new car "break in" mpg question

[Etel Rose]

o.k. thanks everyone for responding. I guess I'm a nervous new car owner. I took a longer drive tonight and the number is indeed creeping up...

[Bill Merchant]

What was your average MPG on your previous car, Etel Rose? There are a couple of break in periods. The first is at about 5K or 6K miles, and probably has as much to do with you learning how to drive your Prius as the car loosening up. Another one seems to come around 20K miles.

My advice: Don't worry about MPGs for the first few tanks. Spend this time getting to know your car, becoming familiar with it. Don't worry if the engine "races". Don't worry if you never see a green battery. Stomp the accelerator (safely) to get the feel of the available power, both from stopped and cruising speeds. See if you can detect when regenerative braking stops and friction braking begins (around 8 mph). Learn to change the radio and the temperature from the steering wheel. Play with the Nav system if you have it. When you become comfortable with your car, when you don't have to pay attention to it, then you can pay attention to increasing your miles per gallon. It's a really smart car, all you have to do is drive it and you'll get better MPGs than most other cars on the road.

BTW, time to update your profile from "other non-hybrid". There's a Prius group in the Portland area that meets monthly. Check out The Portland Area Prius Meetup Group.

[Etel Rose]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Aug 21 2006, 10:56 PM) [snapback]307324[/snapback]</div>

What was your average MPG on your previous car, Etel Rose? There are a couple of break in periods. The first is at about 5K or 6K miles, and probably has as much to do with you learning how to drive your Prius as the car loosening up. Another one seems to come around 20K miles.

My advice: Don't worry about MPGs for the first few tanks. Spend this time getting to know your car, becoming familiar with it. Don't worry if the engine "races". Don't worry if you never see a green battery. Stomp the accelerator (safely) to get the feel of the available power, both from stopped and cruising speeds. See if you can detect when regenerative braking stops and friction braking begins (around 8 mph). Learn to change the radio and the temperature from the steering wheel. Play with the Nav system if you have it. When you become comfortable with your car, when you don't have to pay attention to it, then you can pay attention to increasing your miles per gallon. It's a really smart car, all you have to do is drive it and you'll get better MPGs than most other cars on the road.

BTW, time to update your profile from "other non-hybrid". There's a Prius group in the Portland area that meets monthly. Check out The Portland Area Prius Meetup Group.
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Thanks again for the advice I wasn't very good at tracking the mpgs on my last car, but it was a large car that had some mechanical problems and it did not get good gas mileage at all. If you looked closely, you could actually see the needle going down as you were driving!

I never thought I would get a new car - I'm kind of opposed to it on principle - but with the tax credits and the fact that I wanted a more environmentally sound car plus one with the newer safety features (side curtains), I went ahead and got it. And the dealer just happened to have one coming in - just a week's wait!

I'm a very gentle driver, so I think I should probably get good mileage on the Prius naturally, but I need to figure out some of the features of this car (ex. what you're saying about regen vs. friction braking - I'm not sure how that works and how to use it to advantage).