5 stages of grief for below avg MPG

At first I was in denial and blamed my poor mpg (around 44mpg) on my beginner status as a prius owner.

Next after a few weeks of driving I was angry at Toyota for advertising 50mpg when I wasn't able to achieve it.

Then I tried to fix my poor mpg with tricks and tips. P&G. Driving slower, and not hitting the power section. I kept thinking eventually I'll pass the magical "break in period" and then it will do better.

After consulting this forum and still not being able to achieve 50mpg (when so many here claim they easily achieve it) I was depressed about my under-performing prius.

Now I think I have finally come to the acceptance stage. I know some on this forum will say "you're driving it wrong" or "it's because of your location". But I have driven it across california, and with nice sunny weather in a variety of styles and the best tank I can get is 48 (with hyper-miling). Well whatever, good enough. I have now turned off my bar and MPG tracker and just drive. I would suggest others who are having the same issue try it, it is still a great car and I am happier for it.

Don't feel too bad. 44 is what Consumer Reports got as well, and it's still probably double what a standard car on your commute would do.

But on a longer drive, assuming you keep it below 70 mph, you should get better than 48 mpg. Short commutes and under-inflated tires are the real mpg killers, IMO (other than cold weather, which you don't see). Your solution works though, over-distracting yourself with hypermiling techniques is probably not worth it.

Noticed you are in California, like I am. On any given day, I'm on the freeway then on surface streets, traffic, stop & go, up and down fairly steep hills, etc. My gas mileage averages between 38-44 mpg.

So I feel your frustration and think the lower than expected gas mileage is due to varied/hilly terrain and lack of long trips where the averages could go up. Love the car though and the mileage is **superior** to my previous SAAB (25 mpg) and our current minivan (18 mpg).

Keep in mind that even at 44mpg, you are still one of the "mpg elite".

Hang in there. I empathize.

I bought our 2nd Prius in July and the week after went from San Diego to Napa Valley averaging 50 MPG up and 55 MPG back home (before break-in period). So, for the first 3 months, I was hovering around 50 MPG on my short commutes to work during the week. On the weekend I would try to go on a extended trip to get MPG up to +51. These are per tank MPG averages.

Since late Fall, the weather in San Diego seems to be a bit crisper and certainly more rainy than most years over the last 10 years. I had the first 5K oil change, topped off my tires around 48-50 PSI, and have tried different commuting routes to and from work. In the end, over the last 4 months I've struggle to eek out 47 MPG and everything I try cannot get me over 48 MPG for any length of time.

Nonetheless, I now look forward to spring / summer when the early morning temperatures will go from high 50's to low 70s and the summer blend gas comes back !

As well, summer is the time for longer weekend get away drives and I know my 50 MPGs will return if I am worthy and remain faithful . . .

Do we know what is the avg MPG? I doubt the 51 city/50 highway is the average. I wonder if people on the fuel economy section of prius chat is your typical drivers. We need a poll with identification of MPG along with the region, driving mode, tire pressure, any hypermiler technique deployed to really understand the true medium averages.

I guess I should be pleased with what I've gotten then: my best was 56 mpg during the fall with a low of 45 mpg in January.

Also, I've noticed that the actual mpg is significantly lower than the car calculates; for the first 9 tanks the car's mpg estimate is 3.6 mpg too high. (My mpg's above are actual, not car estimates.)

Greg

I just drove a round trip from Long Island to Queens, NY and back. On the westbound trip, I had one passenger. Drove very gently at the speed between 60-65. The temperature was about 45. I got 60.7 mpg reading.

On the way back, I drove alone, 5 miles faster, 5 degrees cooler, and stopped for about an hour on the halfway. The mpg for the 100+ miles round trip was 58.5.

I got almost 15K on my odometer, well broken in. There was a learning curve. It took me a while to pick up the gas saving driving skill. The "Eco" bar helps a lot.

The tire pressures are just factory setting. I do not try to play with it since we are suffering a terrible winter here. I need all the traction I can get to drive on ice and snow.

Good luck and have fun!

Part of the problem is that CA gas has lower energy content compared to the rest of the country. When you have a chance to take a roadtrip to AZ or NV, see whether your mpg improves.

With my 2004, mpg was typically in the low-40s when we lived in south Orange County. I blamed that on living at 1,100 ft elevation and commuting to sea level daily.

Then we moved to southern AZ last summer (2,800 ft elevation) and the mpg improved to mid-40s.

Recently I bought new Bridgestone Ecopia tires and changed the iridium spark plugs, and the mpg improved to the low-50s.

One day you may find that your mpg will just improve on its own as your tires and engine break-in, you never know. In the meantime, you've got a healthy attitude about it, and 44-48 mpg is quite good in the CA environment.

To be honest with my 2010 it never got better after the car was broken in. But my life time average is 52mpg, so it can be done without to much trouble. I get the best mpg going 65 on the interstate. I have got a 42 on tank in the big snow storm we got, and a few others in the mid to high 40's. My current tank is long trips and the MFD says 57.1 so after i fill up i may get 54 or so real numbers.

