First 100 miles

[tomdeimos]

Got my Prius on Tuesday. Now have 100 miles on it and here are some things I noticed:

1 Cars seem quite rare around here and most people are unfamiliar with the car.
Surprised how many ask about plugging it in, can it get up to speed on the highway, etc.
Also people seem to assume I got the car for environmental reasons. It doesn't bother me except that the general public doesn't seem to see anything else about the car, including the stuff that made me buy it!

2 Full EPA mileage is clearly possible without much effort, I should think in the New England area. Been around 30-40 degrees this week and I am getting 42 commuting to work on 128 mostly, for 12 whole miles. Car never warms up.

Went to Boston and through the new tunnel and then back home. Going in the tunnel was all 5 mph! Rest of trip was 60-70. This brought mileage up to 46 overall. Last part of trip with the car warm mileage was consistantly over 50 and close to 60 mpg. So on trips or in summer getting over 50 seems assured.

3 The by-wire brakes and steering felt just about perfect to me, and much like my old Citroen. Citroen had one advantage in the steering: auto centering and you could always feel a centering force that was entirely artificial. Otherwise the controls felt very similar. Car tracked straight once I got it aimed right. Citroen hydraulics would aim the wheels themselves.

Found steering and braking easy. A friend drove and found the car kind of disconnected from his input and was bothered and he had trouble with both steering and braking keeping it smooth.

4 Same friend used to a Volvo found car ride too firm and noisy. I found it extra silent and was pleased at the Euro suspension feel. Some how it felt better to me than I remembered it being when I drove the demo a year ago!

Steering felt especially better to me, as I remembered thinking the demo car had too much play in the wheel, and I felt none in my car.

5 Everyone was impressed by the back seat leg-room.

6 HID headlights are super. I never want a car again without these!

7 Felt more like a real electric car than I remembered. This is from the engine noise not tracking the accelerator, and the lack of shifting. One of the best features!

8 EV button will clearly help! Due to my short commute, going last part of trip on battery would save gas for sure. Car will have extra power anyways when starting in the cold mornings. A bit of battery charging then will help it warm faster. Mileage is noticably better going home from work than going to work. All theory for now. I got the button, but will wait a bit before putting it in.

9 Dash looks like it is perfect for holding my Garmin.

Now for the bad parts:

1 Radio is a disaster. (std one since I have AM pkg) Speakers mostly and their bad locations too. (I generally find factory radios in cars bad in general.)
2 Rear visibility terrible esp in rain at night.
3 Front view with no hood will take me a while to get used to. I expect this will be temporary.
4 Wish I had auto park. Even if slow it would help teach me how to do it better! For now I just avoid parallel parking.

Looking forward to my first real trip, but or now the seats feel great.

[disneydad]

Congratulation on your new Prius.
I got mine on Monday.
I'm getting 39 commuting to work 24 miles one-way, 90% highway.
I also love the HID's

If The NE group can find a place to meet, I hope to see their.

Norm. ºoº

[mss]

Congratulations!

I am expecting to get mine in two weeks. Thank you for shaing your experience and observations.

[tomdeimos]

Just want to list some new info on my mileage. Still on tank 1 so I am going by the computer graphs!

Drive to work about 10 miles. Car stays cold so I get 42 mpg so far for that, at 30-40 degrees. This with regular stock tires at 30 lbs pressure.

When I drive for an hour or so and the car gets warm my mileage at 60-70 mph goes up to 50 mpg to 55 mpg and stays there.

Never got to try higher pressures in my tires because I wanted to get my snow tires on in time for snow storms. Just got my snows on and did a test loop. Now using 40 lbs and 38 lbs in the tires, Michelin X-Ice from Tire Rack, with steel wheels.

Mileage when warm seems to be down 3-4 mpg but still stays at 50 or so.
Work commute still unknown, but not likely much different with the cold the major factor.

No idea how these tires do on snow and ice yet but on dry roads they seem way better than the stock tires. Much quieter, and very stable feeling for snow tires.

[disneydad]

hi tomdeimos

This is my one-week anniversary with my prius; we've had about the same temperatures. And storms. (central mass) When you refer to the MPG, which screen are you looking at?

You refer to 50-70 MPG, is it on the energy page or the MPG avg. on the consumption screen? Or are you referring to the peaks on your 5-minute intervals on the consumption screen?

