Commute in this backwards state ruins my MPG

It won't hurt the tires, as long as you don't exceed the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall. (And even that is questionable, as a significant safety margin is built in.) Others have questioned what it will do to the car's suspension, wheel bearings, and interior rattles over time, but those remain open questions.

It must list recommended tire pressure. Did you misread cold pressure (i.e. in the morning before the tires heat up from driving use) as cold weather?

 

If you drive like you type you're never ever going to get anywhere near 60mpg.
What's your average speed on the MDF?
If it's over 40mph then you're never going to get close to a 60MPG tank average either, real world or MDF.

1. It may be worse than you think. If you're using the MDF to determine your fuel efficiency then subtract 3mpg.

2. If you do not do your own maintenance, then you probably don't check your oil level every 1,000 miles like it says in the maintenance manual. Do some light reading in this forum on something called an EGR. Also it's about time to check your throttle body.
***note!!!*** If you've been using a dealership for your maintenance, then just take about $200 dollars out of your wallet and light it with a match.
Notice any improvement?
Of course not.
That's because it REALLY has to be checked and if it's dirty it REALLY has to be cleaned.
Same with the Mass Air Flow Sensor. This will require DIY or an independent mechanic with a conscience. This holds true for the EGR as well.

3. e85 has lower fuel density than e10 or e0.
Just sayin....

4. Love the title!
As a Hoosier living in the deep South, it warms my heart to see that people are pretty much people the world over.

5. Priuses don't have trunks. They're pretty much shaped like a door stop.
That means that the rear glass is a lot closer to the rear of the car than you were used to in your Elantra which probably had 4-5 feet of car hanging out behind the glass.
In other words......yeah they're probably tailgating you but not by as much as you may think.
If you're half as aggrivated by tailgaters as you are by the lights that you keep commenting on - then this might be translating into more aggressive than normal throttle use.
That and using the "B" mode and not keeping your tires properly inflated as well as any undetected mechanical issues will rapidly turn a 50-mpg car into a 45mpg car.
Remember.....the MDF (multifunction display on the dash) is wrong about your fuel efficiency.
If you're not hand-calculating tank ranges......well then you're probably not measuring real-world fuel efficiency.
It's OK.
The MDF will still report any relative gains that you have in fuel efficiency, but it's not gonna be truth.
Welcome to PriusChat!

6. Go out and check your oil level right now if it's been over 5,000 miles since your last oil change. Note!!! if you just bought the car then it may have just has an oil change or top off that didn't make it into the maintenance records.
If it's low, then low fuel economy is going to be the least of your problems. Like......somebody may have bought the car......had the dealer do all of the maintenance, and maintained a closed hood maintenance philosophy. Look in the service records for a non-scheduled oil change.
This might be an indication that the previous owner got the flickering light of shame and traded the car in afterwards.


Good Luck!

 

Some of us have intentionally run very low for a variety of reasons, such as testing. But this is not something to do on a regular basis, nor in adverse conditions or locations where the consequences of accidentally running include serious delays or inconvenience or safety risk, nor for the feint of heart.

In general, if you see just one fuel gauge bar, get gas very soon. If the bar is blinking, get gas NOW! If you are in rural area with a long distance between stations, or the weather is too poor to walk a long ways, get gas while you still have several bars showing.

 

Mine is tested on a regular basis. When DTE is 0, I drive another 50 miles. Gas stations are all around and this Prius never gets out of town. Technically when DTE is 0, there’s about 2 gals left in my Prius. About 60mpg to the tank when DTE is 0, so are the last 5,000 miles driven.

 

Three mpg is a little excessive correction from MFD to actual. Mine is within 2, but that’s going to be close enough for this purpose.

As far as finding E0, if you google ethanol free gas, you’ll find the website http://www.pure-gas.org

It will show you gas by state where you can look at a list, or even on a map.

As far as being scared or running out while testing the limits of my pips, I carry a 1 gallon can. Your car can safely go 10-11x the CONS number on the HSI, but it’s only reliable if the trip data was reset at fill up.

The EGR cleaning, TB cleaning, intake cleaning are all very important. I wonder had I cleaned all of that when I first bought mine if the engine would have stayed together longer, but that’s irrelevant now. Frankenstein’s monster of an engine is doing outstanding. Recorded another 580 miles last tank. 11.0 gallon refuel.

 

I have a feeling there is an incursion into the 700 mile club in my future. Maybe as we get out of summer into early fall.

 

Agree with all above except maybe the part about....ah.....*safely* going 10-11x the MDF average while carrying a 1 gallon gas can.
I drive until DTE=0 and then I start thinking about refueling. Even a marginally maintained Prius with 17" wheels and an overly aggressive driver should be able to travel about another 90 miles past that. Remember....the low fuel alarm comes in at something like DTE minus 20.

Another thing.
Buying E0 to "save money"....doesn't.
Since I no longer live in a "backwards" state, E0 is fairly plentiful here and it goes for about $0.20 more than E10. I've used it in Goofy several times and from several stations to see if I could detect a difference, and there wasn't much.
So.....I'm a product of public education except for the first three years, and so help me with the math:
E10 is $2.399 and I get about 50mpg - real world. That should be about $0.048 per mile.
IF I can find "real" E0 and IF it's only $0.20 more than E10, and IF there's a 3MPG delta.....that still doesn't make walking around sense in a car that you bought to "save money."
Somebody out there please let me know if my math is wrong.

E0 is something that they use to separate septuagenarian Harley owners and even younger boat owners from their money....and I say this as an older Harley owner.
It's the ShamWow of gasoline products!!

Oh yeah.....back to the original topic.
Many people put larger rims on Priuses to help with the 'dolphin on roller skates' look of the car.
Toyota came out with a 'spoiler and badges' version of the Prius with special paint and 17" tires.
You're going to lose about 2mpg (real world) with 17" rims.

It works out that way in the non-Prius world too.
Effects of Upsized Wheels and Tires Tested

 

I see a definite 7mpg difference between E10 and E0. I’ll gladly pay the $.32 per gallon difference. 44 mpg measured by doing the actual math versus 51 on E0. And that’s an apples to apples buying the E0 and E10 from the same station over the course of a full tank of fuel.

I have measured the actual ethanol content of several stations around me and I find they vary from 9.6 to 16.3%. And that 15 percent is enough to trigger a CEL.

 

I would get E0 but there's no gas station reasonably close enough. Only a few MPGs increase but it makes a difference with it comes to engine life. I plan to drive my prius to the ground and not resell so that justifies no ethanol gas for higher price.

 

Mine rolls up most of its miles out of town, where fuel stations are more sparse.