How's your Winter mileage?

If you were to ask my friends, they would say I drive like a "granny" No quick speed ups, coast if I can,, and never drive over 50mph 55 on the Xway. This doesn't seem to help with the Prius.

 

Although we have had a record breaking WARM December, I'm only getting between 40-42 MPG. <_<

My trips to and from work are the same 10 miles, so I did not expect much of a change.

 

Here in CO during the winter I drop from around 52MPG to about 50MPG. The major reduction in MPG that I see is in like the previous week when we got all of the snow. Assuming that the car is not high centered (I got no MPG when stuck in a drift ), I still have to navigate [ice] pot holes and frozen/thawing slush and ice. The gas mileage drops significantly (30's or lower) until the roads clear up.

 

I've lost my fuel economy fully. My last tank gave me low 30's. I filled the tank yesterday and am in the high 20's by today. Here the weather has been bad for driving (or living, for that matter), streets covered with a gross brown, grey, black mushy snow mixed with ice patches, very low temperatures, and wind. I think that my Prius is just empathising with me...

 

Darn. The FE on my Prius has fallen to a new low over the last week (I guess it is attempting to match the temperatures).
The total average for the last week was a depressing 28mpg (US) which is about ~8.5l/100km . By the way, for those that may ask, I've got the front grill covered and the block heater on ... but that is life... especially when the gas engine never stops. By the way, there's nothing wrong with car. A couple friends of mine report the same with their Priuses.

Anyhow, I've decided to drive the Prius a little less under such temps.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

Wow. Luckily I haven't had to deal with snow and ice (yet?), just temperatures right around freezing. I got 56.4 MPG on my way in to work this morning. If and when we get snow/ice, I'm sure those numbers will drop quickly.

Come on, Puxatony Phil, don't see your shadow!

 

i only have 900 miles on my new 07 prius, so not quite broken in yet. temps have been between 28 and 45 and my first tank was 58.0mpg and my second (current) tank is averaging 58.5mpg. i drive extremely conservative and travel 25 miles one way, but some of you people must drive without thinking about the mileage to be getting in the 30's or 40's for that matter. also, i don't have the grill blocked or an engine block heater or a garage. i can't wait till summer when my prius is broken in and it's warmer out. i think i'll probably beat the epa even more..

 

I've only had my prius for a short time but I'm already reaching 54 mpg on my 65 mile trip home from work.

On the way to work going a different route I achieve 47.8 to 49 mpg, on this same route home I get 46 mpg.

I found an alternate route that is straighter and has a flatter highway surface and manage to get 54 +- 2 mpg.

I'm driving 55 mph most of the time and 65 occationally, I don't do any hard excelerations or try to maintain a constant 55 up hill.

A side note, My car isn't broke in yet with 1500 miles on it. I switched to moble 1 synth at 1200 and I warm my car up for 10 min each morning so it might be bringing my to work mpg down a bit.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(poodlemaster @ Jan 19 2007, 09:08 AM) [snapback]377689[/snapback]</div>

I hope you are not referring to my post. :blink:

If you are, then let me assure you I actually implement as many mild hypermiling techniques as possible otherwise the mileage could be worse. Why? ... the temps around these parts have been in the -30C (-22F) to -40C (-40F) range , not counting the windchill, which pretty much forces the ICE to run non-stop. Of course, throw in some ocasional ice skating on fours and the fact that the prius becomes a glorified hauler of batteries of no paricular use and voila!

Actually, getting 28mpg is actually quite good. Some of my friends get a little less from their Priuses.


Cheers;


MSantos

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MSantos @ Jan 19 2007, 05:24 PM) [snapback]377989[/snapback]</div>

i'm not sure if i was referring to your post or not, but i completely understand lower mpg with those extremely low temps. as far as 28 mpg being quite good, my wife and i just got rid of our 2006 toyota corolla ce model with the automatic rated by the epa as 30 city 38 highway before getting the prius and we got an average of 37 mpg driving conservatively and occasionally 39 mpg all summer of course, but i could understand the 28 being quite good if the people you're referring to are driving v8's or turbo 4's.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(poodlemaster @ Jan 19 2007, 07:08 AM) [snapback]377689[/snapback]</div>

Driving 25 or more miles makes all the difference in the world. My last tank was 42.4 mpg. After the fillup I drove about 12 miles one way. Went to dinner and then came back. Round trip for the first 24 miles of the new tank was over 53 mpg. Of course, the weather has warmed up now. It's in the mid 30's (F) this evening.
Most of the driving has been 2 miles or less at a time. That really drops the mileage, as do colder tempertures. For the past week, daytime highs have been mid teens.

Dave M.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(poodlemaster @ Jan 19 2007, 07:29 PM) [snapback]378117[/snapback]</div>

I had an 02 Nissan Maxima that was EPA rated 20/26. In my commute, I got typically 24-25 mpg by my calculations. I never got better than 28-29 mpg. My 350Z is EPA rated at 19/26. On the same commute I get 21-23 mpg. I've never done really long continuous long trips in it (say 300+ miles), so 23 mpg is about the best ever.

Neither has a turbo 4 or a V8. They the same Nissan 3.5L VQ series V6 but one's rated for 255 hp while the Z's is rated for 287 hp. 28 in either car would be pretty good to me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ Jan 20 2007, 06:48 AM) [snapback]378207[/snapback]</div>

i know the z all too well, and that is a high performance v6 that gets gas mileage almost identical to a mustang gt. i assure you that i was not referring to high performance sports cars.

 

I've experienced a big drop in mileage, also -- unseasonably warm weather, aside. The colder it gets,t he worse my mileage gets.

I drive the car fairly hard, with a lot of high speed highway miles. When I got it in mid-May, I tracked the mileage closely. The onboard computer tracked my average mileage in the 46.5-47.5 range. Calculating it on my own I found it to be about 1 mpg lower than the display.

With the cold weather, my mileage has actually dropped in the range of 10-15%, down to as low as 40, lately!

Maybe I'll give blocking the grill a shot....

 

On other thing I forgot to mention. I've observed a big change int he fuel gauge with the cold weather. It now shows empty a good 2-3 gallons sooner. Is that a known behavior?

Thanks!

 

It is going down ... down ... and down..

With the current tank, I do 10-15 min trips, and it's cold in Michigan.

I am just over 100 miles and almost half the tank is gone....

This sucks...

 

Mine's down to 38 mpg now. Recent driving has been in temperatures in the 20s, 30s, & 40s, never colder. It would seem to me the car should do better than 38 mpg in these relatively moderate Winter temperatures. Every year of ownership my '04 Prius MPGs keep getting lower and lower. This is not what I thought I was buying back there in late 2003.

 

Was getting about 52mpg in summer, winter started, was in 45-46 range.
Added block heater, went to 46-47.
Added grill blocking, went to 47-48.
Drove to the next county, to get real gas (no ethanol), now back up to around 50mpg.