Real life average mileage since you bought your '04

I usually find that my 04 takes a while to warm up, and I unfortunately make a lot of small trips, with time in between sufficient that the engine cools down. Even so, I still get 44 mpg fairly consistently. Today, after filling up yesterday and driving 25 miles, mostly on highway 280 north toward Palo Alto, CA, I arrived home with what was (for me) an excellent first-drive-on-a-new-tank of 49.1 mpg. After driving back to work this morning, it went up to 50.1 mpg. I really kicked nice person in the stop-and-go before I got to my exit at Saratoga Ave. I used no gas for the last mile and a half. In the traffic, I finally got the hang of coasting -- it is a skill that takes a while to learn, and this is my first Prius (and I only have a couple months in the driver's seat, compared to 20+ years driving cars that sucked gas no matter what I did! ;-) So, it does take time to get used to driving it, and I'm encouraged that things should get better in a few months when it's warmer and when it has over 5000 miles on it (I just crossed 3400 last week). I still think it's a great value for the money. It's comfortable, has lots of cool features, and really has good acceleration when you need it.

 

We have been averaging well less than everyone else, I'm afraid. Our calculated average has been around 36 or 37 mpg over 1700 miles.

There are a few factors that I hope explain this. First, it hasn't been above freezing here in Minneapolis since we bought our car in early December. Second, we use our car for fairly short trips. I assume that the engine cools down quickly so that we're running the engine more often than usual.

Haven't boosted our tire pressure yet. We'll try that, but I'm assuming that that won't add more than a couple of mpg. Any other suggestions?

Bob

 

One good day doesn't necessarily determine a trend, but I had a good day.

The overfilled tank of Shell gas needed refilling after 400 miles at 39.7MPG average. I was well into a trip to Myrtle Beach SC and stopped at an Amoco station just off I-95. 8.8 gallons was less than I should have been able to put in, but this filler was *working*.

I didn't notice for a while, but I was averaging over 50MPG. Thinking this was a fluke, I kept waiting for it to drop but it never did.

After buying my discounted Rockports (30 percent extra discount with a coupon made them $50 a pair for the two pairs), I picked the Quick2 route home which was only 35 minutes longer than the Quick1. Almost all the way home was either 55MPH or small towns with as low as 25MPH zones and those *weren't* school zones. About 45 miles from home, I was finally put back on I-20 for a stretch at 70MPH, and the MPGs began to dwindle slightly. However, when parked at home, 239 miles after the fillup at Amoco, I was still averaging 51.1MPG. Along the way, I noticed one 5-minute period of maxed-out 100MPG, so I guess a well-charged battery and slow speed can work together well. I never usually see that long a stretch of non-stop 35MPH.

Difference between tanks caused by the Amoco? do not know, first time using it. If this tank holds up, I'll certainly consider getting more, and hope for the best. 48 degrees can't be it, since it's been a lot warmer. 2100 miles at the start, meaning I've passed some "break-in" barrier? Maybe.

All-in-all, a *very* good day, even with the NAV system errors which drove me crazy but are fodder for another thread...

 

Very good indeed, Mike!! Although I now live in Indianapolis (and love it here), Florence, SC is my home. I am very familiar with that stretch of I-20. Spent over 40 years in Florence! I'm envious of your weather. We've had very few days above freezing here since I got the car. But even with very cold temps and at aprox 1300 miles, I'm getting right at 45 MPG. Thus, no complaints here...except for the standard "inaccurate fuel guage" concern. That seems to be a standard feature!!

 

Update for this string: Up to almost 1300 miles and averaging 45 mpg. This is (still) in very cold weather overall.

 

The lifetime average of my classic after 25,000 miles was 45.6 MPG. In the winter months up here in the north, I usually averaged 38-40, then obviously made up the difference in the summer. The multi-display in my classic had a tendency to read ~2 MPG too high.

Now I have 1250 miles on my 2004, all in winter months, and am averaging 45.4 MPG, which is the expected 10-15% higher than my winter average in the classic. Interestingly enough, the display in my 2004 seems to read about ~3 MPG too low!

I was a bit disappointed in my mileage until I crunched the numbers from my fuel receipts...

For those of you getting low mileage, all I can say is practice, practice, and patience. I remember not being able to get better than 35 MPG in my classic for the first three months.

Now all I need is an EV button for my city commutes...

 

Well I am almost at the end of my first tank of gas and I am averaging about 49.2 mpg.

Shona

 

I am 1 bar over half way on my first tank, and have 266 miles listed for the tank on the consumption screen. Average MPG is 49.5, and this is up from 48.3 from yesterday, and 47.6 the day before. Each day represents a round trip of 44 miles to work.

 

Just hit 400 miles and have an average of 52.0 part way through my second tank of gas. After getting the car and driving around for two weeks, I finally stopped and put in a whopping 7 gallons of gas, which was reported as 43 mpg. I then started to modify my driving behavior using the pointers that have been posted here and easily got the mileage up over 50 for the last 100ish miles or so.