MPG vary for me based on the terrain/temp/avg. speed. I get about 51mpg when driving below 70mph on level flat hwy. But if i do 80-85mph on hilly hwy, i get only about 46mpg. I tried to keep an eye on MPG meter and HSI to pulse and maintain speed. I can't do much or any P&G at 65+ mph. It also seems i gained some mpg after my 5k miles mark but that maybe a fluke or my driving has improved even though I still drive normal passing cars and keeping up with the traffic. And my tire pressure is 40/38 and I drive only with Pwr mode on. Just keep trying and experimenting.

I bought my car last September 2009. Today I hit 2000 miles.
But I cannot get the advertised mpg as well.
Probably because of my daily commute, which is just local streets,
and stop and go pattern in silicon valley santa clara areas.
So, I get like 44.6 usually, even I drive in ECO mode, and rarely speeding.

But once I drove from SJ to SF and back, and the highest I got was 54.6.

Our Prius is a fair weather car. Even on a bright sunny day if a lone cloud covers the sun I see a drop of 5 MPG.

OK, not really but... cold weather,wet roads all take a heavier toll on MPG, more than any other car I have owned in 44 years.

I am talking percentages so I am comparing apples to apples.

alfon

I consistently average 42-44MPG, mostly 42. My commute is about 12 miles, so the first 3rd (1st 5 minutes) is usually around 25MPG with occasional forays into 35MPG territory. That's 1 mile at 40 MPH, 8 miles on CC at 67 MPH, and 3 miles at 53 MPH. That's with 22K on the car w/16" wheels.

Otherwise, I can easily get into the 50's & 60's or more on suburban sidestreet junkets or rush hour slow & go. Driving from SEA to SAN netted me 53.5 MPG. So, I can obviously top 44 MPG with longer trips. Not bad for a touring model in SoCal.

Driving in NYC for the last 4 months...Giving my experience...Plus's and minus's ...PLus's.. During long driving trips 30 miles + with no traffic on highway avg is 47/48 mpg....During long driving trips hitting some common bumper to bumper traffic my 2010 Prius exceeds 51 mpg as long as you hit your accelerator lightly and don't use the power(Which of course is not needed in bumper to bumper traffic). Now the Minus's...Driving this car in common red light traffic in an every few minutes interval gets you 30-32 mpg in typical neighborhood city traffic...I know, I know, let the car pickup speed gradually, so that you don't use much power...I do much of this..But the car's climb to adequate moving speed, takes way to long(I don't step on it..as if I'm in a race either )..A person from a car behind me ..can literally get out of his car, run to my driver window and shoot me in the head for driving like a senile old man. It is the winter time and as for what I read on this forum, it can reduce the mpg...which is ridiculous the Mpg on the sticker says 51 city/47 highway it doesn't say in the summer time! Today my car's avg is 35.6 for the last thousand miles or so(I reset my total avg , by accident, learning the buttons).Does Toyota give gas refunds for a REAL CITY MPG ? !

You should try accelerating more rapidly (that is, normally). Prius can readily beat its city mpg, even in winter, if not short cold-start trips and able to conserve momentum.

To conserve momentum in lights, one needs to accelerate to a lesser speed, then glide (enough throttle to remove regen on the HSI). Read Hobbit's 'the Tao of HSI' here: HSI

What is your PSI? Have you blocked the lower grill?

I'll grant you have a few million more cars to compete with than me, in a city not renown for its patient drivers. But you can do much better without getting shot in the head. And spring is coming.

good luck!

My personal observation is that the lower btu of winter blend gasoline and colder temperature is the reason we all see lower mpg in the winter. That being said I still have a lifetime reading on our prius of 54.9 since last July when we first got our new V. It is still better than the 2005(genII) we had before for overall average mpg. We live up a quarter mile hill so we don't take it out when it snows as we have a all wheel drive suv we use when the weather is bad. I have noticed how low some seem to report there mpg and wonder why ours is different. The only thing I can think of is we use straight regular(87) octane with no ethanol in our prius. On the other hand we have the 17" wheels which do reduce your mpg 2-3 from the 15" wheels. I'm looking forward to warmer weather so we can get back over 55mpg per tank.

Most of the high mileage reports are from the Midwest or colder climates, where air is colder and terrain is flatter. Colder air improves mileage according to my mechanic, but he also suggested resetting the computer during routine maintenance which shows an improvement from 3-7 mpg. I average 45 mpg and try to drive it right here in CA, but I have no idea how people get 52-62 mpg out of their cars.

If you want to get the higher mileage, this is a good place to start learning. If you want help, reply with some details on your driving, tire pressure, etc.

If you drive mostly highway, then go slower.

If you drive mostly city, perfect your pulse & glide technique and learn to conserve momentum by driving as if you have no brakes.

If you have very short drives on cold engine, your mpg is pretty good already.

Colder air hurts mpg. Ask your mechanic for data to support his contrary claim. Colder air helps power (once engine warm), not mpg.

No disprespect to you or your Prious, but don't you really miss your SAAB ? I sure miss mine My old SAAB was one of my favorite all time cars. Got a good ten years out of then the exhaust system fell of in front of a Toyota Dealer ( Boch in Norwood, Ma) and bought an Avalon off the lot with a credit card and drove it home that same day. I went from a great car to a good car, interesting and fun to a vanilla car, win some lose some. Best of Luck!