500 + Miles Per Tank - 4 tanks in a row

I've only had my Prius for 4 tankfulls, only 2 of which have been in the DC area (2 were driving it up from New Orleans to DC.)

I seem to be getting 51-54 MPG.

Still adjusting my driving habits, so I hope that will increase over time. I do notice that my commute into work averages higher fuel economy than my return home. I assume that I must be generally heading to a lower elevation into work than my return trip home.

One thing that has surprised me so far is that it is harder to get the ICE to stay off during "stoplight to stoplight" traffic than I imagineed it would be.

Again I attribute this to be the result of inclines...my hunch is that the ICE is kicking in more often if I am experiencing relative "uphill" driving.

Herb

 

Well, I have to jump in with my 2 cents worth. I have never exceeded 350 miles on a tank, and no matter how hard I try to force fill the darned bladder tank, I can never get more than 8 gallons into it. It generally shuts off the pump at 7.5, and by barely turning on the pump handle, I can usually get one more gallon in. Everyone keeps telling me it gets better over time, but mine sure hasn't. According to the fuel gauge, I am averaging between 50.5 - 52.4 on each tank, but there again I have to ask does this calculation use a fuel flow sensor of some kind, or is it some extrapolation of whatever the gauge reads? It has been my only complaint since I got the car. I like to take long trips in summer, but I cannot really say I like having to fill up every 320 to 340 miles. Also, I asked about the service bulletin on this, and the dealer/service manager gave me a strong argument that they would only do this if they could "duplicate the problem." Since the only way I can think of to do this would be to turn the car over to them to drive for a tank or two to see what it does. They did "recalibrate" the gauge according to a service bulletin, and now I am averaging (at least on what the display says) 46-47 mpg. So what gives? The commute hasn't changed, the load hasn't changed, and the way I drive is pretty much standard (68 miles freeway daily). I fail to see why this so called recalibration of the gauge would affect the mileage unless the calculations are based on the reading of the gauge instead of on a fuel flow sensor.

 

smoqui -- it's not unusual for me to fill the car up with only 8 or 9 gallons. I often fill the thank up before it reaches empty (prefer to get gas at local gas station); and I never try to force extra gas into the tank, given the stories of "bladder splashback".

To get completely accurate MPG readings, best way is to note the mileage at each fillup, and how much gas you used, and compute the MPG yourself. (I feel the average of several such MPG calculations is "where you're really at".)

I do look at the MPG calculations by the Prius; they're not off by much -- +/-4 MPG at most, at least for me -- but I don't think it's as accurate as the "fill up" calculations.

 

We have not received our Prius yet, but according to Transport Canada, we should be getting 70 mpg on the highway and 71 in town. Why isn't anyone getting these numbers?

 

Do you mean per imperial gallon? If so, then we are.

 

hmm i got 59.19 mpg on my last tank and that is US which would make it around 70-75 mpg imperial... more or less ...only guessing on the conversion

 

I will often drop my wife off in a store while I wait outside. I have tried rolling the windows down, AC off (if not too hot) and I have tried just rolling around on batteries which seems to drain the main battery too much. Question: Is it better to just cut the car off or leave it on so that the initial drain of start up has little impact on MPG?

 

a couple of times i have sat "idling" for up to 30 mins...(i know this because i ended up with one bar at 99.9 and the rest were all at zero) and it didnt seem to alter much at all. i dont remember if i had the air on or not, but considering how long i sat, probably not. i have sat 5-10 mins with air on several times and sometimes the ICE would not come on once during the wait with the air on.

 

Usually it is better to turn it off if you will be there more than five minutes, even with the AC off. The hit to mileage from a warm car is not much at all.

By the way, I stopped for gas this evening. I put in 12 gallons. I went 667 miles at 56.3 MPG. It would have been alot better but at 270 miles on the tank, I accidently left it on for five hours. It went from 58.1 MPG and six bars down to 54.7 MPG and 2 bars. I are a dummy sometimes. At least the AC wasn't on that whole time.

 

Through attentive driving and "running green lights," I regularly obtain more than 500 mi per tank. Spring-summer has arrived with warmer temperatures. Using Mobil 1 (just did the 10k mi oil change) I now regularly obtain 60-62 mpg each day (30 mi commute each way). Very nice.

 

wow very impressive mileage with the syn oil. you wouldnt by chance have mileage figures from before the oil upgrade do you. it would be nice to have some hard data on this especially if it was done driving the same basic routes