MPG , Tiny Bit Concerned

CladMonitor - I am Catgic of the Prius Borg. Resistance is futile. Your gas guzzling life as it has been, is over. We are the Prius Borg. Resistance is futile. You must comply. You will be assimilated into the Prius collective!

Welcome to the Prius “Hive,” and the War On Petrol Terrori$m, One Gallon Of Motor Fuel Not Consumed At A Time.

If you are seriously interested in working at driving “Hybrid $mart” to Max Out your MPG, I invite you to click on the link in my signature and give my “Ten Tips Guide…” a studied read. I call your specific attention to the OPERATING TECH NOTE there on iMPG = ½ x iMPH (instantaneous MPG/MPH) "½" Value Rule-Of-Thumb for accelerating from a dead stop in "Section - A. LOOSE OLD-BAD, DEVELOP NEW 'HYBRIDIZED' DRIVING HABITS-BEHAVIORS.” The information and discussion there should facilitate you in accelerating “BRISKLY” off-the-line with the 1.5-Liter I4 that powers your Prius c.

With the HSI Eco Gauge in your Prius c, I would accelerate keeping it right at the very top of “The Green” Zone, just before going into “The Red.”

Your “I don't get it, but it seems like Toyota built this car for a 95 year old woman” tells me you are still driving with a “Hybrid Dumb” (i.e. Gas-To-Go/Brake-To-top) mindset, like you did driving the Corolla your new Prius c replaced. Once you loose those old bad habits and start driving “Hybrid $mart,” you will be logging the 53MPG you are envying.

 

I would suggest you forget everything you think you know about the Prius and just try driving it like a normal car for a little while and see what happens. Sometimes babying it too much is counter productive. Besides, only half a tank won't tell you much.

 

Agree w/F8L's advice.

If you really want FE advice, please answer Fuel economy complaints/queries? Please copy, paste & answer these questions, esp. if you're new | PriusChat in this thread.

Mileage can vary depending on many factors (tire pressure, how you accelerate, trip length, tire choice, etc.) As reference, this is what CR got: The most fuel-efficient cars and Best vehicles for city & highway mpg.

 

From what you've said, you're not driving it how it's supposed to be driven. Do some research around the site to figure out how to drive a hybrid for mileage, get the car into EV mode, etc.

In fact, the C can do a LOT better than just 53 mpg. Just do research and practice and you'll realize you're driving an absolutely awesome car.

 

if this is your first tank, it was influenced by the dealer before you got it. wait for a refill and start tracking your tanks for awhile. it takes time to break in the car and yourself. don't worry about the people behind you and don't let your wife drive the car!

 

If you are driving a distance of more than a couple of miles at a steady speed above about 40mph, which is the maximum speed at which you can operate on the electric motor alone (on level ground, with no wind), the driving style you require to get fuel economy is the same as you would use with any non-hybrid car because the car will be operating 100% on the gas engine (again, on level ground). If you are driving in the city where you are are constantly accelerating and decelerating, you can get excellent fuel economy without annoying other drivers by doing the following:
1) Use the gas engine to accelerate to your desired cruising speed. Like you, I found that keeping the ECO bar within the green ECO range while driving in ECO mode was resulting in unacceptably low acceleration in city traffic when other drivers were behind me, so I tried increasing my acceleration while maintaining the ECO bar at the right end of the red PWR range. My fuel economy did not change significantly (it actually improved slightly), and operating in this manner at least gives me enough acceleration to keep up with most of the traffic.
2) Once you reach your steady-state speed, just maintain a steady foot on the accelerator if your speed is above 40mph (adjust for hills). If your steady state speed is below 40 mph and the battery charge indicator is above about 3/8 to 1/2 charge, back off on the accelerator until the ECO bar is at the low end of the green ECO range. You should see the Green EV light come on after a couple of seconds, indicating the engine has shut off. If you keep the green ECO bar below the middle of the green range, the gas engine will stay off. The engine will turn back on the moment the green ECO bar passes the midpoint, which you want to avoid as much as possible until the battery charge drops below 1/4-3/8 charge. Accelerate above the ECO bar midpoint at this point to restart the gas engine and use the engine until the battery charge builds up to at least 1/2 to 5/8. This procedure will seem distracting at first, but you will eventually reach the point when you can operate in this manner without even looking at the ECO bar
3) Brake gently so the charge indicator stays well within the blue area, meaning you are using regenerative braking effectively. This is easy to do if you look far ahead at the state of stoplights. This is probably the biggest change from driving a non-hybrid car, where braking quickly will not hurt your fuel economy. Once you become experienced with the car, you will not even need to look at the charge indicator to gauge your braking.
4) Be aware that your fuel economy will be poor on short trips, particularly trips below 4-5 miles. That said, you will still do much better than a normal car. I live in the city, where I do more than 95% of my driving, and am still averaging 58mpg even though my average trip length is only about 4 miles. That mileage will drop in the winter, of course (I live in Canada). I consistently get more than 67mpg on city trips over 10 miles, while keeping up with traffic and without using hypermiling techniques like pulse and glide.
5) Avoid using A/C as much as possible if you want to maximize mpg. In highway driving when all of the occupants are in the front seats, turning on the fan without the A/C can help keep you cool.

