Looking for a used Gen 2 but I am finding lots of low mpgs

Welcome, Chris. I'm not sure if you've watched how the people around you drive, but here in the Tampa area, I've noticed that Prii do the jack rabbit starts and wait till the last moment to brake about like other drivers. There are not all that many Prius owners who make any effort to get the most out of their vehicles. It's all about seeing who can get to the red light quickest and wait the longest.

So, I would expect that a used Prius with a respectable mpg on display would be the exception rather than the rule. The only way to really know might be to take it for a test drive that's at least 15-20 minutes long and see for yourself. You'll need to get it warmed up (as with any other vehicle) before you know how efficient it is.

And for point of reference, I recently tuned up my 150,000 mile 2005. Put in new spark plugs; one looked very worn. New pcv valve. Cleaned the throttle body. And a new serpentine belt. I think that gave me about a 2 mpg improvement. I didn't do an injector cleaning because I don't think they help. So it looks to me like Prii are pretty forgiving of tuneup issues.

Car shopping can be a ton of fun, or a real pain depending on what you find. Hope you have fun.

 

welcome!
agree with jerry^^^ and the japanese mechanic. a lot of people average around 45 mpg's, so if you're hoping for more, you'll have to drive reasonably and go through the car, looking at all the systems to make sure they are working properly.

tyres and pressure are important, and a lot of people are clueless about that. but you're better off buying from a clueless ownr, than someone who purposefully ran the mpg's up for a one time picture.

a car with full service history would be a big plus, and at 100,000 miles, you will have a major service coming at 120k.
i wouldn't bother paying the dealer for anything but the inspection. all the best!

 

Most dealership test drives are very short so the car spends a majority of its time in warmup mode which burns more gas. Also, sales people typically spend a lot of time showing the customer all the bells and whistles of the car while it's idling in the parking lot before the drive; again another serious MPG killer.

 

The expectation that a used Prius should show higher mpg is unrealistic. You don't know how the car was broken in the first 10k miles. You don't know those fine details of how the car was cared for. You may only have a good repair record. Fotomoto is correct on the reasons why a lot of screens will show an mpg under 40.

Most importantly, the average 2nd generation Prius only gets 43-44 mpg overall and not the numbers you want to see. Take a look at fueleconomy.gov and fuelly.com to see what the average person is getting. You might get more out of it but don't expect that everyone does.

 

With any modern car break in doesn’t really matter that much.

I did get better than 3.9l/100km or 61MPG (actual calculated value) at every fill up at this summer. And I’m sure that I could do that with every Prius gen 2 that has good HV-battery, engine that does not consume lots of oil, nothing is broken, and have good tires.

Tires have a big effect in fuel economy. Something like 0.7l/100km between different tires on Prius. With US MPG system better fuel economy you get bigger the difference gets. At 40MPG that would be about 5MPG difference. But at 60MPG it would be a difference of 13MPG.

But like others have said biggest thing is how and where you drive.

 

I don't see how you can assume it was poorly maintained because the graph shows below average fuel economy. As with any car or motorcycle, those economy numbers are far more likely to be indications of how it was driven than how it was maintained. As others have stated, test drives will not show what it's capable of unless it's a really long test drive. Drive it 100 miles and see what you get. Drive it 10 miles and you'll get really low numbers just as with any vehicle

 

That sounds like a good idea. It would seem that people who are selling their used Prii could do a much better job of presentation. If you're not getting it from a dealer you really trust, checking it out with Techstream software & and OBDI cable to find out how the HV battery is and looking for codes would be a good idea as well as the usual inspection of brakes, oil leaks, etc. That might tell you a lot more than a picture of an impressive MPG chart, anyway. A service record can help, but isn't the total picture, nor is it always available.

 

As long as the Prius you end up getting has good HV-battery, engine that does not consume lots of oil, nothing is broken, and have good tires your fuel economy just depends on how you drive.

Since you need to replace tires anyway at some point they shouldn’t be the deciding factor.

So in the end you can buy used Prius like any other used car. And not concentrate on fuel economy that previous owner or car dealership gets.

 

Chris I think you're getting close to "paralysis by (over) analysis" on this "mpg record" thing.

Do this: start the car and let it "idle" while you check things out. It will get to minimum warm up and stop running. At that point, get in and floor the gas pedal. Don't worry, this is what's referred to as a forced charge and the engine will run at a safe speed while charging up the battery. Do this until the battery screen is full of blue bars and/or the engine stops running. Now without turning it off reset the MPG screen and go for a good 15-20 mile drive around town; don't drive fast or slow.

Check the tires. Many folks don't realize it comes with LRR (low rolling resistance) tires and just slap on the cheapest things they can find. These will kill as much as 5mpg or more so take that into account if they are installed. Low tire pressures are also very common and will sap MPG's.

Finally, these gen 2 HV batteries are getting old and tired and contribute less energy to the electric motors so the gas engine has to make up for it.

GOOD LUCK!

 

you can learn everything you need to know on a 15 mile test drive.

 

Buying salvage cars is tricky because you don't know exactly what happened to it, how thoroughly it was diagnosed after the accident, or what was fixed on it. I've bought one salvage car before, and I ended up spending far more on it in the long run than I expected. Unless you're a mechanic, I wouldn't risk it.

 

i think a salvage vehicle would be perfect for you.