I have my OEM tires at 42/40 and I had reset the mileage when I started my second tank. I’m now 2/3 through this tank and my avg for this tank is 44.0

I’m trying to figure out why you are getting 50-70 MPG.

Thanks
Norm ºoº


Merry Christmas

[tomdeimos]

hi tomdeimos
.................................................. ..
which screen are you looking at?
.................................................. ........
I’m trying to figure out why you are getting 50-70 MPG.

Thanks
Norm ºoº
Merry Christmas

Hi Norm. Don't feel too bad! I think you mixed my mpg with mph numbers?

As to how I read I used a bit of everything. I reset the computer at the start of a trip sometimes and read the average. Other times I read off the bar charts averages.

Now I have used a full tank and my calculated mileage was 43.5 for the tank.

The very best I got was going to work this morning at 58.8 average on the computer which I reset at start up. Reason I got it so high was I really worked at it and went back route with top speed of 40 mph and much at 35 mph. It gave me miles at a time of stealth mode when I was extra careful with the accelerator! Normal commute on rt 128 stays around 42 average.

Trips of over 1/2 hour get really good on the highway and the bar graphs stay over 50 mpg once the first 3 warm up ones go by.

Hopeful my next tank will be better. Seems like it has gotton better after the first 200 miles on this last tank. I get stealth more easily now. Also note the car charges the battery higher, I guess because it senses I have no big hills around here to go down. I get green battery bars now quite a bit. Before when I first got it the battery seemed to try to stay at the half way up point.

Boy are these cars hard to fill. But I am still used to a diesel where I just fill till I see the fuel in the neck! Took 9.46 gallons. Filled to the gurgle sound, slowly.

Now wonder how much is reserve that is usable, how much unusable, and how much a reduced capacity tank?

[disneydad]

John

The 43.5 is right in line with what i'm seeing. Presently at 45.3.

what made your car hard to fill ? did it spill back on you? On my first fill i had the handle at 1/2 and had no problem i let it click 3 times to top off and got 9.4 Gal in. but i filled up just as i got the low fuel warming. This time i'll set my trip B and see what i can get out of it. i know i can get at least 9.4 Gal. out. I'm shooting for 450 miles/tank or 10.5 Gals. used.

With over 600 miles driven, i'm not sure if the better milage is the car settling in or that i'm getting used to driving it. Man oh man what fun it is to drive.

This will be the first week i can remember going a full week without having to fill up. and thats on a fuel tank thats 25º/o smaller than what i had.


Oh what fun it is to drive in my Prius everyday.

Norm.

[tomdeimos]

John
..............................................
what made your car hard to fill ? did it spill back on you?
.................................
Norm.

Just the auto shutoff. When I filled I think I added more through a dozen auto shutoffs.
I stopped when I heard some gurgling. Never spit back but I pulled out the nozzle several times so it wouldn't build up pressure. Never felt like I could repeat the same fill point each time as the full sound was so vague and gradual. I am used to seeing some fuel in the pipe with my last car being a diesel.

After the first shut off it took a lot more fuel. And I don't think I overfilled, as none came out and the engine ran normally and smmothly.

I'd also like to get 450 miles on a tank, more in the summer! But after that flashing light starts I think I will carry a can of gas just in case, till I know what is reserve fuel and what is just the bladder shrinking.

[CitizenjaQ]

I just got my Prius last week, and passed the 100-mile mark Monday. The onboard computer says I've gotten 31mpg since then, but I'm not convinced that's accurate. Only one of the little bars on the fuel gauge has disappeared thus far, and the dealership filled it up when I bought it (@ 46 miles on the odometer). I can't really calculate with any sort of accuracy until I fill up again (someday :wink: ), but I think my mpg is closer to 40 - which, with my short commute and ice-storm laden New Hampshire, is fine by me!

[disneydad]

Congratz on your new prius ! :clap: :multi: :clap:

I saw the same thing when I first got my car. The only way to know that you started with a full tank is to just fill it. Start counting MPG from there. For the first 6 blocks I generally get about 50 MPG / block the last 4 blocks are in the 40 range and the last blinking block i've got 33-56. That last block is strange and some what unpredictable. The last block data was taken after running out of fuel twice. the first time I was trying to see how much I could get out of that last blinking block. The second time was an oops, and the car ran out after 33 miles.
Now I refuel within 20 - 25 miles after the block starts blinking.

Again, congratz on your new car and WELCOME to the New England Group.

PS. If I see you on the road, i'll be the one waving.