If you are still getting poor mpg after a couple of tanks, get the dealer to check the car. Another priuschat member needed a new ECU. I should mention that my previous car was a 2001 Corolla, which was mechanically almost identical to your 2007, although somewhat lighter. I think the fuel economy rating of the 2001 Corolla was about the highest the Corolla ever achieved becasue the car became much heavier in later years. The fuel consumption of 30mpg you obtained with your 2007 Corolla is slightly better than I ever obtained with my 2001, so you should do well with the Prius C once you get used to driving it. I get better than twice the mpg with my Prius C than I did with my Corolla at its best.

 

As others have said, just drive it and then start with adjustments to driving technique. Don't expect your fiancee to turn into a dedicated hypermiler, but it's not too much to encourage her to drive safely: driving safely lowers top speed and gives you time to avoid and reduce sudden maneuvers (for everybody) and that helps mileage. There's also plenty of "Free Money".

If you work from home, hardly drive and are concerned about mileage please don't buy another Prius. It's a false economy in terms of energy use.

 

Keep in mind the purpose of the PWR zone is to inform you that the ideal has been exceeded, so keep it brief.

It is not there to inform that you are requesting too much power or driving in an inefficient way.

Far too many new owners misunderstand that intent and assume it should be avoided entirely.

 

Great info already given. I can only emphasize that it is a new way of thinking and driving. Short trips, a/c on high, and fast acceleration are the bane of the c. Be patient, and little light bulbs (led) will appear over your head regularly. It's a pleasant little car. Give it time.

And welcome aboard.

 

I have had my car 9 days. I have just a little over 1000 miles. I am getting 54mpg on average. I did take a trip yesterday to the West coast of Florida 150 miles each way, highway is flat drove between 70-75 mph in both directions and i got 46 mpg. I am very happy with the car.

 

Great summary for city driving, curriet.

 

My wife is slowly learning to obey the speed limit laws. Once she starts driving legal all the time,
I expect to see much better MPGs.

Someone posted above above 'poor MPG on short trips below 4-5 miles'..
If that short trip is in a traffic congested city where the posted speed limits are 25 to 35 MPH,
you can actually get pretty good MPGs. I've gotten close to 70 MPGs going for pizza up the road..
This pic is from a short trip home from Lexington MA. (It was similar on the trip over).


However, if everyone out where you live, drives like drunken carjackers,
I think you should just go ahead and drive safely and forget about the MPG unless it's 4AM .
Saving a few bucks on gas isn't worth endangering your life.

 

^^^
Was there an elevation change? Did you start off w/a totally cold engine?

You can check for elevation change via Google Earth can give you an elevation profile of a route between 2 points! | PriusChat.

 

If it's me you asking, there are a few hills along the way. But, IIRC, my MPGs on the way to work were around 65 MPG.
I only pulled out my camera once I got back home. No cameras allowed at work.

Here's a rough profile of the trip to work. I'm not sure how warm the engine was when I left.
I think it was cold. Since I only stayed about 2 hours, it was still warmed up a bit when I returned home.
(taking the same roads).

 

Not to worry. Your mpgs will come up. I'm approaching 1000 miles. First tank was 45. Second was 47. I'm avg. 50.5 on this tank so far and i am driving up and down hills everyday. I got 79.1mpg on the way to work and 45.0 mpg on the way home today. No ac. 17miles each way. Btw tire psi is 42/40. Your car and you will learn together. I am getting really good at gliding and evoking EV mode with Eco mode on full time. Your C will come around.

 

Time to start a mileage log. Cut your losses on the first tank by filling up. Your tire pressure is probably low. Inflating to max sidewall will help.