My 2018 Prius Three is draining gas FAST

Most posts are intended to be in good nature but don't always come across that way. Ignore the rest. Your questions are welcome here and I, for one am curious what the dealer says. How many miles since the last fill up?

 

Thanks for chiming in.

 

@Chime, don't be discouraged by the noises. I also only signed up here when I became a new Prius owner two months ago, and I did learn quite a bit from the community when I had questions. By the description of your car's behavior, it does sound very unusual and actually sounds pretty bad. I think many people chiming in or lurking are rooting for you hoping there is a good explanation. So, yes, please keep us posted, but I understand we all just need to be a little patient.

Sounded like you are getting your windows tinted today. Well, I'm sure the car will look even sharper after that. I should get mine done as well.

 

Thank you for following-up, and Good luck at dealer. I think the intended purpose of this site is to provide information to those who need it, so you are always welcome to ask questions. You can simply ignore any ill intentioned comments unfortunately sometimes get placed into a thread. And also, forget all the nonsensical comments. We are just having fun to chat about anything. Hope things works out for your new Prius. Yeah, if nothing other than for my curiosity sake, let us know the updated fuel usage and miles you recorded.

 

if you are claiming you went 377 miles on 11 gallons, that is about 34mpg. sounds like you're good, no worries.

 

52 mpg at 75mph seams reasonable to me, and with break-in, Bet it goes up, glad it’s starting to be fun.

 

Wow, based on this fuel up, you only got 34.6 MPG (376.9/10.895). That is way way way low! Are you hauling lead in your trunk?

Apparently, your Trip A displayed MPG is way off. Unless I misunderstood the numbers your provided.

Just to give you one reference point: My 2018 Prius Two gives me around 58Mpg (hand calculated based on 6 fuel ups so far). My displayed MPG is usually higher by 1 or 2, but no more than that. The MPG has been pretty consistent every fuel up. After each fuel up, my "New Mileage Range: (As displayed on the screen)" shows at least 560+ miles. My longest push so far on one tank was 577 miles, and I got 9.806 gallons in after that (I always fill up until the gas pump disengage and never interfere manually).

 

I don't know what other Prius drivers think, but if your most recent fuel efficiency was 377 miles on 11 gallons or about 34mpg, I still think it is way too low for a brand new Gen4 Prius, unless you are driving it like a maniac on highway at over 100mph or have the ICE running all night long. I could not get my Gen3 Prius to record mpg lower than 40 mpg no matter how hard I drove. My Prime without EV range left get 50 mpg easily on highway going 75mph. It is better than your initial report, but still too low IMHO. And most concerning thing is that your display is showing Avg MPG for Trip A to be 52.5, but actual calculated mpg is only 34. This discrepancy is inexplicable.

 

i'll go with maniac

 

absolutely

 

Hope the dealership checks it out OK.

Sorry - I'm not sure why they were impatient - you've done what we suggested, fill, let it run down and now re-fill. I suggested to them a few times to just wait - if you're anything like me, it's generally at least 2 weeks with a tank which will go over 1000km, so I wasn't expecting you to return for at least a week or 2.

Yes, you're right, any new car is going to be different, no matter what it is takes a bit of getting used to. And a PRIUS is something just that little bit different again - hope you're enjoying driving it.

I think we're heading for more and more change in cars to come. Back in the '50s and '60s, getting a new model meant it was a different colour, different headlights and probably a little more power. Sometimes there would be an equipment upgrade - like in the '60s, they started installing heaters FREE!!! But between 2000 and 2010, we had Hybrids becoming more and more popular, though relatively a small part of the market. 2010 brought the first valid Electric Vehicle (EV) (LEAF) hit the scene. By 2018, we've got more hybrids, even more Plug-In Hybrids and EVs are taking off - with just about every manufacturer around the globe at some stage of development or release of models - including PORSCHE and FERRARI. China will sell in excess of a million EVs this year domestically - I heard something like 130 different models.

And then in maybe 10-15 years, autonomy will become so in-built in your car that you'll just click your fingers and it'll come, open the door for you to get in, and take you to work, then go and park - without you touching the wheel, if it has a steering wheel by then.

So - enjoy driving while you can.

 

You can't block them from posting - but you can stop seeing stuff they post. For instance, if I wanted to block you (which I won't), I'd click on your name at the side of one of your posts, it opens this dialogue box:


Click the "Ignore" - and you'll never hear from that person again.

It's funny - I've blocked a couple over the years, and when they post, I never see their post, but I see other member's replies to their post - sort of like driving in fog, you can't see but know they're there.

 

Don't let a few negatives spoil it. We're a pretty active bunch and we tend to think that when someone asks a question they'll be checking back often and giving updates. We love to help, but it's hard to help without information. Some of us were mystified at what happened to you and not everyone gave you the benefit of the doubt. But quite a few did. Once you're here a while, you'll figure out who's knowledgable and who isn't as well as who's kind and who isn't. By far, most are kind and quite a few are walking Prius encyclopedias.

If you went that long w/o getting gas, I'd say you're OK. But let us know what the dealer says. There are a ton of Prius drivers in the Bay Area. I'm surprised no one offered to take a personal look at your car and get you better acquainted with it. And shame on the dealer for not showing you more about the car's features and quirks.

 

No, I don't think so. But any inappropriate comments you can "report" by clicking on left lower corner icon. Also, you can ignore specific person by going to profile of that person. Oh, I see, @alanclarkeau has already shown this.

 

Good to learn about the "ignore" feature above, but I guess I'm good at ignoring noises. I don't let other people's immature behavior bother me at all.

Listen, I believe there is no amount of messing around with your driving should lead to the abnormal behaviors you described (34Mpg, or fuel gauge drop within the first 7-8 miles since a fuel up). I floored my gas pedal on a recent trip to Yosemite because I missed a turn on highway and was late for my meet up. I was driving 85+ mph like a maniac to make up for the lost time. The trip is an over all uphill (from sea level to 5000') and I still got 50Mpg on my 240 mile trip over.

To me, there is already enough evidence that something is seriously wrong with the fuel consumption of the car. I don't believe it's pilot error.

 

@Raytheeagle can hook you up

 

@Chime, I looked at the numbers you gave in post #205:

It's not quite clear to me how far you went on the 10.895 gallons. You have a "TripA" but that's in the section labeled "Previous." Was trip A (376.9 miles) the distance from your last fill up to this fill up? If so, that is pretty bad. Worse than what my car displayed climbing about 5,000 feet up Clingmans Dome!! )

But I just use the trip meter for keeping track as I drive. I use the main odometer for calculations when I buy gas. Subtract the fill up odometer reading from the last refueling with the one from this refueling and divide that by the gallons. Like this:
Last time I got gas, my odometer read 81,210 and I put in 8.369 gallons. The time before, the odometer read 80,766. That's 444 miles which comes to 53.05 mpg. -- (81,210 - 80,766) / 8.369 = 53.05