Math guy loves his new Prius.

I just bought the 2010 Prius III, 3 weeks ago. I deliver pizza while I go to school, so the Prius is the perfect car for me. Other than the MPG, the fact that I no longer have to dig around and find my keys was a selling point for me.
I decided to play around with each tank of gas. I just filled up for the 4th time. I drive about 3000 miles per month, so I seem to be filling up on Tuesdays and Saturdays so far.
First tank, drove cautious while still getting used to the car. Computer said 43.9 mpg, but I figured 45.8 on paper. (Heard that most people got lower than the computer so I was feeling pretty good about getting more.)
2nd tank, tried to maximize EV mode, slow starts, slow stops. I think I tried too hard and I still hadn't read anything about maximizing fuel economy. The computer said 43.2, but I got 41.5. (This time it was less.)
3rd tank, I called this my crazy tank. My goal was to get the worst possible mileage I could. PWR mode, quick starts, quick stops, no EV mode, no ECO mode. I really thought I was going to get in the high 20's, but somehow it still managed to work it's way up to 40.8.
4th tank, I forgot I was driving a Prius and stopped looking at the computer. It was in ECO mode the whole time. The computer said 44.5 (which is my current computer best, but I think I'm about to beat it.). On paper, I was 43.2.
I am now almost 300 miles into this tank of gas. I filled up on Saturday and I will likely be filling up tonight. I just found PriusChat a couple of days ago and have been reading the posts. I was at 41.8 on the computer yesterday morning and after seeing some good advice about fuel economy I was able to bump it up to 44.2 by the end of the day. Thanks, seasoned Prius owners! I should be able to beat my last record of 44.5 by the time fill up. As a math student, I love the challenge of working the numbers to get the best results.

My only complaint with the Prius is that the circular buttons on the steering wheel do not really accomplish what is seems that Toyota wanted them too. I already know that I'm hitting the buttons so I don't need to see that information on the screen. I still like my radio set at a volume of say "25" and I still want to skip over to my favorite track which is number say "7". I still need to look down at my stereo to see this information. If Toyota wants us to keep our eyes on the road, it's those tidbits of information that would be valuable on the pop-up screen, not a repeat of the button I already know that I'm pressing. Other than that, the Prius is awesome!

 

Thanks kss...
I started really using that technique yesterday, which I think is why I was able to bump the mpg's up. I'm looking forward to my new tank of gas so I can practice on an entire tank and see how it works.
One thing I have started doing is using the display that shows charge on one side and power on the other side (not sure of the names for these displays off the top of my head). I found that if I start out in the first ECO section and then into the second ECO section to accelerate but back off a little before it gets into power, and then really back off when I get up to speed, sometimes it doesn't take my mpg meter up to the 99.9 level right away, but if I quickly take my foot off the gas and tap it again, it seems make the mpg's fly up to the top. This helps when I accelerate on slower moving roads as well. The mpg meter sits at about the halfway mark until I take my foot off and then tap it. (I don't know if that made sense, but I hope so.) Thanks for the feedback.