Prius Chatters Revolt!!!! 38.7mpg

While I love my Prius.... I must agree that the milage is no where near what I expected. I have owned an 06 for 1 year and 1 month now I have driven it 21112 miles and you 1 year mpg was a dismal 38.5. This included a 1600 mile round trip from MI to CT on which I averaged 57MPG highway (drafting semi's), infact I normally get close to 50 highway. However even in the summer I struggle to maintain 40 mpg city. During the winter I get 29 city and 45 highway. So as a proud Prius owner and someone who what more Hybrids, alternate fuel vehicles I must agree with the article that 38.7MPG is a valid average.

Other info:
tires 44 PSI all four
Mobil 1
K&N air filter
I strive to make sure the AC is always off
Prius has been inspected by the dealer for miss operation

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cubbyg @ Mar 10 2007, 01:23 PM) [snapback]403367[/snapback]</div>

Well, Prius owners like me and Prius supporters may be somewhat stunned to know that I was getting mileage like that during the cold weather. It seems that any time you have the heat on, the car needs the extra energy produced by running the ICE to heat the cabin. For many days this winter season, our local temps were in the 15 degrees F range. Even knowing how to dress (I'm an avid snowshoer - but I was not going to drive in my snowshoeing "gear"), it was cold enough that I needed the heat on.

I'm also familiar with driving techniques designed to squeeze more mileage out of a Prius and tend to use them. The route I use to work is all city driving. It almost seemed that no matter what I did, if the heat was on, I could not get the ICE to stay off for more than very short periods of driving even though I felt that the inside of the cabin was "warm" enough so that running the ICE was adding little benefit.

That said, my "warm enough to not run the heater" mileage last year was in the 54 mpg range. Since I had little experience driving the car as it was new, I anticipate that my warm weather mileage may be better than 54 mpg this year. That remains to be seen.

Even getting 38.7 mpg, the way that I look at it is like this. It is still about 50 percent better than the cold weather mileage that I got with the Acura Integra that I had for almost 14 years. That used to get 26 mpg driving under the same city conditions in cold weather, and it did little better during warm weather. My Prius' warm weather mileage is nearly double that of the warm weather mileage in the Integra.

So, it appears that "low mileage" that seems to cause such a fuss in the media, is not that uncommon, however, I'll still take the Prius any day to any other currently available car.

Anyone got any suggestions to improve mileage in cold weather that do not include driving with the heat off?

All the best,
Matthew

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wiyosaya @ Mar 14 2007, 01:17 PM) [snapback]405511[/snapback]</div>

It may be too late for this season but next winter, block the grill. $5 of pipe insulation does wonders. Check out the thread "My first day with a blocked grill".

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efrench515 @ Mar 13 2007, 08:04 PM) [snapback]405145[/snapback]</div>

Have you read http://priuschat.com/index.php?autocom=art...rticle&id=3? We still don't know much about your drive, how long they are and your speeds, esp. on the highway.

What were you expecting? Do you know the (old) EPA test procedure at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/how_tested.shtml and http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ Mar 15 2007, 01:44 AM) [snapback]405908[/snapback]</div>

Well I am a Senior Communication Network Engineer and I travel all over so my typical drive varies from under 15 minutes with 5 minutes of freeway at 70 and 10 min of city at 35 to 45, to 1.5 hours to drive to Detroit (70-80 MPH). I also do a lot of 2 lane country driving (55-60) MPH. Except for my trips to Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids I seldom spend more the 20 minutes city driving as Saginaw, MI is not a very big city.

I expected that I would get close to 50 city and 45 Highway. Instead I get 50 Highway and close to 30 city even with pipe insulation.

I am not really complaining just stating that I think 38 - 40 is a more reasonable expectation in any state north of Ohio

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efrench515 @ Mar 15 2007, 08:26 PM) [snapback]406529[/snapback]</div>

All those 5 and 15 minutes trips will kill the Prius mileage for sure. And the engine cools down so much faster than regular car (it hardly even runs that hot for city driving). You can feel the bonnett, and it is only warm.

In my neck of the wood, 50-60 degree weathers get me about 45mpg on my 15 minutes (6 miles) commute to work. So you should see better mileage soon this spring.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dipper @ Mar 23 2007, 12:07 PM) [snapback]410995[/snapback]</div>

Yes, but don't forget it has the thermos so it re-warms much faster, too.

But yeah, since 90% of my trips are 10 miles or less, I can tell you those short trips are a killer on MPG.