Weather permitting througout the month of February I quit using my Auto A/C. That combine with more moderate tempertures led to a pretty dramtic improvement in my fuel efficiency. My LMPG as of Feb. 1st was 44.2 My LMPG at the end of Feb. was 44.8 But, my Feb. MPG was 48.2 !! A full 4 MPG improvement over my previous lifetime numbers and 3 MPG better than my previous best month. And that was with some pretty dang cold driving days and a lot of short wasteful commutes. At this point I'm going to be really disappointed in any tank that comes in at less than 50MPG (my last 2 have been at or over that). I'm very pleased, as you can probably tell.
You'll probably continued to be pleased because of the the continued temperature rise up to summer. Plus you'll also have the car more completely settled in, which I've heard from Wayne, John, and others yields a bit greater fuel efficiency. I'm still on my second tank of gas, and am averaging 54.5 MPG over 424 miles on this tank. The previous tank was 48.5 over 509 miles, according to the Prius. I'm estimating the average ambient temperature difference between these two tanks to be 10 - 15 degrees F. I can expect temps to rise another 20 - 30 degrees by summer, so I'm expecting at least a 5 MPG increase if this trend holds true. The only thing getting in the way of this would be the use of the A/C.
