Three Issues : Quirks or Problems?

I've had 3 other cars, an 04 Gen2 Prius, an 07 Scion tC, and an 03 Infiniti G35 sedan; in respective chronological order. Of those 3 different models, the Priuses have the least decisive fuel gauge (or "gage" if you're GM ). On a full tank, it goes down to 9 at +/- 50mi, back up to 10 at 65ish mi, down to 9 at 75ish mi, back up to 10 at 90mi, down to 9 again at 105ish, is down to 5 by about 190mi, and at 1 or flashing by 400 or before. I had a terrible experience with my gen2 and customer service from GST and the two closest dealers to me in the Houston area, so I decided to wait around and see if they could figure out their own technology in 5 years' time (That was always their excuse, "the technology is so new, so we only have one Prius tech that comes in for 15 hours a week, so bear with us til the 12th of never for your appointment."). Houston is relatively flat, not in the Hill Country, but not Lubbock either. And my point really with the fuel economy and MPT was that even though I could average 48mpg over the supposed 10 gallons of fuel in the tank, it would read as empty by 400 miles. What happened to the other 80 or so miles?

 

HAHA! I couldn't bring myself to work for GM. Cars (namely their 4-cyls) should not go "sdkbhjkshhkjsdhg" and make a terrible-sounding noise when you turn the key. I had a tC, and yes it does have more power than the Prius, but I also had a G35 and neither of them would completely alter the set CC speed. If I had it set at 65 and went up a hill, the car would catch up and go back to 65, or if I went downhill, it would coast and go back to 65, not 67 or 63 or 60. I have driven many makes on long journeys and never have I experienced that before, even in my 04 gen2.

 

The reference point for me is about 25 miles to empty. So hypothetically if the DTE was actually accurate, I should only get 425ish miles to a tank regardless of whether the computer says I have gotten an average of 43mpg or 48mpg or 53 mpg. As I've stated in my other replies, I've had an 04 Prius, 07 Scion tC, 03 G35 sedan, as well as an 06 S2000, 03 Chev Suburban, 96 T100, 08 Mistu Lancer, and a 97 Jaguar XJR, none of which I have had this issue with. I drive this '10 Prius virtually the same I drove my 04, and pretty consistently each time I go anywhere. Yes, by definition hwy MPG will be better than start/stop, but if you always do a relatively even amount of both each time, it should more or less even out over the duration of each tank of gas, correct? Bottom line: 10 gallons x 48 mpg doesn't equal 10 gallons x 43mpg unless you're my Prius

 

It's not the fact that it goes down as it catches up when I hit a hill, it's that it doesn't go back to where I set it after the hill

 

I actually just drove a rather spirited 40 mile trip on Interstate 45 (traffic was not full of your average Sunday drivers for whatever reason, so I had to keep up), trip average was 78 or so mph, and the mpg according to the computer went from 44.3 to 45.2. Odd?

 

Joe Myers Toyota (Houston) has run "tests" and basically told me to leave them alone and it's all in my head. Fred Haas told me the same about my battery in my 04 Driftwood Pearl pkg 6. At that point, even Toyota had no idea what they were doing so I ditched the Prius for a while, hoping they'd figure it all out in the meantime! I installed a K&N air filter and my mileage has increased between 2-6 mpg. Well worth the ~$50. Unfortunately, it's special order only.

 

Well I know that when you're set at say 60 and you hit a hill you're going to go down 1-3mph while the car catches up, and it'll go up 1-3 mph as you go back down the hill and it coasts, but it's as if it has a slight case of intermittent Alzheimer's and can't remember exactly what speed I set it at. It'll go to say 61 or 59. This is never consistent, and some times it takes a minute or so to go back to where I set it, this would be consistent with the ECO mode, but when it doesn't go back at all is when I think there's something up.