My impression thus far for maximizing your mileage is:
- Take advantage of using the EV motor only in stop-and-go traffic. The built-in creep can get me through a traffic jam without having to hit the accelerator at all.
- During long, slow decelerations such as approaching a traffic light, rather than taking your foot off the accelerator and letting the system regen back to the battery, slightly depress the accelerator until the arrow disappears completely. The car will then glide without accel or decel until you either press down further or let off completely.
- Don't let the battery charge dip below the half-way point if you can avoid it. Once it does, the ICE will always turn on to try to boost your battery charge. For me, this only happened after a really long traffic jam where the ICE wasn't needed for quite a while.
- Always plan for the road just ahead of you. If you're on a level stretch of road and you can see there's an upward grade coming up, accelerate a little bit more to maximize your speed and inertia before you start the climb (when other vehicles and speed limits make this possible). The ICE won't have to work as hard as it would if you were moving slower when you reach the base of the hill.

Just following these basics has pushed up my MPG by about 10.

 

I have had my '04 Tideland for about 5 weeks. One thing I just tried for several days which seems to boost my mpg is to use cruise on short stop and go trips around town. It's not just for set-it-and-forget-it interstate driving. I find I interact more with the car than I even did before. Time will tell, but I went from 44mpg to around 47. Also, I sell these bad boys for a living and give demo rides and punch it show people it's highway ramp speed so that eats into my mileage. I have about 1200 miles.

 

[Don't let the battery charge dip below the half-way point if you can avoid it. Once it does, the ICE will always turn on to try to boost your battery charge. ]

I don't think the battery is charged by the ICE unless the bar graph first turns pink with only one or two bars (way below half-way.) I have only had that happen to my car twice now since Dec. 24. Once when I first got the car and was in stealth going through one of those drive-through commercial Christmas light displays and the second time tonight. Drove up to Evergreen from Denver on I-70. This is a 6-7% grade (very steep) and all uphill for quite a few miles. The battery completely drained WAY before I reached Evergreen and stayed in the pink until I drove back going downhill and then it completely charged the battery to 100% green (including the top normally white bar). I was worried that my mileage would plummet, but I checked the tank average when I got back and it was actually up a few tenths! 52 mpg for ~350 miles so far on this tank.

Driving around town the battery level fluctuates normally up and down, but not to the point of having the ICE recharge it. Normal downhill and braking takes care to charge it back up. I'm at ~1900 miles on the car now. Thought I would mention the battery in case yours is doing something different so that you would know what "normal" is.[/quote]

 

:idea: After the last fuel guage bar started to flash I set the B odo to 0 and went 109 miles before fill up. Today I filled up with 12.3 gallons by verrry slowly trickling in the gas. I thought the gas tank was only a little over 11 US gallons!

 

I think you found out just how close you were to actually running out. The spec is 11.9 gallons. The extra .4 gallons would be the additional capacity in the filler neck.

 

38.7 on my '04 stelthy black Prius
5236 miles

 

There have not been very many posts here on fuel consumption, so I guess I'l chime in. I posted plenty on Yahoo so please forgive me if these are repetitious.

I picked up my Salsa Red on Dec. 30, 2003. Shortly afterwards the weather turned into winter. I am a firm believer in keeping a fuel tank no lower than half full if possible (most fill-ups have seen temps lower than 30 deg. with some in the single digits). My fill-ups have been mostly to get some consumption statistics. When citing these statistics I must be very careful to provide driving conditions, fill temperatures, etc. Most of our driving events are extremely short trips - under a couple of miles, with a typical day being 6/10 mile to my mother in-law's house, sit all day, make a trip to the store, then back home. When I take the Prius to work, my commute is 3.5 miles each way, up and down hills, with several stop signs. My "lifetime" consumption - based on fill-ups - is approximately 32 mpg. My '99 Saturn SW-1 trade vehicle would probably have gotten around 20 mpg for this type of driving. I'm not disappointed. The longest trip we've taken so far has been a roughly 130-mile round trip to Beaver Falls and back with some traveling around near Geneva College - where our daughter is a residence director. The trip to get onto the interstate is roughly 10 miles of stop - and - go driving each way. I think our average fuel mileage for the trip was around between 45-50 mpg although without checking my figures, I'm not sure. We previously made a trip to Connellsville, PA and got 50.8 miles out and 46+ on the way back. As I said...I'm not disappointed. Previous best car mileage was for a '91 Geo Metro which achieved 62 mpg on a certain stretch of highway (Pleasant Hills, PA to Marienville, PA) and approx. 35 mpg on the same type of driving where the Prius is averaging approx. 32 mpg. Can't wait to go to Marienville or perhaps to travel to Buffalo and Rochester in April. Of course my rel first highway mileage test will come when I take part in the April 2 Alt. Fuel Vehicle Day Odyssey Rally in Morgantown and Charleston, West Virginia.

Bruce Webster