help me with this mpg stuff, is mine low?

ICE stands for Internal Combustion Engine. So it means you are using gas. EV would be the opposite, meaning you are using only electric.

It's hard to say whether or not your mileage is where it should be. There are a ton of factors that affect it. For starters, your 5 minute or less trips will affect your mileage in a negative way. Just take a look at the energy screen and you'll see those short trips are a killer on you mileage. You should be able to get reasonable mileage on the longer trips however.

What are your driving habits? Speed greatly affects the mileage. Since having my Prius, I drive the speed limit on the highways (maybe slightly faster at times) and at or around speed limits on local roads (I may speed a bit when going down hills). You also need to anticipate things as much as possible - for example: If I see a red light way ahead, instead of continuing to maintain speed, I'll ease off and glide as far as I can. I usually can coast right up to the light or in most cases, I'll end up needing to use the break, but you certainly should never have to accelerate.

Get us some more info on how you've been driving and I'm sure we can give you some more tips. There are also a lot of posts on the subject as well.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(narussian @ Jun 30 2006, 08:40 AM) [snapback]279106[/snapback]</div>

ice is gas engine. to my mind your mileage seems close to right. Do yourself a favor and take a long trip and you will see a marked improvement in mileage. The first 5+ minutes of any startup are terrible on ANY ICE mileage as the car is just getting warmed up. Combine those trips. Have fewer 5 minute trips and more long lasting trips and your mileage will soar. Still, even at 39mpg for SHORT TRIPS is very much better than most vehicles. People in vehicles other than a Prius will SAY they get such and such mileage, but that is not to be expected on short trips. ALL vehicles get best mileage on a warmed up engine. ALSO, as your car reaches 10-15000 miles break in it will increase in mileage, but 5 minute trips will always bog down total mileage. Finally, you will 'learn' how to squeeze the most mileage out of your car and mileage will improve. search this board for tips on how to drive most efficently and you will get the hang of it. Remember, 39 mpg is still 2-3 times better than your last vehicle most likely.

 

A good article to read is "Why don't I get the EPA Mileage?" It explains the factors that effect mileage.

 

The five minute trips are killing your mileage. The car has a warm up cycle, that runs the engine during the first five minutes. You only get 25-30 mpg during that five minutes, you will see you over 50 mpg figures during the second, third, and fourth... 5 minute periods after starting the car, as seen on the display.


Thats sounds about right. I have a 15 minute drive to work, and short trips like you, and get around 42 mpg, on average. On long highway trips i do much better, like 51-52 mpg.

 

check out these tips-

http://priuschat.com/index.php?autocom=art...howarticle&id=3

oops, aaf beat me to it.

 

My first tank of gas was 39 MPG, and ever since then the only time i've gotten below 45 (i did a lot of reading on here and practicing my driving style during the first tank) was when i was moving across 5 states with 17 foot kayak strapped to the top of the car...

 

My MPG has been stuck on 49.5 for the past couple of months. The MFD number coincides within 2 or 3 MPG with my calculations at fill-up. My drive is 90% freeway, and I don't take any extra measures while driving. I'm almost always over 70, and have to climb a couple of moderate mountain passes each way (45 miles each way). (I've put on over 12,500 miles since Jan 12 delivery.) I do almost no low speed city driving, probably less than 5 miles a day.

I guess as they say, "You're mileage may vary."

 

My Prius is about 3 weeks old and my first tank of gas gave me 39mpg. My analysis based on what i learnt from this forum about low mileage is due to the following three reasons:
1) heat (Texas summer!) - occassional trips in the night time and with a/c off seem to do better on the same route. But this could also be due to the fact that there is less traffic and i drive using whatever technique i like without worrying too much about the cars behind me.
2) short trips - the first five minutes is always showing 25 mpg and the next 50 mpg and i come to the end of my trip. On occassional slightly longer trips i see that the mpg stays at around 50 after the first five or ten minutes.
3) short trips - i have got to repeat this again becuase this is based on consistent observations on my prius from several different trips. If my commute on city roads was just a few more miles longer i am sure i would be average easily around 45 mpg or above (but would be burning more gas).

Having said that, my second tank gave me about 48 (mostly because of the highway trips i made) and my third tank now is at about 44-45. For my specific case highways improve my overall mpg. I sometimes read and wonder about 50 mpg and higher figures reported in this forum but then i also realize this is way better than 19 mpg from my previous car

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(narussian @ Jun 30 2006, 11:01 AM) [snapback]279116[/snapback]</div>

If you need to find your post again click on "My Assistant" in the top right corner and then "My Posts".

 

I use the cruise control a lot in order to stay at the speed limit and not go over. My husband doesn't use it as much but he seems to have a steadier foot that helps him maintain the speed limit. Either way, going the speed limit whereever possible helps out a lot.

