Tank Empty - Only 320 miles driven

How much gas did you put in to "fill the tank"

Then you should expect an empty tank after 45 MPG times the number of gallons that you put into the tank

Much too low. The Spec is 35 PSI front and 33 PSI rear

Best MPG is never in EV mode and minimizing regereration

A waste of gasoline and not required - especially in Florida

JeffD

 

agree with above ^^^
is that 39,500, or 395,000 miles?
you put in 10 gallons, then drove 320 miles, then put in 10 more gallons? you need more than one tank fill up to get a correct reading.

did you just buy the car? what is the history?
i don't know for sure, but 26 psi, warming up the ice and trying to stay in ev mode may be your whole problem.

 

Well this is simple.
1) Fill the tank back up and report how many gallons went in
2) Air up the tires to at least 40 psi (42 f/40r preferred)
3) When you're gaining speed, use the power of the ICE to get to that speed quickly then maintain speed
4) Don't warm up the car, just get in and drive
5) Familiarize yourself with the 5 stages of operation (The Five Stages of Prius Hybrid Operation | PriusChat). You want to be in stage 4 asap and to do this, you must come to a complete stop for 7-10 sec's after all conditions are met for stage 4.

I'm betting you burned about 7 or 8 gal's and still have a lot left in the tank.

 

Likely what happened was the initial tank when you purchased wasn't filled all the way. The computer says 48 so you're likely getting the 45 average you want. Some backwards calculating would say you picked up the car with 7 bars of fuel and drove 320 miles to empty.

 

Up north we only get 320 miles in winter, but we should start to improve now.
As above, you need to calc actual MPG if its 50MPG x 8 gal you should get 400 miles, and in summer sometime we get 9+ gallons so can approach 450 miles.

One thing to notice is the the first pip on the gas tank, if you have a really good fill-up on my car the first pip lasts up to 150 miles@50 MPG. Here last week it was gone by 30 miles. Maybe one reason I was idling a bunch in the driveway doing some repairs I had the car on. Warm up sometimes good if HV batt is low but you only need a few minutes for the engine to come on and cut off.

What tires you got on there? 15-inch?

 

That era of Prii generally had fairly accurate MPG displays, and your's is showing a good number. So far, I see no problem here.

For range and fill-up quantity, any distance you drive before your very first fill-up doesn't count, because you don't know how full the tank really was when you bought it. Start tracking after the first time you fill the tank. Make your first hand MPG calculation at the second fill-up.

Beware that your 2007 Prius is a Gen2 model, thus has a bladdered fuel tank. Those are notorious for incomplete fills, producing shorter fuel range than expected. It is just something you have to live with, though some people find tricks to get better fills. This bladder issue does not hurt MPG at all, just tank capacity and range.

As others already mentioned, 26 PSI is too low for the tires, air them up.

And don't try to keep the car in EV, let the car make that choice until you get more experience and a better feel for baseline performance. Only later should you try to game the system for improvements. The car actually does very well on its own. It is very easy to get it wrong and sabotage MPG, but harder to do better than car can when making its own choice.

 

Yeah, but that could mean it was at the bottom of the 10 bars. The gas gage on a Gen II is woefully inaccurate and is commonly referred to as a guess gage.

 

It's doubtful a used car from the dealer comes with a full tank of gas. It's also doubtful that you filled up 10 gallons at E. It's hard to do on a Prius without some white knuckle driving or a lot of topping off. I drove 40 miles after the last bar started blinking and still only managed 9.5 gallons. If your car indicated 49 mpg then something doesn't compute.

Regardless, let's see what happens on your next tank.

 

That is part of 'customer expectation management'. Even after burning off a gallon or two, the gauge still reads 'Full'. So you don't really know if the tank was full, or not, when you picked it up. That is why you mustn't count anything before YOU PERSONALLY fill up the tank for the first time.

As part of this 'expectation management', the top of the fuel gauge is not at the actual top of the tank. Similarly, the bottom of the fuel gauge is not at the actual bottom of the tank.

And don't forget that your model has a flexible and erratic bladder in the tank, which adds yet another monkeywrench into your fuel range expectations. But it doesn't hurt MPG at all, though you may sometimes need to average several consecutive tanks together for calculations because of the erratic fills.

 

I don't remember any Prius having a fuel gauge with E, they have bars instead. How many bars were still displayed? And what was the final trip mile total of that first tank?

The miles / gallons of your next fillup will be more important, and a more meaningful indication of your MPG and fuel range.

 

yayyy!!! your up to 40 mpg!! have you corrected the other stuff?

 

and you're not warming up, or driving ev?