37 MPG !?!?!

[DeadPhish]

Originally posted by efrench515@Mar 17 2006, 08:04 PM
Ok.. so I will just relax , pray for warmer weather, wait for the car to break in, and try to drive more

[snapback]226190[/snapback]

This is the balanced view in comparing your new Prius to another midsized 4c like a CamCord. For the same 9 min trip in very cold weather the CamCord likely would be getting FE ratings in the 25-27 mpg range. You are doing 50% better overall than other vehicles in what is a difficult commute for all vehicles.

Try to pulse and glide then feather the pedal as much as possible during your short commute and then think of the benefit of living 9 min from work ( as opposed to one who has never lived and worked in the same state since 1981. ) There are always tradeoffs.

[hdrygas]

Originally posted by efrench515@Mar 17 2006, 04:04 PM
Ok, I have had my Prius for a week now, Have put 360 miles on it and my avg MPG is only 37.3. Now I have red several of the other post relating to gas milage, I have adjusted my tire pressure and my stack or regen cars is larger than my milage bar. about 100 of the miles have been highway and the rest have been my work comute, it was a slow week I usually put on about 800 miles per week. Typically in the city I am getting 25 MPG or less. Now I live in Michigan and is still cold but I am beginning to wonder if something is wrong as I have not seen anyone get this bad of milage. I am already well into my second tank of gas and my average milage just keeps dropping. Should I take it in or am I just Parinoid?

[snapback]226144[/snapback]

Saginaw Michigan, new car, new driver you are doing great! It is cold up there. You may be using heat and defrost. That will cost you!! Get out that down one piece snowmobile garment and turn the heat down. Look around for info here on block heaters and radiator blockers. It is cold up there. It will get better summer is coming. You are still getting winter gas. Yes the formulation of gas changes with the seasons and winter gas has less energy per gallon. M.P.G. goes down. When the stations switch you will see it a sudden jump in your M.P.G. from one tank to another. Look around here learn to drive the car. BTW have you noticed that it is cold in Saginaw? Ex Michigander.

[Begreen]

I was averaging 39 mpg with mostly short trips of 3-5 miles. Had to drive like a bat out of hell last night. This was on a fresh tank of gas. After 9 miles up and down hill and quick off the line at lights, I had a 54mpg average. Go figure.

[DocToss]

I believe my first tank or two avg was less than 40 or close. I now have 3900 miles on the car and my last tank avg was 48 mpg and so far on this tank it is over 50. Be patient, thinks will get better, if not then get it checked.

[efrench515]

donee, I have not checked the oil level yet I guess I assumed it would come from the factory correct, but i will check it tomorrow while I perform the headlight flash ev mod. I do the electric glide alot and challange myself to do more every day, I also try to coast as much as possible, I usually achieve more regen cars that my mpg gauge is high.

hdrygas, Yes I noticed it is cold while I am setting here with a blanket infront of the fire.

Yes I keep the heat below 70 all the time and i have turned off auto and I turned off the AC, what a stupid feature turn on ac whne it is 29 degrees out. I only use the front defog as absolutly necessary.

As for my passangers in the morning it is just my kids as i pick them up for school from my x's house, so they are only adding 200 pounds total, no warm beverages, each one closes the door behind them (1 in front one in back)

Earlier someone asked about the hills, during my comute the biggest hills I face are the freeway onramp and offramp, fortunatly the offramp on the way home is a downhill merge and I can coast for about 10 blocks, I usually get 3 to 4 regen cars during this period.

DeadPhish, I know 37 city is still better than most and my Taurus wagon only gets less than 20 in the winter, but my plan to pay for the Prius was with the gas savings. I guess that may not work as well as I planned. No I did not expect it to pay all of the car just the difference between my old car payment and my new payment. I am still happy I purchased the Prius and I can not think of what I would purchase instead, I would have probably just keept with my old car. Regardless of the gas milage I still think the Prius is one of the most advanced vehicles on the road today and since my job and lifestyle is to be on the cutting edge of technology what else could I buy.

[tripp]

Originally posted by lowspeed@Mar 17 2006, 06:49 PM
P.S i don't think 89 will give higher MPG would it ?    the engine is designed for 87.

[snapback]226186[/snapback]

Nope, same energy content. The compression characteristics are different and can result in more power for an engine that's designed for that octane rating (Gear heads, please jump in and comfirm or deny this). Since the Prius isn't designed for that octane the fuel does more harm than good in addition to costing you more.