At first you might feel like you are going sloooow but that feeling goes away fairly soon. Until I got my Prius, I really hated being in the car, whether I was driving or riding. Now I find driving to be so relaxing--partially because the Prius is such a great car and partially because I'm no longer zooming around and trying to pass people.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(narussian @ Jun 30 2006, 11:08 AM) [snapback]279214[/snapback]</div>

Glance at the consumption screen and it will teach you, lots of good advice here; follow the links others have posted, and ask questions.

Some simple rules:
1) Anticipate traffic. Leave room between you and car in front, try to coast not brake. This may not desirable in traffic, especially in states where pickups have gun racks.
2) Speed kills. This applies to MPG as well.
3) Combine/reduce your short trips if possible.

Good luck. If you work on it, it will get both better with time and natural.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(narussian @ Jun 30 2006, 08:40 AM) [snapback]279106[/snapback]</div>

Naomi - your MPG sounds about right based upon your trip discussion. I drive just about 15 miles to work. Some freeway. I cannot get much about 41 mpg (I use the AC in the afternoon). You can do some things such as checking and increasing your tire pressure. That will help.

Watching how you drive also helps a lot.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

bring your tires up to 42/40, you will get better at it as time goes on...also if you can anticipate your driving...it will get better...once you get about 5000 miles on it you will see an increase in MPG then another one around 10000miles ...

 

Your mileage sounds about right for short trips. Things you can do to boost mileage besides the tires mentioned:

1 Try to keep moving at start up if you have any control of routes. I waste lots of my mpg sitting at 3 different traffic lights before the car warms and gets out of the rich warm up mode. Some days my mpg first 5 min bar is only 25.

2 Turn off your ac, or at least take it out of auto, aim the air at you, and set fan speed as low as you can handle. Should be one of the three lowest speed ideally. Use mostly recirc too. Your trips are too short to get the car really cool so you are probably running the ac full blast and using much fuel for that.

3 Park in shade, or at least use a sun shield when you park.

4 Drive at night as much as possible.

5 Try several kinds of gas. I know people claim it is all the same but makes a big difference to my car.

6 Reset your mpg each trip, so it can help you improve technique.

7 Coast as much as you can. You can try to pulse and glide, but I find it no help at all and sometimes hurts my mpg, due to the short trips and car not being warm.

8 Try not to drive under 38 mph or over 55 mph, assuming you are using AC. If AC is off you can go slower but only after the engine is up to temperature. Get a temperature read out.

9 And soon as car warms up if you are going under 40 stop so engine can get to stage 4. You may have to do it twice, so you stop and then engine shuts off several seconds later. Your trips are too short to wait for the car to get around to this on its own.

10 Add window tint if you haven't already.

 

Every year its just gets better.

 

Another thing I noticed is that most dealers (unintentionally) screw you on the first tank of gas...

What I mean by this is that the service guys who prep your car for delivery, tend to turn it on and sit in it and do their little checklist. Sometimes this can take an hour with the car not moving at all, and the A/C on and the radio on, etc. All of this activity KILLS your MPG.

When I picked up my new 2006, it had 3 miles on it. The MFD read that I had gotten 9 MPG so far. (OUCH)

Recognizing this, the first thing I did was RESET it and start from 0 (at 3 miles on the odometer). Otherwise, I would have never been able to average that awful 9 MPG up to something good.

Just my .02.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Miss_Taz @ Jul 1 2006, 04:42 PM) [snapback]279791[/snapback]</div>

Mine did just the opposite. He must have overfilled, because I went 140 miles before the first pip disappeared from the fuel gauge. Then it went about what I expected after that.

My mileage was in the low 30's the first 2 days I had the car. I was unhappy. Then I left on a week long 2200 mile trip, and at highway speeds (70mph) my mileage shot up into the low 50's with 2 people in the car.
It's stayed up around 50.2 the 3 weeks I've been back, and I've not done any modifications to the car, though I watch how I drive. I did notice that having the AC blast on AUTO drained the battery fast and made the ICE (engine) run constantly, which lowered my mileage quite a bit. I just use it on AUTO now for the first 5 minutes on my way home, to get the temp reasonable, then set it back to low. It still takes another 5 minutes or more to get the charge back up, and it's only a 15 minute drive, so my evening average is not as good as my morning average.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Miss_Taz @ Jul 1 2006, 02:42 PM) [snapback]279791[/snapback]</div>

Maybe that's why my first calculated mpg was so bad.... according to the MFD (not sure if I did a reset at pickup) it said 45.1 mpg and I calculated 38.1 mpg. I've never had a tank that bad again. My lifetime calculated average is right now ~45 mpg.