Is everyone getting 50 mpg?

Hi! welcome to Prius chat!
No, don't be worried. It takes awhile for the car to break in.
After all, your tires are new, too, and it takes about 600 miles for the rolling resistance to drop! (you might check the air pressure, though... it is not unheard-of for the pressures to be rather low. You can run with a little higher pressure than recommended, as long as you don't exceed the tire max pressure. Most do either 40 front/38 rear, or 42/40)
It takes some time for the engine to break in... mileage keeps getting better over time. It will also take you time to learn how to maximize the gas savings when driving it.

Mostly, for now, enjoy it... drive it, and get to know it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hoop @ Aug 15 2007, 10:14 PM) [snapback]496619[/snapback]</div>

Study! Study! Study!! Learn as much as you can about the car so you can drive it intelligently. I am averaging in the high 50's. My commute includes freeway driving and many steep hills. My car just pasted 10,000 miles. Some on this site get incredible mileage. There is a lot in information here.

Here are a few places to start.

http://prius.ecrostech.com/original/Unders...gOnAsIDrive.htm

http://priuschat.com/New-owner-Want-MPG-he...rst-t15311.html

If you haven't already, consider increasing your tire pressure. I would not overfill, but check the maximum PSI on your tires. Mine is 44 PSI. I increase my tire pressure to 42 front and 40 rear. This had an immediate effect, by raising my MPG by 2-3 MPG.

Also, my Pri had an distinct raise in MPG after 3000 miles.

Relax, drive the car and get to know it.

Hope this helps.

Jud

 

Or, if you're like me, that may be the best you ever get. I've had my car for 12,000 miles or so and I average between 40 - 42. But, I do tend to drive somewhat aggressively. In any case, it's a damn sight better than what I used to get in my "old" cars.

 

I made this post to another driver today. Please use the technique as discussed to max your MPG during break in period.
First of all congratulations

Take this with a grain of salt. When people say "Pulse & Glide" most people think push the accelerator then coast to recharge the battery......
This is not the true intent of pulse and glide. It take some skill to do this properly.

1. PULSE Only pulse up to 40 MPH or below because at 41MPH the ICE will continue to run at 960 rpm even though the engine icon on your energy screen is not pink( lit up) to prevent MG1 from overspeeding. Yes I have the scanguageII and I have watched it countless times. If I am on a flat surface and doing P&G and get 41 mph by mistake then the ICE will not shut off(0rpm) until I reach about 37-38 mph so that is a few more seconds before the ICE shuts off and more fuel consumed. To prevent exceeding 40 mph on a down hill slope then do not pulse up to 40...make it less based on how long the hill is. I like to use regen to slow down if I know the rest of the down hill will take me where I wan to go without more acceleration. While on this note I will say that above 45 MPH the wind drag kicks in greatly and gets increasingly intense the faster you are above this speed.

2. GLIDE. This is the point that you take your foot off of the pedal to force the ICE to shut off. Read the 5 stages of operation and click on the here link to help you facilitate when the ICE will and will not shut off based on what STAGE it is in http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=4...amp;hl=5+Stages After you remove your foot from the accelerator you then must reengage the accelerator ever so slightly while watching the energy screen to observe a NO ARROWS CONDITION(not regenerating AND not providing propulsion...no green or yellow arrows). You might be thinking by now.....why is this so in depth??? It takes some SKILL, slight of foot or feather foot to accomplish this. You can not be eating, conversing on the phone and any other things while trying to stay in a P&G mode. It clearly takes some skill and knowledge to do this correctly. I am trying to provide you the knowledge and pass on the info I have for this. From now on when having a conversation about P&G you can pass the MPH threshold and No arrows conditions on so others know. When someone says glide in the future this is what comes to mind each time.

3 Do it all over again...try to watch for lights and anticipate them so you can Glide. If you have a down hill ride home like I do for an entire mile prior to your drive way then you will master the downhill glide for battery recharge vs. no arrows glide condition. Good luck with this and keep us posted. If you feel this info is particularly useful and you have more input I will edit my post to accomodate your thoughts. Please advise through PM or click on my name and email me direct and please copy and paste the URL as I have many post so far.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hoop @ Aug 15 2007, 10:14 PM) [snapback]496619[/snapback]</div>

Iwould not worry about it. I have been doing 54 and change after one month.
2 things kill my MPG Short Trips first thing in the am and not being aware of the traffic around me. Like seeing that it is slowing up ahead and coasting into the red light etc..... But it has become like a vedio game with lots of feedback. And don't worry, you can always hit the reset and start again....
Best Of Luck In Your New Prius....... By the way when are you posting a picture of your new baby??

