2018 Prius 4 - First time owner

Welcome to PriusChat.

Your 57 US MPG sounds pretty good (almost the same as I'm getting) - some get better, some worse. Keep driving it, enjoy it, Power or Eco mode makes very little difference. The key is your accelerator foot - lead-footed starts affect your economy [but are fun] but only save seconds in reality (as long as you accelerate quick enough not to annoy the driver behind).

You could find that the different petrol stations are because one might click off earlier than the next, meaning that 2 fills give you a different result as the first might have put more petrol in, meaning the next fill, cutting off slightly earlier - into a tank which was slightly over-filled (relatively) will make one look better.

This is the best screen to put up - it shows what's doing what best:



Maybe try using the same petrol station for 2 or 3 fills IN A ROW, then try the other one for 2 or 3.

There are super-economy techniques - called hypermiling, if you're doing a daily commute where you're wanting to get to work on time, that's not what you're probably interested in. But, here's the link - might give you some clues:

Tony Schaefer on Hypermiling » What Drives Us

No idea about heating sorry - it's summer here, even in winter, the A/C rarely goes off.

 

Welcome to PriusChat.

Your gas mileage will improve when the weather warms up. The heater affects mileage more than the electric air conditioning does. Slowly brake for an upcoming stop if possible to regenerate more energy.

 

congrats and welcome!

stick with the gas brands that give you the best mpg's. but weigh any cost differences to make sure they are worthwhile.

cabin heating is regulated by an option in your settings, make sure it is not set to eco mode. this is different than eco/drive mode.

if you have the temp set to high, and the fan on high, and the vent set to floor/face, and the car is still cold, return to the dealer for a warranty inspection. prius makes plenty of heat if working correctly.

if your cold in the beginning of your trip, consider a block heater to pre warm the coolant, or a remote starter to warm the car up before driving off.

all the best!

 

We'd just tanked up, then the car was in a bodyshop for a couple of days, maybe they were running it around, idling. Anyway, after getting it back I was driving an errand and noticed the display at 9.0 liters/100km. Working hard, by the time I got back home I'd backed it down to 8.3.

Translated, that's 28 mpg .

It's ok, it'll bounce back. Short trips, idling, you can quickly get into Hummer territory. But in the long run it settles down.

Tips:

1. Turn off PWR mode. I think even just Normal is pretty fast pedal response in gen 4? I use Normal on gen 3, find it fine, very linear, not frustrating at all.

2. Watch your speed. Keeping at or under the speed limits will improve your mpg, in a couple of ways. First, lower speeds the car has better mpg, that's just inevitable. But secondly, if you start paying attention to speed, playing by the rules: it changes your mindset. Instead of constantly playing the game of trying to get ahead, you relax, stay in the right lanes, keep a good following distance (which isn't hard when you're the only one obeying the limits...).

Do be cognizant of the bullies. Let them get by asap, stay right, and so on.

3. Mentioned above: keep a generous distance from the car in front. If there's a slow down, you can just coast instead of brake, "eating" that extra buffer.

If other cars move into that space, no big deal. Ease off a bit, reestablish the generous space. Chances are the car that move into that space will jump back to the left lane soon enough, continue their "quest".

4. Consolidate trips. If you've got various errands needing a drive, try to lump them together, as much as practical. Say do them all on the same day, and let the car sit another day. For short distances, walk if possible. Or if driving somewhere with several places you need to go that are all nearby: park central to them and walk between them.

5. Keep the car maintained. Get a tire pressure gauge, check the pressures when they're cold, and maybe go a few pounds above what's indicated in the driver's door decal. I wouldn't exceed by much though, just say 3~4 pounds at most. Check the oil regularly, engine and cabin air filters, all the usual.

6. Don't leave a lot of stuff in the hatch, especially heavy items. I guess I'm guilty of that, have a LOT of just-in-case stuff, oh well.

7. Read up on the Hybrid System Indicator display, try using it. I'm gonna resist getting into details. I think if you google "Prius HSI" for example you'll find lots of info.

8. Lower cabin temperature setting while the car's still warming up. And maybe shut it right off, just at red lights. This will allow the car to warm up faster. Also, the computer apparently monitors the cabin heat/vent settings, and will often shut the engine down much sooner, if the cabin demands are low enough.

 

Use the displays that show where the power is going. Once you get up to speed let up on the gas pedal and you will see ithe running on the battery. Try to keep it running on the battery until it is low on charge.

 

Congrats and welcome to the forum!

Heated seats, yay. Do you have this on your four? Switch the heater to high when you get in, and down to low after a few minutes.

Regarding fuel economy - slow down. Avoid jackrabbit starts and tailgating that so many of our (ahhhh!) younger drivers exhibit. Again congrats; you will enjoy the car for many trouble free years.

 

A good rule of thumb is to use your accelerator and brake like you have an egg under each.

 

First Time New Prius Owner?
I'm actually just going to say...don't worry too much about it. Just Drive. Just drive it like you would any vehicle you have ever owned. Hybrid Synergy Drive is an amazing system, you'll get good MPG.

I think it's best to just get use to the vehicle before trying to apply too much adaptation.

If you are getting 57 mpg, in power mode, in the middle of winter, you're doing fine.

Personally? I would recommend just driving in "normal" mode.
Power Mode is basically asking your Hybrid to be as non-Hybrid as possible.
If you want better MPG, simply choosing to drive in "Normal" mode as opposed to Power Mode will automatically do that.

 

As to being cold, my 16 pri2 has the best climate control I have had! I set the temp to 74 in warm weather and 72 in cold. I have found turning off driver priority keeps me more comfortable in really cold weather. Other than using defrost the climate control is set to auto. Sometimes the car does not detect a passenger and I must turn off driver priority. Seldom do I drive with the windows open as I feel it increases drag. Over 26k miles the car computer says 60.6 mph average. Have gotten bad gas that gave me 45 mpg for that tank.

SM-T380 ?