I'm going to change my 3,0 D4D City A/T Hilux for 2007 Prius Luna at Toyota seller this week. My uncle had Prius 1,5 years ago and as I can remember that car wasn't as good as they said. Fuel economy was 10l per 100km/h in city and Toyota Croatia told him that he need to drive for 3000km because the engine is new. After 3000km they have told that he must drive 5000km and so on till he reached 10000km and nothing changed and Priusfuel economy was rising and he decided to give it back to Toyota seller and buy Hilux. Now i'm going to re-change it againand give Prius another chance, but i will take another Prius because maybe that Prius had some malfunction. What should I be aware of?
I got around 5,1 litres per 100 kilometres at the beginning, when I bought Prius. Peak was around 5,3 litres during cold winter days. Now after 20000 kilometers and as weather is hotter I get 4,8 litres per 100 kilometres of average consumption. 55% of my driving is on highway, with speeds between 115 and 125 km/h. 35% is local roads between towns with speeds between 70 and 90 km/h, and remaining 10% is city driving. 90% of my drives are on longer runs, so engine is warmed up. If you have short city drives only (few kilometeres then leave it parked for hours), then fuel economy will suffer as engine is warming up constantly. Prius seems to consume more fuel for first minute or two than normal cars, as it tries to warm up the catalytic converter to keep emissions low. Also engine has optimal consumption when the engine coolant temperature rises above 70 degrees Celsius. So, either something was terribly wrong with your uncle's Prius. Or he drove super short trips of only few kilometers during winter. Ogo
"Super short trips" would be shorter than about 2 km. Most of my trips are 5 km and I never get less than 6l/100km even when the temp is near 0'C.
I have a 2008 Prius and doing 4.9-5.0 l/100k easy. Winter is a little worse. Not quite the Canadian Published consumption but I use considerably less gas than my 2006 4cyl. Camry. Be easy with your foot, leave the lead booth at home.
There could be many factors contributing to poor fuel economy that your uncle was seeing... Short drives - the car needs probably 5 or 6 miles just to warm up properly. Conditions - Cold weather, crappy roads, lots of hills, lots of stop and go... all of those things conspire and accumulate against fuel economy. Vehicle condition - There is a break-in period when a vehicle is new. I had a Honda Insight back in 2002 for a bit more than a year, and it took 6,000 miles to 'break in'. Tire condition can also degrade economy. Most users here like to inflate them to 42psi for the front wheels and 40psi for the rear. Some go higher. Read around, you'll find lots of helpful info here.
just have made change. prius luna, first registration 12/2007, 37000 km, consumption 5,3 l/100km at 130-150 km/h. great car. i'm lovin' it!!! i'll post some pics when i make some changes
