Wow, you have to be kidding me!

That's on their tests on a dyno (rollers) and not a real road w/o measuring actual fuel consumption. If one has very short city drives, esp. in very cold weather (w/heater usage), one could easily be well below 50 mpg, despite "conservative" driving. Same goes for very short drives in very hot weather w/AC usage.

See Car and Driver: The Truth About EPA City / Highway MPG Estimates | PriusChat to learn more about the EPA tests. The only tests where they start from a cold engine are 31.2 minutes long.

 

great to hear things are improving. If you are incorporating some of the many techniques listed...keep us posted on how each one impacts your results. Best method is to change one at a time to evaluate...but I think some folks are too impatient to do that. I think your best tanks are ahead of you!

 

I would also say that there is a distribution of the baseline MPG that differs from car to car. So you might also just be in the bottom 10%.

Courtesy of Bob Wilson:
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/MPG_010.jpg

 

Did you also notice my your tires that I've never heard of likely and not being low rolling resistance, thus contributing to poor mileage? Can you get them to replace them w/better (from a LRR point of view) tires? If not, you're going to be stuck w/worse mileage than OEM tires until they're replaced.

 

A lot of folks have speculated about driving 'skills' but there are routes that would defeat any driver. Would you be interested in an analysis of your route and driving approach?

One possibility is to use a Garmin nuvi or other GPS device with a track recording capability. This can provide altitude, velocity, and track to identify driving challenges and possible strategies. Unfortunately, this also gives exact locations you might travel including home, shop and work. But there are ways to obscure the data. But I would not rule out problems with the car either.

Another option is to get better instrumentation, say a ScanGauge II and read out or even video record the values. Again, this can give insights and help diagnose what is going on.

Just some thoughts,
Bob Wilson

 

^^^
There was some discussion at 2010 Prius 38 mph on trip 42 back... | PriusChat, which is perhaps where it should continue. I haven't monitored that thread but there is a mention of trips ranging from 3-20 miles.

 

There are so many factors that can affect your fuel mileage. Example I can't get over 40-42 mpg in my 2010 daily driver. Reason I only live 1.5 miles from work and 90% of my trips are less than 3.0 miles on average plus lots of hills. On the other hand last Sunday I had to make a road trip around 81 miles each way and averaged just over 61 mpg. Being you are living in a warmer than normal area the AC is going to drain the traction battery faster at an accelerated rate forcing the engine to fire up more than normal to keep it charged. Being where you live is hotter and sunnier than normal, car color will make a big difference. My white Prius is a comfortable to drive with windows down at 85 degrees. My other car is black and forget about driving it without the air if the temperatures over 75 degrees.

 

Something is REALLY wrong with either the car or the way you drive.

Here is a real example, from yesterday, 150 miles btw Delaware/NJ border to Long Island via NYC first about 130 miles on highway speed (my wife do not care about mpg and drives whatever the car can do ... 85 MPH in times probably even faster but I stopped her) first 130 miles was 65 MPH AVERAGE and NJ turnpike WAS busy ... I was even scared at times ... Then last, about 20 miles, through NYC ... so average speed dropped to 61 MPH.

Three adults in the car, full A/C (outside temp started about 100F down to 92F) no cargo .... I was looking at the tourque dials, some insane numbers but still she somehow made it ....

She got 52 MPG by the computer which is about 49 in real word !!! Well over EPA .. and I tell you we were not hypermiling ... I was close to 60 prior to that stop, but I was trying hard and did not even go over 70MPH... (TRIP A was reset so I could really account for this) I will have to see the actual computed numbers. My NORMAL average speed is 14-15 MPH ... during daily commute. (that about 90% of the last 3 year driving makes 51.4 MPG) Car is exactly 3 years old today 19 July....

So pay attention all the other stuff mentioned .... I check tire pressure every week. (more often when in fall times). Allignemt can be an issue too. 12V battery which is mentioned often ... NOONE actually explained that I think that is bogus... just looking electrical number even a dead battery is less load then running your headlights ... A/C in summer and heat in winter IS A BIG factor...

Regards