Lowest MPG

Tell me about it! We've been in the single digits the last couple of days here in Denver and my MPG have been punished, put into a figure four, and then body slammed. That's with the block heater installed! Looks like it's gonna be warming up a bit soon. Huzzah!

 

checking out the weather today... would be a tough sell on global warming for sure. lows in the 30's for Vegas and the mid twenties for Austin, Tx...

even had lows in the mid 40s for Miami...and yes i believe the HIGH temp for Denver was 5...

 

Voted 5-10. Lowest I've noticed is 8.something. That's from a stop climbing a hill.

Man, I've learned to hate stopsigns!

 

Let's make this question more reasonable. Don't tell us your lowest instantaneous mileage because everyone always gets the 0 mpg reading when they idle at a standstill. To be more meaningful tell us your lowest average let's say over a drive no shorter than 1 mile.

Recently, I had a chance to drive under worst case conditions. I started my prius cold at 25 deg F and took off to pick up breakfast at McDonalds. This was a 4.5 mile round trip drive. As I knew there was no point at all in trying to get into electric only mode, I just drove as hard as I could without driving unsafely. The principle of driving hard to save gas is your Prius is seemingly burning the same amount of gas whether your moving fast or moving slow so you might as well be moving fast. Plus with moving fast you get the double-benefit of getting you engine warmed up as quickly as possibly so that you'll have more of a chance of being able to shut off the gas engine at a stop.

Anyway, I was unfortunate to hit a traffic light within 300 yards of my start so I had to burn gas at a standstill for the full duration of the red light. I took off briskly but kept being slowed down by the cars in front of me. I tried as much to do pulse and glide techniques but everything was still to cold to do much and there was no room to any gliding.

I had to travel on a short segment of a highway, where the going speed is about 65 mph. I did park my car at McDonalds instead of the drivethru to avoid the chance of my gas engine idling. I had to floor my car to get back on the highway.

I drove on the agressive side all the way on this short trip to McDonalds and back. So for the 4.5 mile segment of aggressive driving from a cold start in 25 degree F weather with some idling at a traffic light, I got 29 mpg. So that's my lowest average gas mileage to date.

 

My lowest ever tank mileage was around 38 mpg last winter during a stretch of 0 degree mornings.
My lowest trip mileage was probably not much below that, maybe 35?

This year going to work I get about 40 in typical 20 deg F weather.
But with the block heater I can keep it up around 48 mpg for the morning commute.

 

Heh. Tell that to the Europeans! They're looking at a potential ice age induced by global warming.

 

First thing in the morning, cold car and I have to drive up hill - I have seen it at 3 for a brief time - even with slower accelleration.

 

I HAVE BEEN VERY UNHAPPY .... WITH MY MPG
THE PREVIOUS TANK AV. WAS 34.0
NOW I MY NEW TANK WITH 59 MILES DRIVEN IS 27.4 MPG.
I AM BRING THE CAR BACK TO TOYOTA FOR THE 3RD TIME DUE TO THESE LOW MPG NUMBERS!!!!
TEMPS HERE ARE MID 30'S
CAR IS 2004

 

Where do you live? How long are your trips?

(please try not to use all caps)

 

bad question.. er.. bad pole.. because if you punch it.. you see low numbers, but they raise... constant?.. you're able to cruise at 100mph and still get 25mpg.. or you can cruise at max speed 108 and still get around 15mpg... so does that mean 15 is the lowest? no.. because when you punch it.. you'll see lower.. even if it's for a sec or two.. *shrug*

 

I once had 30 minutes worth of bars on the Consumption screen all showing less than 12 mpg (unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture at the time). It was a really bad traffic jam, where peak (not average) speeds were about 8 mph in a very hilly section of freeway. It didn't affect overall tank mileage that much, though, since it corresponded to only 2-3 miles and probably well under half a gallon of gas.

 

when the engine's running (warming up) and the car isn't moving... i get 0 mpg. zero miles over anything is still zero.

 

good lord gal get a block heater and plug that JBJB in and drive away really warm. non of this warm up get's 0 mpg's.

 

Lowest avg has been 48 mpg during which time daytime high temps ran in the low thirties and dropped to low twenties at night. That's the coldest it's been this winter in Tennessee. I have been very pleased overall with the gas mileage. It has met, if not exceeded, my expectations.