New owner --- MPG Question

Short trips, especially in colder weather, is your problem here. You should find many explanations on this website and also many ways to get the best out of your Prius. Welcome to the club and hope you get as much enjoyment and satisfaction out of owning one as we have!

(I wondered why you hadn't received any responses, but I guess everyone on your side of the pond is watching Obama today!:cheer2

 

Well.....it's Obama mania for sure but I'm not glued to the tv LOL. Anyway welcome and yes short trips especially when cold do horrible things to mileage. One thing to check right away is your tire pressure. Since your Prius is new they probably have the tires inflated to what Toyota says. Make sure the fronts are at 42 psi and the rears 40psi. Keep a good check on them especially if it gets even colder where you are.

 

Hi Plorio,

Congrats on your new car - enjoy! Yes short trips and cold weather are MPG enemies. Here are somethings you can look into to minimize the impact:
1. as previously mentioned check your tire pressure
2. look into grill block (use the search function on this site)
3. EBH will help with the first 5 minutes of drive
4. if possible limit and/or combine short trips.
5. Careful route selection: consider number of stops; speed limit; terrain and traffic. The less stops the better; speed up to 42 MPH allows you too glide.

Your MPG will improve after the 5K break-in period and as weather warms up. Be patient and for now just drive it then search for some of the driving techniques that improve MPG.

Enjoy,

 

Answer:

Engines take time to "warm up". When they are warming up, their fuel economy is not very good. You may have noticed a "fast idle" on normal cars, especially during winter, when the engine is running fast to get to operating temperature as fast as possible. The same thing is happening here.

You can reduce this warm up with an engine block heater if it bothers you that much... but then you'd have to plug it in.

 

Again - all the information stated here is true. I feel your pain though. My commute was 1.9 miles at one point. If you get an EBH, it'll at least double your mileage - it did for me. I don't block my grille though. Be careful doing that, especially in New Orleans, since it gets really hot.

 

The simplest response is to not worry about it. Whatever your previous car was, in the same conditions it did a lot worse than 25 MPG.

 

i understand your thoughts

i do several 1-3 mile trips all day long. at frist my milage was around 28-34mpg.
after getting a ev switch (search ev) and engine block heater my milage jumped to 52-56 mpg.
then came the cold -5 to 25F days and nights. my milage dropped to 32mpg. after reading about grill bocking i tried it. my milage went to 44-46mpg.

tires pressure helps, i also did a sythic oil change

cost for mods under $140.00(includes oil change) and about 2hrs of time (search for help and pics)

 

Expect ~25mpg for the 1st 5 minutes as the ICE runs just to heat everything up. Longer trips tend to produce higher fuel economy because a smaller percentage of the time is taken up getting to operating temp. The block heater, blocked grill, indoor parking, and higher tp all help.

 

Yeah, you right. Like everyone else said, 25 mpg for the first 5 min or so is normal in colder weather. I just got my '09 #2 and have the same issue with my short commute in NOLA. Once I'm warmed up though, I generally get 50-60 mpg around town with little effort. It is tempting to drive more to "save" gas or, at least to win the mpg video game.

I'm still on my first tank after about a month, and soon it's back to the bicycle to get around during carnival.

BTW, have you noticed there are hordes of of Prii prowling New Orleans these days; or is it just me?

 

if every day you do a 2 mile drive at 25MPG twice a day for 5 working days you fuel use for the week would be 4/5th of a gallon to cover your work week commute, at $2.00 a gallon that ain't bad, then you get to play and get proper good mileage on your weekends, how good is that!!