New to the board with a 2005

Congrats.

There were some enhancements with the 2006 model year, but I'm not sure there was anything substantial. I know the display graphics were improved. There is also an opinion that battery age matters more than mileage, so that camp would say that the newer model would have been better, but I'm not sure there's concrete evidence of that. Certainly, the rest of the car (ICE, CVT, interior, suspension, etc.) is better with lower miles so I would have done as you did - bought the older with fewer miles.

Was the repair in question done at a Toyota dealer? If so, registering it at toyota.com/owners would show you the specifics of the repair.

Our initial MPG was mid 30s as well. Check your tire pressures and watch your driving habits. The general consensus is that tire pressures in front should be 2 PSI more than the rear, though I'm not sure why. Go higher than what Toyota recommends, but not higher than the max on the side of the tire. Ride will suffer a bit, but MPG will go up. Our tires allow 52 PSI, I'm running 45/43.

If you're interested maximizing your MPG, there are hypermiling techniques here on the site. Just having the MPG on screen in front of you will change how you drive and it will go up. We're averaging around 40 MPG now and I expect it'll go up a bit in the summer.

 

did you reset the mpg meter?

 

A bad 12V battery, one which has a shorted cell and can never get up to charge, will force the ICE to run too much and also reduce MPG, so it is necessary to check it. If you can't get up into the 40's easily, check out the Fuel Economy forum and post the questionnaire there to get more advice.

 

Your MPG also depends on how cold it is, how windy it is, and how far and fast you drive for a single trip. While 37 mpg is a little low, it's not outrageously low. You'd do well to amputate that lead foot before the gangrene travels up your leg.

 

Probably the transmission input damper assembly. This spring-loaded assembly dampens the shock of engine power pulses to the transaxle.

Clear the MFD mpg memory, then try taking an extended freeway trip on level terrain and see what mpg you log per the MFD. It should be in at least the mid-40s unless you are dealing with very cold winter weather and are running the heater at MAX HEAT. Turn off the AC compressor after you have cleared the windshield via the defrosting function.

This assumes that you are using regular unleaded fuel, 87 octane. To the extent that you have ethanol content in the fuel, the higher the % of ethanol, the lower your mpg will be since ethanol produces lower energy content.

The reason why is that Toyota recommended that the front should be 2 psi higher than the rear, at 35/33 psi. The front axle carries more weight than the rear axle. I usually use 44/42 psi to promote even tread wear and incidentally, slightly improve mpg.

 

Try grill blocking, read about it in "Accessories and Modifications" .

 

Welcome! I'm also pretty new here and I'm the owner of a 2004 with about 20.5k miles (33k kilometres) on the clock, also in pretty pristine condition.

Experienced absolutely nothing wrong with mine as yet (except the parking brake doesn't hold the car) so I hope you have the same experience!

 

In the forward or the reverse direction? My park brake holds really well in the forward direction. But yeah, I've really got to stomp on it to get it to hold well in the reverse direction.

 

That's the nature of drum brakes, they work really well on one direction adn not so well in the other.

 

Now you mention it I'm not sure. When I first noticed, I was in Drive, and when I tested it in Neutral I can't remember whether I was on a slope forwards or backwards. I'll have to test it again.

Definitely though when I'm on a backwards slope and I put the parking brake on and the car into Park, as soon as I take my foot off the brake there's a huge lurch back, which feels to me like the car rolls until it is impeded by the transmission lock in Park. Not sure if this is worth getting checked out or if it can wait until the next service.

 

I think that is typical, not a real problem. You do need to press quite firmly on the parking brake. I would put on the parking brake, let the car settle back in Neutral, and then engage the P button.

 

Yeah the brakes on the Australian Prius are a little bit different to the US model. Mine work fairly well in the forward direction but hold noticeably less well against rolling backward. Remember it's a foot pedal so you can stomp quite a bit of force on it if need be. Also be aware that some park brakes do allow a very small amount of roll while they take up the pressure.

What I generally do is to stop and first place the car into "N" (you have to hold the shift lever for a second or two to make it accept "N"). I then firmly apply the park brake, then gently release pressure on the regular foot brake until I feel whether or not the park brake is holding. As mentioned above, sometimes it does allow a very small amount of movement before it holds. Only after I know that it's holding on the brake do I place it in park (using either the P button or just switching off the power, it automatically applies the parking mechanism when you turn off).

Doing it this way makes sure that it's holding on the actual park brake, and not the transmission. When you're ready to go it's the reverse procedure. Hold regular brake firmly, then shift to out of P (eg to "D" or "R"), then release the park brake.

 

Its amazing what low tire pressure does to mpg's.

 

You should really read this to get more acquainted with how your Prius works. It starts off slow but can really help you maximize fuel economy.