Latest Software Update Safety Recall Resulting in 8mpg less...

I have found that the MPG on the Prius can vary substantially based on driving style, traffic conditions and topography. I can get up to 60 mpg driving to work and back 30%city/70% highway, if I really try, only going 60 MPH on the freeway. I can also get 45 mpg on the same route going 70-75 MPH on the freeway and accelerating briskly. I can even see as little as 39-41 driving around town with the A/C blasting. I live in the Suburbs of Los Angeles, the streets are huge and have high speed limits, 45-55 on the major streets. My city driving is something like this "Accelerate up to 50 then stop at a red light, and then accelerate back to 50 over a steep hill, then stop at a red light (and repeat) ". Low 40's is less common, but not unheard of. Just check out Fuelly.

 

Are we talking that recent recall? Mine's a 2013, and I've seen no MPG loss at all. Indeed, I hit just over 60 mpg on the tank I just had when they did the work. It also feels like the cruise control is more "smooth" since the work was done...but that might just be the system learning to be smoother when applying power to accelerate/maintain speed (don't use it that much).

 

Had our recall done and MPG dropped from 52 to 50 MPG. Same commute, same tires and no change in driving habits. Seems like motor runs more now.

 

Really no change? How about hot days and AC use?

 

I am in N.C> too and am having the same issue in 2014! Gas mileage has dropped 10 MPG.

 

I AM WITH YOU. Had a 2nd reset and it worse than ever.

 

I am in N.C at Capital City an driving Prius 2013 two.
I do not see drops on MPG( see improvement on squeeze more mpg, after changed my driving habit). you have to change you prius driving habit.
after the update, Electric Motor does not give constant output during acceleration/pressing the pedal. The output would be lika a ramp down and flat. this is the reason ICE would hard work during constant acceleration/pressing the pedal.
on my side, I accelerate and release the pedal slowly when feeling the ICE is kicking more, and repress the pedal again.
once the electric motor ouput is flat. ICE takes hard work that causes less MPG.

learn you Prius driving skill, I know, changing habit is hard, but doable

 

totally true on my side. Was scratching my head. those mpgs are dropping during hot-days.
AC takes much power, I switch to eco-mode during hot-weather
I set my temperature on 75-76,

 

Really no change? How about hot days and AC use?

Well lets see... It was hot last summer before the recall and its not very warm here now. So I guess maybe the mpg will go up when I start using the AC.

 

I am fully aware of how to drive a Prius. I am on my 2nd one and have had one since they were introduced. This is not about my driving. There is clearly something different.

 

after the update, you have to change your prius driving habit.
this does not matter on how long you are aware of driving Prius, but software update changes our Prius behavior.

 

Since the updates, I have noticed about a 2-3MPG INCREASE when driving up to 66MPH and lower. However, when I travel on the highway at 76MPH I have noticed a 5MPG DECREASE. It seems the update increased efficiency up to about 66MPH, then lowered efficiency above that speed. At least, that is my observation.

 

Seems like there's too many placebo effects at play here and they can be quite deceiving.

 

hahah, make me to flashback to matrix era, my first sci-fi movie and got addicted with more sci-fi movies
"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes"

on mine, I try to minimize placebo, the good thing, I am not driving Prius harcode since bought on august last year, Still learning.
I am mpg person on Prius, but... Do not care mpg when driving my wife Sienna 3rd generation just zoom... .

 

My dealer said it would take 2.5 hours to perform the recall so I opted to not have it done during the most recent service. They checked the logs and said my car didn't appear to be directly impacted by the safety issue so it was not an urgent recall for me.

 

More on the Prius recall: I decided to manually check my mileage...start to refill the tank. Guess what, the mileage on my manual check was 8 mpg better than on the computer screen. That is good news but, can they fix the computer read?

 

First time I hear that ... you are saying that after the recall your computer shows LESS than real MPG ??? I am recording mileage and fuel consumption since 2007 (not the same car) including trip and overall error among other things ... recording both what the car computer shows and what I calculate (using fuelly too and CleanMPG as you can see from sig)

My chart shows no difference on error so far but only 5-6 fill up since recall... and current mpg is very similar to last year and matching what was last year both on the daily trip and for tanks...

would be interesting if Bob or someone with "real" instrumentation would take a look pre and post recall in controlled environment

 

FWIW, I think trip MPG readouts are more "voodoo math" than anything else. The car is aware of how much gas is being demanded and trying to factor that across the mileage traveled during the trip, but really, you only know the true MPG you got on the tank by calculating gas used versus miles traveled.

It's like a GPS telling you what your MPH is. The GPS uses the math of how fast you traveled between two points where it knows your location...maybe averaging over 4-6 points before determining your speed. The greater the data set, the more accurate the "average" is, but the data for shorter trips won't be as accurate.

 

This is fascinating. One group is getting much less mileage while the other has seen no difference. I haven't read all 5 pages of the thread, so forgive me if this has been asked. Have the people getting less mileage had the software update only, or the update with the replacement of the converter? Our experience with this has been nothing but painful and has resulted in a consistent 8 or so mpg drop. If we are very careful after the update, in city driving we can touch 50 on the readout. Now we usually get around 41 average, whereas before the update we consistently got around 50. We did have the converter replaced as it died during the update. I should add that we went to get new tires when it was insisted we do this update, so we also don't have the stock tires (17" stock wheels), but the goodyear fierce instinct (whole 'nother story). None of this has made me desirous of a new prius.

 

Since summer is now here; we all can test our MPG with last summer results,
to see what the REAL difference is!!