Are my MPG up to par?

38 mpg is about what I got in winter, till I learned how to get and keep the engine warm with radiator blocks and block heater. Now I am able to stay above 45 on the coldest days and average tanks are about 48 mpg in winter.

 

-19 F as a low temp + never above zero for 2 days + short 12 minute commute = 33 MPG. In the summer: 70+ F degrees, same commute = 51 MPG. You're simply fighting thermodynamic laws.

Had a co-worker tell me the other day (during our -19 F cold snap) that he gets 40 MPG in his 1995 Nissan Sentra, regardless of winter/summer, etc. He's an engineer too, but couldn't understand why my 60-MPG hybrid was getting 33 MPG. I asked if he kept track of his mileage. He said yes. I asked for his stat sheet. Haven't heard from him.

Enjoy the car and the MPG goes up with temps.

And no one, NO ONE else has their MPG so prominent on their dash like Prius owners. Well, even other cars with MPG indicator/gauges seem to get better than my hybrid! Hmm, go figure...

 

My friend tracks his gas milage in his 05 Mazda 6 'sport sedan'. He is getting mileage in the high teens to very low twenties right now.

I'm able to keep my mileage at 45+ during the same time.

What I've found really kills the milage are short trips. I have great mileage to/from work (averageing around 47.2) but short trips over weekends tend to nov it down (today it's down to 45.7 after two days of short trips... and this is at the END of the tank so the milage was really bad).

I also find a I get a lot worse mileage if I don't look at the info screem. Using the GPS the other day, and driving with my fiancee, I averagred around 33mpg (I found afterwards). This because I wasn't paying attention to what the car was telling me and I didn't let it glide enough. Oh well... I'll try to do better on the next tank!

 

It is a block heater that slides into the engine block and you plug it in. Available from any Canadian Toyota dealer. There's threads here all about it.

Works like most block heaters for cars except this is dry, not in the water and not in the oil, so simple to install, except for the cramped engine compartment.

 

there is a large contingent of Prius owners that use block heaters to supplement the thermos on the Prius to get the ICE hotter and faster to reduce the amout of fuel burnt to get the ICE warm. There is a thread here on PC about block heaters and the net effect on fuel consumption. Those in cold climates especially get a big benifit from 2-3 hours of timed heat that it provides. Allows the car to get to S4 temp quicker and allows the use of more cabin heat quicker etc. I actually did a post on it about 2 years ago and since then more and more Prius owners have started using block heaters to boost their mileage. I'll try and find the thread on block heaters and insert it in this thread unless someone else does it first.
Edit:
http://priuschat.com/page-14-t11176-s260.html

 

definitely working for Henry and in pretty mild climate we have here. i was more than a full mile up on him in the LT mileage race last fall... at the rate he is going, he will pass me by the beginning of spring.

bummer...

 

Between a block heater and radiator blocker I am getting a 5-8 mpg increase over last winter. Last winter was a lot warmer than this. I run it for 2.5 hours a night except when I am on call then I run it all night. There is no difference on those rare occasions I do not go out on call ( Thank you, Thank you, Thank you). I seems to make little difference going in during the morning. Both are valuable but I think the block heater gives me the most bang for the buck. My version of the block heater is more expensive than a bit of pipe foam. But it really looks good!! B)

 

I am also here in Chicagoland. I have had a new 2006 Prius for 2 1/2 weeks. I avoided driving it last weekend due to the two day cold snap. The drive home from Wisconsin (284 miles, starting temp 15, ending temp 32) resulted in a 43.2 MPG average at 70 MPH cruise control. The next tank was better, but the short trip to the grocery (2 miles in 25 F weather) the morning after the fill-up really zapped the mileage! Over the rest of the tank it came back up to 44.0 mpg. Since then, I have learned to do the warp-stealth (get up over 35, but less than 43 mph quickly, lift throttle til regen comes on, then slowly bring up the throttle until the orange arrows light up). Had a cold (13 F) monday morning drive with a car that had been sitting in the 5 degree weather over the weekend (no stored coolant heat) with 40 ish mpg average the end of the day. Since then (this is being written on friday), its gradually climbed better and better each day and is now at 46.2 mpg for the tank, with .5 of a tank left. We've had warm weather (45 yesterday afternoon), but also some head winds on various drives (tonite was 20 avg gusting to 30 mph head winds). The mornings have always been well below freezing each day. The engine is turning off at the first stop light, about 1 mile out from work on the drive home, the last 3 days. All this driving has been to work and back about 23 miles one-way, so the car gets warmed up. In the mornings the average tank mileage drops about 1, then matches the starting value at about half-way and then a little higher upon arrival. On the way home, if traffic is fast it does not match till about 3/4 s the way where I merge onto a highway that averages 45 mph, but gradually is up and down from 20 to 65 mph. I think it takes longer to match starting mileage because of the higher speeds and it has to match a higher value. On the slower highway is when the 5 minute averages have been in the 70's and even one in the 80's. This is followed by a 3 mile 40 mph road with a slight down grade, and this is where warp-stealth works well. The daily tank average mileage increases have been the greatest on the drive home. At the end of each day the SOC indicator is about 5 bars, with 9 green bars common after coasting into the stop at the end of the highway portion of both the to and from trips.

Hope these experiences are helpful. If I was not driving as far, the mileage might not overcome the start-up sag, and day by day the mileage might drop to a lower nominal. So far, the mileage has not reached a weekly average peak yet. Driving distance seems to be more important than the cold weather. Or another way to look at it is that in colder weather driving distance is even more important.

 

Yeah, my Aunt lives in Phoenix (Moon Valley section(?)... I hope that you get some rain and some summer clouds to keep the temps down.