heat on and to be comfortable in the car without me shivering on my drive home.
For all of the helpful Prius owners that try to say your getting 50 mpg's during this weather I would say your probably right if you drive mega miles on hilly terrain, otherwise I would have to question your statement....
Give me ICE....give me HEAT...and cut us Prius drivers in the rust belt a break..

 

Originally Posted by Mark Rogers
Strangely, my car is displaying the flashing red 'KEY' symbol, which I thought meant I left a KEY in the car. It hasn't gone out since last night? What causes this?
Mark
This just means that your immobilizer is functioning. If you look in your owners manual it explains it. Nothing to worry about!!!

 

Yes the weather in Chicago area was bad....AND cold yesterday.
I have to leave my Prius out for 10 hours while at work.
When I left last night it was 22 out.
I started the car and set the temp for 74.
Started to clean the windows (ice) and then got back in within say....4 mins.
Shut down the temp to 66 and off I went.
31.7 miles down RT 59, which has 27 lights during my trip to Shorewood.
I have a FULL lower/upper grille block.
I achieved 160 temps within 2 miles.
The scan gaugeII read 54.7mpg as I pulled into the garage at home.

Tonight it was 12 outside.
The coolant temp was 48 when I started the car.
I waited 2 mins and took off.
This time I reached 150 at the same 2 mile mark.
Got home, 52.0mpg.

I have a EBH installed...THANK YOU WAYNE!!!
When driving TO work from a non-heated garage, BUT having the EBH on for 3.5 hours prior, I am getting between 59.0 and 64.0mpg

This is all during the past few weeks and the temp here are horrible.
It can be done, and yes....I made a coffe run this am to McDonalds.
Three miles out and three back.
Went through the drive thru'
ScangaugeII says that trip was 61.2

Last tank, last week.....59.8
Week before that.....58.7

I can't wait till summer gets here again, since Wayne showed me a few tricks, got the EBH installed, did the FULL grille block, it's been better than what I had been getting since July purchase.

The ICE runs between 188 and 194 tonight just for additional information. And that's with 12 temps outside.

 

Then don't worry about the mileage. Block your grills and forget about it. I'm not in a warm climate anymore, but surprisingly I'm managing the cold fairly well after nearly two decades away from it (and I'm leaner than your average American male.) As long as I don't have wind in my face and am appropriately dressed, I'm okay.

Seems unlikely to me that the car is going to warm up that much in 3 miles unless it is taking a long time to cover the distance. Heck, I did two low speed runs of 4 miles at 25 F with a nasty wind (common here) last night and I'm not begging for mercy. I set the heat on a low setting (65), 2nd blower position, defrosted the rear hatch, and averaged around 50 mpg for the two trips.

I'm trying to figure out how hilly terrain helps? It forces more transfers back and forth to the battery and you always seem to catch lights at inopportune moments. Best mileage I've had was on flat stretches where I could do real pulse and glides, unfortunately around here that is very rare.

Do the Prius gurus really consider hills a plus for mileage? Seems like the ideal would be long flat stretches with fewer forced energy transfers (and resultant conversion losses), but there is a lot to learn about this vehicle.

Hey, if you want heat and ICE running all the time, no problem, but don't complain about the mileage if you have the heat and blower maxed out when you start the car. Ditto for folks in the sunbelt with the AC. If the ICE is always running then I expect poor mileage.

I have not tried cranking the blower when the Prius is cold. From what I recall in other vehicles and various climates that will only result in feeling colder for several minutes because the engine isn't warm enough to help--having cold air blown in my face while seated is not something I like. The electric heater in the Prius does seem to provide a little warmth if I keep the blower low while waiting for the ICE to warm up on the drive.

 

[Tongue in cheek] The best scenario is, for instance, a route that is all downhill from home to your destination, and all downhill on the return trip. But it's hard to find those conditions.

 

Question all you want. Look at my mileage logs. I had only one tank below 60 MPG last winter and one so far this season, the latter being somewhat of an aberrancy because of an unusual winter road trip. Mega miles, no. Hilly terrain, somewhat, though Shawn is correct that that's more of a hindrance than a help.

I have a more or less ordinary commute of 12 miles to my full time job and 14 miles to the part time site. What's not ordinary are steps within my control to maximize fuel economy -- engine block heater, grill blocking, keeping the cabin heat off, extensive use of pulse and glide, route planning to avoid traffic and facilitate P&G, EV switch, etc. -- so my results are not ordinary.

Now, if my trips were only three miles, my fuel economy likely would be lower.

 

Quite right. Hills hurt MPGs on *all* cars. You never get back all of the energy that gets stored.

 

Well, grandparent stories suggested several miles to school uphill in the snow with the wind in their face during the Great Depression and apparently the return route had the exact same conditions... So perhaps the scenario you speak of would apply if one lived on the same hill as that school?

 

I have 13,000 miles on my 08 Prius, and doing the math, I've averaged 47.9 MPG over the 13000 miles. Souther California driving. Actual mileage, divided by the gallons purchased since I got the car. I do nothing special, just drive it like any other car. Well, I don't lead foot it on take off. Granted, that is mostly highway miles at speeds set at 69 MPH. I can usually get home from my 140 mile twice a week commute with the screen saying 52-53 MPG. Guess I', just one of the lucky ones.

