city mileage?

It's also the BEST city mileage of ANY car they've tested that's currently available other than PHEVs and EVs. See Best vehicles for city & highway mpg, The most fuel-efficient cars and Best & worst fuel economy.

I'm sure the low number for all cars is due to their very short city test (see last page of http://www.consumersunion.org/Oct_CR_Fuel_Economy.pdf) starting from a cold engine. The EPA tests they're referring to are the old tests (pre-model year 08).

If you want to learn about the EPA tests, see Car and Driver: The Truth About EPA City / Highway MPG Estimates | PriusChat. The shortest EPA cycle starting from a cold engine is 31.2 minutes long.

 

It very much depends on the exact layout of your city driving. Mine can range from mid 40's to "99.9" indicated depending on where I'm going in the city.

The worst would be constant and close red lights timed to catch you at every one, with a high speed limit between them. The regen helps, but only so far before you simply have to use the gas engine to recharge the battery, assuming you're driving slow enough to be in EV mode.

 

I honestly get better mileage in city driving than highway driving. It's one of the reasons why I love this car, since I sit in traffic to get to work and to get home.

 

Nooooo!! Anytime you mention that CR review you risk starting yet another 10 page thread debating its merits, and the merits of CR as a whole. I can't live through another one!

As you should. The car is rated 53 in the city, 46 on the highway. The Prius tends to get better mileage in the city because some of your driving uses no gas at all.

Nearly all of my driving is in the city, and I typically get low to mid 50s. As long as you're driving more than two miles at a time (my commute is 3.4), you should be fine. Check out Fuelly.com for examples of real-world mileage.

 

I'm getting 62-68 on trips over 12 miles. It is quite amazing!

 

Yesterday, I had my first 7.1 mile trip entirely at 99.9 MPG (and speeds up to 45 MPH) ... think I'm getting the hang of this hypermiling thing. At the worst of times (heavy traffic, lots of red lights) I'm still managing 52-54 MPG.

 

Consumer Reports is lieing.... I had an issue early on and I do way more hwy driving which is why my overall is only around 43 - but it is climbing. Typically city streets only - no highway I am now getting upper 50's and lower 60's - no joke. If you test drive one it will be lower because it will probably need to use extra gas to charge the battery after its been sitting a long time, tires not broken in, engine not broken in, etc.

 

Why do you say they're "lieing"?

They describe their test at a high level on the last page of http://www.consumersunion.org/Oct_CR_Fuel_Economy.pdf, which is a pretty short city test. All non-EVs and non-PHEVs don't do well on that test, no doubt because of it being so short and the engine being in warmup mode for much of it.

I'm pretty confident that if one tried to follow that cycle (from a cold engine, of course) and one made NO effort to hypermile, drive for better mileage in any way, and ran on door placard tire pressures that one should get a similar number.

 

Its a lie because they used an inaccurate testing method and published their numbers without questioning the results. The EPA for city is 53 - CR knew that when they tested the car but failed to investigate or justify the huge variance. This is sloppy journalism on their part (which has unfortunately become the norm these days and the reason why I no longer have television) - likely to promote vehicle manufacturers who advertise with them. You do not have to "hypermile" to get to the upper 40's and low 50's in city MPG, hympermiling will return city results closer to upper 70 mpg.

It is a blatent misrepresentation - and every female I have ever dated has told me at some point that a misrepresentation is the same as a lie.

 

How is it inaccurate? They actually use a fuel meter spliced into the fuel lines and drive on a real road. You may not like the cycle they use (very short) or that they don't attempt to drive any cars differently than others or for better mileage.

The EPA tests are on on a dyno and don't even measure actual fuel usage. They also use a special blend of gasoline. Please read Car and Driver: The Truth About EPA City / Highway MPG Estimates | PriusChat to learn more about the EPA test.

CR has discussed their tests vs. the (old) EPA tests in the PDF I cited. They've also discussed their tests vs. the new EPA tests in places like New EPA mileage figures. More info on their tests at places like How we test.

Notice how well the Prius c does at The most fuel-efficient cars and Best vehicles for city & highway mpg ?