 

The length of you drive has a great deal to do with it. A two mile quick trip to the grocery store and then the car sits in the driveway for three hours another five mile jaunt to school then the car sits in the parking lot for two hours. Return home again, you drove fourteen miles that day. The Prius uses much more gas during the first ten minutes of operation. In fact the mileage improves for the first fifteen or twenty minutes of operation.

our mileage varies a lot, mostly depending on how long the car is driven and somewhat on how fast. Sometimes faster is better.

All things considered, this car gets much better gas mileage than other cars, though the mileage claim was too high. The new mileage claim is much closer to what most people will get.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rae Vynn @ Aug 15 2007, 10:31 PM) [snapback]496630[/snapback]</div>

I've had my car over 2 years. To this day every time I get it back from the dealer it has 25 psi in every tire. It's really the only problem with them I've had.

Check your tires often and especially after servicing. Apparently some of the Toyota techs want to save us from ourselves.

 

I'm rapidly approaching the 10,000 mile marker and around 50 MPG is probably all I'm going to get unless I get out of L.A. I'm stranded in the 49.x lifetime milage bracket and with the way people drive on the freeways around here you HAVE to do some hard accel/brake action from time to time. This and some tight connections between gigs where I punch it up into the 80MPH+ range ensures that my mileage will be anything but uber until I have more favorable conditions. This being said, I'm driving uber aggro and almost getting 50MPG so some things to check:

First oil change go synthtic.
Tire pressure 42/40.
Try to find the lanes keeping a constant speed on the freeway, not neccissarily the fastest or slowest lanes, this cuts down on the hard accel/brake factor that kills your milage.
Poor alignment can fubar your milage, maybe get it checked as a last resort.

Good luck.

 

We have about 2,300 miles on our Prius. We make a lot of those killer short trips throughout the week. My wife drives the Prius M-F and only works about 2 miles from home. Her job does, on occasion, take her on 40 to 80 mile rounds trips during the day. Ar the end of the week she is usually in the high 30's for the MPG when she does not leave town. Otherwise she's in the low 40's at the end of the week. I can guarantee you she just drives it and doesn't watch the MFD.

I took the Prius this past weekend on a golf outing that was about a 50 mile round trip on mostly highway. I limped into the drive back home at exactly 50MPG, having reset the MFD when starting out. With just under 1K on the car we made a 400 mile round trip, again mostly highway, and got 54.1 for the trip. It was perfect weather for this: hot, dry and not a lot of wind.

Hope this helps with your expectations.

http://www.jimarnold.org/blog/category/toyota-prius/

 

My two week old Prius has almost 3000 miles on it already (sales rep) and I don't even try to conserve gas, I go fast when I want and drive it like a normal car. Usually around 80-85 mph on the highway and even I have seen my MPG go up since purchase. If you wanted to conserve gas it is easy for me to tell you that it is going to happen as you drive the car because I have seen it over 17 days.

Good luck, and enjoy the car!

 

Just about to get my first tank of fuel and averaging 51.6 on the tank from the dealer. I would suggest that the best way to do this is move to the UK - our gallons are bigger! All my driving is in town so far and most journeys are less than 15 minutes, so I am very pleased!

 

My Prius is approching the 10K soon, and I have gotten some great mileage after about 5K. The only time that I have gotten lower mileage is those short, short trips....3 miles to one grocery store, or 3 miles to the bank, or 3 miles to the school, etc and then uphill home. But, if you take the average of those longer trips and those shorter trips...it still puts a smile on your face.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 15 2007, 09:44 PM) [snapback]496639[/snapback]</div>

Serious question here, where do people live that only drive 12k miles in 12 months? I'm honestly curious. the truck I had before this hit toyota's 36k mile warranty after 2 years, and I'm on track to do that with the prius as well. Sitting at a touch over 6 months and 20k miles. That is with mostly just commute driving. There was one trip on it from Dallas to Port Aransas, TX, but that's it. I'll admit, I have a long drive into work now, but it's no longer than when I was on the west coast. Are these numbers based on someone living in a city that actually has good mass transit?

 

I averaged 48 MPG over the first few months of use. Now my last two tanks average at 4.1 l/100km or 57 MPG US. This is city driving only, mostly level here, most trips longer than 5 mi. My tires are inflated to 40 front 38 rear.

Must be the Zaino!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kd5yig @ Aug 16 2007, 09:31 AM) [snapback]496850[/snapback]</div>

Hmm, I'm not sure how good a mass transit system has to be to be considered "good", but I work with a guy here in the Chicago suburbs that commutes 10 miles a day round trip. He drives to the grocery store once a week, and a few errands here and there. All together he has 8,000 miles so far on a car he has owned for 26 months.

It all depends on what you want to do with your time and how much you are willing to drive or try to avoid driving.