 

I have 2009 Prius with average of 31.2 MPG. I also have Toyota Yaris 2008 with average of 35 MPG. I drive the same routes of 15-20 minutes in town. My terraine is 85% flat (it's Kansas). I've got the Prius to save on gas ( 45/48 according to Toyota), but so far, it wants more than a gas car. I am extremely frustrated!

 

Hi neighbor!

Tell us more. There is something causing this, and once identified it can probably be fixed.

What are your tire pressures?

How many tanks have you burned? The bladder can be very inconsistent from fill to fill. But over time that would average out.

How many miles in this 15 to 20 minutes of town driving?

Once the Prius has warmed up, does the ICE shut down at stops like it should?

Take it across Kellogg at 60 mph steady speed after completing a warmup. You should be north of 50mpg on the 5 minute bars and instantaneous...

See the Winter Survival Guide thread at cleanmpg.com, especially the grill blocking. Temps lately have been murder on FE.

Once other things are equal, your Prius will beat your Yaris, IMHO.

 

Hi! Are you in Wichita? That would be really cool!
Back to Prius.
I bought it @ Eddy's Toyota (new) 12-13-2008 (a week ago) with 165 miles and 28 MPG on display.
The air (in tires ) was replaced with nitrogen @ dealership ( do not know the pressure). Tank was filled and I left the dealership.
By the end of Sunday I realized that MPG is not getting better. So, I cleared the display and started to really watch it. So far, 31.2 MPG.
My work/home trip is about 15 miles one way (K15-47th S.Rock Rd-E.Harry). I did drive it on Kellogg (Hillside-Meridian) with range of 17-65 MPG.
When I stop everything shuts off (exept heater and audio).
Now, couple of questions:
1-Will it help if I run the engine a minute or so before take off?
2-Why do people report such a big difference in MPG (from 25 to 81) and some of them do not do anything special to acheive such high MPG (I was reading alot in different forums trying to find an answer)

 

Yes, I'm in Wichita.
Warming up the engine while stopped reduces mpg (zero miles travelled, some fuel used). Instead, just baby her while she warms up.
Big mpg range is a result of the awesome capability of the car. If you pay attention it will far exceed EPA. If you don't, and were to drive agressively, your mpg can approach squat. Also, some folks live in mountains. I have a VERY short commute. No way will I get good mileage in any car (except PHEV/BEV) because the engine never warms. That's a big range.

Some thoughts:

Your yaris mileage should drop down if you were in 5 degree temps with the North wind like we had some of these days.

You will get much better Prius mileage in better weather and when any problems with the setup are fixed.

You must not judge the car by a week of use. But it is time to check some things out.

Must know tire pressure. At a minimum, must run at door placard or above in any car to match the EPA mpg #'s. I'd suggest closer to maximum sidewall (which is 44 i think). Put 2 psi less in the rear as implied by the door placard pressures. I'm not sold on the nitrogen (air is what, 78% nitrogen) but it certainly does not hurt anything except the $$.

Must ensure engine oil level is at or a little below full.

Notice whether the car tracks straight, if not, get a free alignment at Eddys. Some cars are knocked out of alignment in shipment.

Consider spending $5 on pipe insulation (and cable ties, if compression fitting is not adequate) at Lowes to block the grill (not necessarily a full block). This tends to reduce the winter weather hit, and is a bigger factor on a hybrid since the engine shuts down often.

The bladder takes several tanks of gas to average out for mpg purposes. You might burn 8 gal. from a full tank, yet only be able to put 5 gal back in, especially in cold weather. The dealer may not have truly filled it because of this tank system. Anyway, just be aware. Many threads here on that subject.

After breakin and engine warmup, you should be able to cruise at close to 100 mpg at 21 mph, close to 60 mpg at 60 mph, and maybe 25-ish mpg at 90 mph. There are graphs around. However, this is after getting the car set up properly such as the items above, AND its on a 75 F day with calm winds which is purely hypothetical here in Kansas. That said, you should be getting better results than the Yaris from the start.

I have a ScanGuage II we could hook up & go for a drive. Let's you see coolant temp and many other things in real time. I also have a digital tire guage and a compressor. What I do not have yet is a Prius. We bought a Honda Fit instead when I couldn't quite make a deal for the Prius. See my Stages of Operation spreadsheet over in the knowledgebase to see what I learned while considering the purchase. Some great links on it, too.

Learn to let up slightly on the gas for better mpg, even if you slowly lose speed. See pulse & glide threads. Check out exel's articles at cleanmpg on hypermiling in general and the Prius specifically.

I'm in and out over the holidays, but PM me if you want to meet.
Good luck. don't despair.

 

Your welcome. In your cold weather and short trip/errands, just leave it on unless you have to shut it down. 2, 5, 10, 20 minutes it won't matter that much.

Wayne

 

Pulse and Glide plus Warp Stealth in the Prius II for maximum FE … - CleanMPG Forums

I don't go to the extremes of doing calculations and having a target FE.

My commute to work is not at all conducive to pulse and glide. I can only do it for a very short segment (2.0 miles exactly) w/o going too slow pissing off other drivers or being a danger on the road.

 

You could just drive the speed that delivers the desired MPG:

Note: these charts are accurate for 60-70F range. Mileage is less in colder temperatures and better at higher temperatures.

Bob Wilson