 

Look dude - I know how the EPA test cycle works - I know how the EPA numbers are obtained, I read the article, I know how they came up with their 37MPG...

Tell you what - find me 10 Prius C drivers that claim to get 37MPG city and I will give the article a little credibility..... Its a misrepresentation of the true MPG that this car achieves in the real world - that's all I am saying.

Anyone who trusts the garbage that CR puts out is a fool anyway, their information is biased and has been known to be outright inaccurate for years.

 

There probably are >10 of them, but probably not here on Priuschat. If they have short city drives w/lots of stopping and less than <16 minutes in total and make no effort to drive for FE, I don't think 37 mpg is out of the realm of possibility.

It's just like the figures for my gen (ConsumerReports.org - Most fuel-efficient cars). 35 mpg on Gen 2 w/purely short city drives, door placard pressures and again, no effort to drive for FE isn't impossible. When I lived in WA state and had very short drives w/cold weather, in a hilly area (enough that the my ICE turns on when going down a hill due to HV battery getting too full), even w/grille blocking, the aid of my ScanGauge (so I don't unnecessarily have the ICE run to provide cabin heat) and the techniques I know, I'd be lucky to break 40 mpg on a tank.

 

Love this car!

 

Because NOBODY only gets 37 mpg in the city, or even close to that, unless their car is broken. And don't give me the rigamorale about their testing procedures- they're giving out incorrect information. Period. Hence the thread.

 

Nobody? CR did.

See what you quoted again. Better yet, try to replicate their test result when temps are cooler than they are now. Takes longer for the ICE to warm up == more fuel consumption for their short test duration. Better yet, do it in the dead of winter in an area where there's snow on the ground.

I'll bet you some donuts that in the winter, someone w/short city drives w/lots of stop and go, esp stopping, in a very cold area will complain here on Priuschat about their Prius c getting in the 30s for mpg.

The thing is about standardized tests like the EPA's test and somewhat less controlled like CR's (since they don't use a dyno) is that at least all cars are driven the same way and subjected to the same conditions. Even if the numbers high/low, at least all of them have the same... err... bias and can be used to compare one car vs. another, since the test is the same.

 

Today, for the first time in the barely-over-a-month since I purchased my PC2, it was chill outside. 70 degrees as opposed to 104 to 112, and raining. I expected my daily drive to the post office would result in the worst "cost" for the drive since I bought the vehicle. Typically, it costs me 46 to 60 cents to drive to the post office. To my co-worker, I predicted a cost of 75 cents. I was stunned when, arriving at the post office and turning off the car, the display told me it had only cost 38 cents! I realize this is not the kind of cold weather y'all are referring to, but I was, nonetheless, pleasantly surprised.

 

While it's true - at least I believe it to be so - that the VAST majority of people that keep track of MPG on sites such as Fuelly are those who are extremely interested in achieving "max" MPG, I find it quite interesting that, out of approx. 245 Prius Cs currently listed at the Fuelly site, I could find only ONE that comes in below the CR ratings indicated in the short article of approx. 40mpg combined. That ONE has a total / lifetime MPG of 38.7. I could find NO others that were below 40 mpg. Out of the 245-or-so Cs listed, the SIGNIFICANT majority - perhaps 65% - have total / lifetime MPGs of 50-or-MORE; a full 25%-or-MORE above the CR test results. Sheeesh ... talk about "your mileage may vary"!

Toyota Prius C MPG Reports | Fuelly

I won't suggest here that CR is "lying", but their "test results" absolutely ARE misleading - ESPECIALLY to those readers of the article who might be considering a C and are too lazy to do minimal research! - and are NOT very "representative" at all of "real world results" for this particular vehicle. Lastly, I agree with others above: I believe they ARE displaying bias of some sort ... and what I'd give to know their reasoning for that!

 

Nonsense.

It is just a demanding test cycle. You might argue that the test is not a reasonable representation of your driving but that hardly matters. Use the test as it should be used, for comparison to other cars. It is silly to get your panties all twisted up over a number.