[galaxee]

Originally posted by tripp@Mar 17 2006, 11:15 PM
Since the Prius isn't designed for that octane the fuel does more harm than good in addition to costing you more.

[snapback]226304[/snapback]

and if you don't believe tripp...

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=1...ndpost&p=226276

[mssmith95]

A couple more quick questions. When you are picking up and dropping off your kids and co-workers are you turning the car off or are you staying in the car with it on? Is your commute home the exact same route as your commute to work?

I am in field sales, and often have make short trips (a block or so). I make sure to use EV mode when I restart to go a block or too so that the ICE does not kick on again to warm things up. That really sucks down the gas and MPG numbers.

If you are turning off the car to pick up passengers, and then restarting, that is a killer on you MPG. You may want to try leaving the power on (sounds scary, but if someone did hop in and steal it they would not be able to restart it without the fob).

I have also tried to figure out the best commute routes, with the longest flat or downhill streches. If your commute both ways is the same, then usually the MPG averages out...but if it is different, you may want to examine it to see if you can find a better route where you can glide more.

If you are not turning it off and your route is the exact same both ways, then I agree with everyone that the weather, coupled with the extra weight is probably the culprit.

Don't worry, it will get better.

I live in Los Angeles, and with 50-60 temps I have averaged 50-54 MPG with each of my first 4 tanks!

[coolfire74]

I used to get 35-38 MPG for my first 2 month. But I figured out that there must be at least 2 reasons, firstly, the short trip I have every day between my home and work place, only 5 miles, and lots of stop sign and red lights. Secondly, the weather was extremely cold, most of the time, the temperature is somewhere in between 20-37 oF.
I believe I have good driving habbit, because if I drive it for more than 30 miles per trip, even in cold weather, I can still get 50-50 MPG. So, the short trip is the major MPG killer. I noticed the first 5 minutes, the MPG always shows lower than 25, and it will reach 25-35 in the second 5 minutes, but when it finally reach 50 MPG in the third or fourth 5 minutes, usually, I have arrived my destination. So, I never expected to get 50 MPG in my daily trip.

But now, after I got 1000 miles in my new prius, I found a little bit booster in MPG. This week, even the weather is still cold, but a little bit higher than before, around 35-40 oF, I usually get about 45-47 MPG in my short trips. Last week, there are 2 really warm days (45-50 oF), I got 52-56 MPG depends on how long the trip was.

Anyway, 25 MPG is still too low to believe, at least to me. Unless you were doing a lot of extremly short trips (I mean each trip is less than 5 minutes driving).

[windstrings]

Originally posted by tripp@Mar 17 2006, 05:18 PM
If you're getting 25 MPG in city driving something is not right unless you're doing 1 mile trips in cold weather. How would you characterize your driving style? Just what have the temps been. From the looks of it you're driving a lot during a typical week so I'm assuming that you do a lot of highway driving. Is that correct? What's the terrain like in your area? It's probably NOT the car itself. The likely souce of the low mileage is either your driving patterns (ie lots of short trips) or your driving style (lead foot/aggressive) in combination with environmental conditions. Also, factor in winter fuel and a new car and that'll ding you somewhat. Look at a lot of the "old timers" fuel economy graphs (see TonyPSchaefer and EFusco's signatures) and you'll see that they're mileage improved each year as they learned the car. Summer fuel, warmer temps, and a broken in engine will help your cause even if nothing else changes.

[snapback]226152[/snapback]

Yep, when I drive... my first comsumption bar is about 25 to 27 mpg, the next one goes to about 35, the third to 42 - 45, the fourth "20 minutes now" gets 45 - 47.
If I travel even farthur, I get up to 50 or better, I have have 1500 miles so far.

MPG sucks when the engine is cold. Don't baby it with takeoffs... get up to speed quickly, then titrate the pedal to maintain or slowly loose speed... if you get too slow, give it a good punch again and quickly get back up to speed an repeat the process.
If you slowly gain speed it is usually less efficient and mileage suffers... the atkinson engine does best when it works and works hard, then let it cruise.

I can do this method at speeds between 60 and 75 and get upper 40's to 50's mpg... its a modified method similiar to what the long distance gurus used at speeds between 30 and 40 to get 110mpg.