What is your Real World Fuel Economy

60 mpg over 6 miles starting from a cold engine does not sound easy to me either.

Possible -- yes, but I think it requires a pretty optimal heat up routine and of course warm weather.
This time of year it takes my Prius vagon about 3 minutes to operate in full hybrid mode where I can P&G at 90 mpg.
So, for six miles and 30 mph I estimate

3 minutes at ~ 35 mpg
9 minutes at ~ 90 mpg

That would be
1.5 miles at 35 mpg = 0.042857143 gallons
4.5 miles at 90 mpg = 0.05 gallons

6 miles uses 0.092857143 gallons = 64.6 mpg.
The first 3 minutes is key. You have to drive *very* gently. It might even be worthwhile to idle for some 30 seconds in the driveway for some drivers.

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Addendum:
I decided to try a short drive -- something I normally try hard to avoid.
Out of my neighborhood, down a country road for a mile, and back home. Speeds below 45 mph.
Total 4.8 miles, 54.1 mpg on the meter.
About 75F outside. I let the car idle for some 30 seconds first, and I exited my driveway with the handbrake on ;(
I did not note the SOC from the start but it was 6 bars at the end -- so likely that either the SOC stayed the same or increased.
My calc above on this distance = 60 mpg. Variation in SOC could explain most of the difference. The best way to tell is to run the route some 5 times and average ... but I am too lazy.

 

If you want to see what reality driving is, drive 150 to 200 miles a day in city, on country roads and on interstate, with speeds from 25 to 75.
Do this for several tanks of gas and keep up with all of it. This will give you a realistic mpg average. Anybody can get mpg in the 60 to 80 mpg range by only checking it when going on short, slow, or downhill trips.

 

yes its 35 mph speed limit, I go 40-45 and there are probably 10 stop lights and I hit them all, 6 miles takes 15-30 minutes depending on traffic

 

Real World is between 50 and 55MPG. When I tried driving really carefully I get around 62MPG but it is so stressful to pay attention to all those diving techniques, it is not fun anymore.

 

I agree, I can get 62MPG but I need to drive it extremely carefully and apply all the saving driving techniques that are out there making my driving so stressful ... it is not fun that way anymore. When I drive it normally ... no exaggerating I get between 52 and 55MPG.

 

I've been paying attention on my trips in the morning. Each way is 6.1 miles and I get 49 in the morning as the trip is mostly uphill. Due to this I get around 60 in the afternoons and can get over 60 rather easily on the route home if I need to. If I struggle and pay attention to it I can get around 69-70. You must have a pretty level trip.

 

I fixed your statement. You are welcome.

 

The last 8,000 miles I've averaged 59.9 according to the car's computer. I'm too lazy to do the calculations myself. I rarely attempt to get good MPG's as the car seems capable enough without my trying. I drive my C as I would any other car except I smile more when in the C, especially as I drive by the gas stations. My only regret about buying a C is I didn't do it sooner, 28,000 miles and no problems at all.

 

Pretty straightforward for me....I filled up Tuesday, put in 8 gallons, and I had driven 400 miles on the previous tank of gas according to the trip odo.......50 mpg average. Car has almost 1000 miles on it now.

 

Just did a 1000 mile trip from Dallas to Memphis, the speed limit was 75 most of the way, I did 80-85 and even set the cruise control to 81 for a long stretch. Mpg was 43.9. About 8 hours of driving, I would take the hit on MPG and not add an extra 60-70 minutes of driving to save about $18 bucks in gas for such a long trip. Not bad even with hilly roads in Arkansas. Usually in town I get 400-420 miles out of a tank. MPG doesn't matter, just how many miles out of a tank(they go hand in hand, more miles per tank equals higher MPG). You will always fill up approximately close to the last tank. My goal is to pay attention to every trip and maximize it, but sometimes you can not, and I do not sweat it anymore. I have about 43,000 miles on the car now. And for the past 5,000 miles, according to fuelly, I am averaging 47.8 MPG. I drive 90% highway.

 

depends on the weather,speed and how you drive it.
my 2012 Prius C has 50000 miles. average is about 48MPG. temp. control on all the time. save me $2700 gas already compare to my 2010 Civic (less than 30 MPG). same commuting.

 

I had a sweet commute back from the mall today, got 78 mpg

 

Got to love the C, and I love seeing the savings at the pump. $$$

 

I just got 73 mpg on a 150 mile trip from 5500 feet elev off the BRP in NC to Charlotte NC. Because it was 5000 feet down and I never went faster than 55-59mph I got 73 mpg for the 150 mile trip. I only got 46 mpg going there but I drove faster, like 70 mph and went up 5000 feet. Combined though I got 300 miles round trip and 59 mpg on the tank so far with 200 more miles left

 

Interesting discussion! My priusC (or "minipri" as I call her) gets high 40s/low 50s on normal drives (which are usually 10-15 minutes) around the D.C. area. She does much, much better on longer drives, even when I let her creep up to 70+ mph. Because we all know that the trip summary lies when it tells you the MPG, I've kept a spreadsheet of how many miles I've driven + how much gas I use since day 1, so I can tell you that my long term MPG is 51.8.

On road trips/long, long drives, I've had tanks of gas that get up to 59.1. During the winter, I've had tanks that only got me 43.8.

You can see the average MPG of my car over time + the MPG I've gotten on each tank of gas here: PriusC Miles - Google Sheets

Furthest I've driven between gas ups was 526 miles, and the car took just a smidge over 9 gallons of gas.

As of my last gas up, minipri had 7,734 miles and I'd spent $514.92 on gas. I live in the D.C. area, so gas is expensive, but not CA or NYC expensive.

(if anyone wants to make their own, I can send you the excel sheet--the google doc doesn't have the automatic calculations in it)

 

On moderately level highway it gets about 59 mpg at 60 mph. it gets maybe as high as 70 mpg at 50mph. It get about 50-51 mpg at 70 mph. Using cruise control hurts the mpgs.

 

^^^^ cruise control on flat roads helps, it only hurts when you have an incline on the road where the car needs to get on the gas to make it up a ramp or something.

 

nothing but hills in the east coast, constantly goes in the red going up even at 50 mph on the hwy. When I do hit a flat stretch or gentle down I will use CC

 

Over the last 50,000 km, it's averaged 30 km/l (70 mpg).

Lower speeds, lots of hills.

Best ever 100 km round trip was about 98 mpg.

 

South bay->SFO->Bica coffeehouse in Oakland today, 59 miles, 57.x MPG. On the drive back to the south bay from Oakland, 52 miles, 60.x MPG. I am starting to love cruise control @ 65MPH.

Also, on a three mile drive home from a local restaurant, got 99.9MPG. That really takes some of the fun out of the 'top 3 trips' screen on the dash... in a good way.