Gas millage

Before you do that, check the tire pressure; it may save you a trip to the dealer. Betcha a dime it's lower than when you took it in for the last service. Service techs always fiddle with the tire pressure. If yours are now at, say, 32 PSI, that's your problem.

Some of us fanatics run the pressures as high as 42/40 front/rear to improve fuel economy. This is still safe for the original tires. It does change the car's ride and handling.

Periodic reminder: tire pressures should be checked when "cold", which means that the car has been driven no more than one mile in the previous hour. Pressures should be checked whenever the average outside temperature changes by more than about 20'F/10'C or so (yes, I know that's not the exact SI conversion; this is for convenience).

 

Maybe your wife should run to the gym. Should only take her about 3 minutes. 2 if she's in good shape. :lol:

Seriously though perhaps an EV switch would help. Dr. E what do you think? It's possible that the EV switch COULD help. Then again it might just hammer the battery. On the otherhand if the warms in the warm up cycle most of the time that it's driven maybe that wouldn't matter too much.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought might be the problem. She should just get a good pair of running shoes. Couldn't take her more than 4 minutes if she's in good shape (I'm just kidding Marlin. OK, I'm half kidding). I wonder what how a conventional car would fair. I might have to get a scan gauge for our outback to find these things out!

 

Sure, no problem. My 5 year old daughter could run along right behind her alongside that 55 mph road with no sidewalks.

When my wife goes to the gym, my daughter goes to the play room, where they play active games, do yoga, draw pictures, etc. My daughter seems to enjoy going there.

 

That's cool that they have a playroom for the kids with someone to mind them and run activities. Sorry the routine just let her get better MPG, but then again she's hardly using any gas anyways. I'd rather get 5 MPG and use a 1/4 gal of gas a day than get 99 MPG and use 10 gal.

 

That's a very true statement. Many seem to forget - when they talk mileage - that total fuel consumed is what really matters.

 

I'm not worried about the gas milage right now, as I know where it comes from. I have a Prius too that I use to commute to work. In the summer, I get around 52 MPG. This week, however, I'm around 42-43 MPG.

Once my daughter is in 1st grade and is at school all day, my wife will hopefully be gainfully employed with a commute and will be getting better gas milage. But she'll be using more gas too.

 

I don't live in extreme cold, but I have only noticed a few mpg difference in the winter with mine, where I would get 45-50 in the summer, I am now getting 40-43.

I can't believe you get that great mileage with that old Honda.. that is terrific!

My commute is 20 miles each way- so mine has lot of time to warm up, especially since I live on a big hill...

 

Remax, it's probably the winter fuel formulation that's put a dent in your mileage. CA puts a fair amount of ethanol in their gas this time of year I think.

 

I think it bears repeating, that the Prius was designed first and foremost to reduce emissions. One of the strategies to accomplish this is to warm up the engine as quickly as possible, and to avoid loading the engine, if possible, during the early part of the warm-up. You will note that, unless your battery SOC is very low, the car is drawing from the battery during the first couple of minutes, even if you are driving slowly. This means that the gas burned is heating the engine but not pushing the car, or not pushing it much. Add to that the effects of extreme cold and theoretically 28 mpg would be possible on extremely short drives, especially if you pre-heat the car before driving.

I got my Prius in January 2004 in Fargo. My commute was 10 miles and in the bitter cold of a Fargo mid-winter, and the car sitting in an unheated garage, I'll be darned if I was going to drive without pre-heating the cab for a few minutes. The car was just getting warmed up when I got to the office. I got 29 mpg that month.

I wonder about the OP, since he has never replied after that first post. But theoretically, 28 mpg is possible.

To Petunia, with her 2-mile commute, expect very low mileage, especially in cold weather. You are precisely the driver who will not benefit from the Prius technology. HOWEVER, you will still be burning only a fraction of the gas of anyone else here, because you will be driving so few miles. I guess my question would be, If you only drive 2 miles, why are you buying a new car at all? You will spend almost no time in it, and the depreciation as it ages will hardly justify the cost of a new car. Why not buy a 5-year-old Corolla instead? You'll have a perfectly good car for your short drive and you'll save a LOT of money.

 

Unless, of course, the emissions is important to you or you want to support hybrid technology. Those are certainly not the norm but there are some people who are willing to do it.

 

I don't know if this is the right place to brag, but...
We've been average about $300/month on gas...in the last month we've had the Prius, we spent $105.21.

My wife is finally excited about this car.

 

Impressive! What car were you driving? Or was it mostly changing the way you drive? (My wife asked me to ask you )

 

gas millage? sounds like some kind of tax.

 

We had a 2004 Toyota Sienna AWD and a Subaru Outback. My wife drove the Sienna and put about 18,000/year and it "needed" premium fuel. I drove the Subaru and put on 6,000/year. We traded in the Subaru for the Prius. Now I drive the Sienna 2 miles to work and back and my wife uses the Prius to shuttle the kids to school/activities etc...about 350mi/week.

On a side note, the Sienna seems to get between 13-16mpg, but now we fill it once every 2 weeks instead of 2-3/week.

 

In those first few minutes, when the engine is still cold, and the car is burning extra gas to warm up fast, I doubt the emissions from the Prius would be less than a Corolla. Furthermore, with a 2-mile drive, I wonder if the coolant would ever get hot enough for the thermos to help.

 

Since the original poster has not posted back...
I feel safe in saying this. I posted this back in March of last year in a thread entitled "a fifth season" (or something like that). The observation is as true as ever. Yup. It's THAT time of year again...

 

I think that is a pretty wild exaggeration. I don't think most cars experience a difference that drastic, at least not in my experience.

Consider: Fuel efficiency of my 96 Integra (with 180K miles) over the past two seasons;

Summer (June 15 2005 - August 31 2005)
Averaged 7.89L/100km (29.9MPG US) over 9,596km (5,998 mi)

Winter (December 15 2004 - March 15 2005)
Averaged 8.56L/100km (27.6MPG US) over 8,158km (5099 mi)

That is roughly an 8% drop in fuel economy. Very minor, really. BTW, this car is rated 25/31MPG by the EPA, so I am right on target. B)

Also I don't think anyone would dispute Canadian winters as being anything but "cold", and my trips generally vary in length. As for my driving habits I consider myself a "responsible" driver, meaning that I avoid hard accelerating/braking and generally shift for better fuel economy over power, in all seasons (want to make this car last long as long as possible so I can save enough ca$h for my Prius).

In fact, the fuel efficiency fluctuation is so minor, I seldom notice the difference unless I bust out the calculator.

The bottom line is that due to the technology the Prius is much more susceptible to wild mileage fluctuations compared to a conventional ICE car, which is why so many people get so upset when they get 50MPG in the summer but only 35MPG in the winter... a 30% drop is pretty significant!

- Kevin