Why do I only 400 miles per tank?

slow down and you will get better than 40 mpg which will increase your cruising range.

 

How many gallons did you put in? How many miles did you travel?

What did the MFD indicate for mileage (assuming you reset it at the beginning of the tank)?

 

How much gas did you put into it, in gallons, liters, barrells, whatever your measure. Did you fill the tank, or just partially fill the tank?

Check the tire pressure. Tire pressure goes a long way to gas mileage.

Don't carry a lot of useless stuff in the car. More weight means lower mileage.

Jackrabbit starts cut fuel mileage. Accelerate smoothly and slowly from a stop.

At speeds over 65 mph, today's cars suck down a lot more fuel.

Drive as if you didn't have brakes. Anticipate stops. It uses less fuel.

And slow down. If you drive 10 miles over the limit, you don't reach your destination any sooner. If you are on a 10 mile trip, it would take 20 min at 30 mph. at 40 mph it would only take 15 min, if you could maintain that speed for the whole trip. Is it worth it to save 5 min, to risk an expensive speeding ticket?

These are just my general tips on how to get better mileage out of ANY car.

 

check the earl level.

 

What type of driving are you doing?? How much fuel did you put in vehicle? Are your tire pressures correct? Are you towing with your vehicle?
Is your call loaded with stuff?

 

You might have a mildly contracted bladder.

Mike with a Prius: Prius gas bladder

 

If it blinks at 400 miles and you filled up 10 gallons, you have problem.
If it blinks at 400 miles and you filled 7.9 gallons, no problem!

Mine usually blinks at ~450 miles but I only fill up to 8.5-9 gallons.

 

To sum it up, you have a bladder type tank which doesn't allow you to fill past about 9 gallons. Some have more capacity some have less. I never get more than 8 ga in during a fill so 400 miles till the blinking lights is good for me.

 

What psi are your tires inflated at? Inflate them to 44 front 42 rear and watch the efficiency bump up. Even then, getting mpg better than 48 requires deep understanding of how to drive one of these. Once you figure it out, you will be ably to get 55+ mpg

 

So, you got 40 mpg. What mileage are you expecting and why?

Since we know nothing about your tires (make, model and size), your drives, trip lengths, etc. it would help to answer http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...-answer-these-questions-esp-if-youre-new.html.

 

What psi are your tires inflated at? Inflate them to 44 front 42 rear and watch the efficiency bump up. Even then, getting mpg better than 48 requires deep understanding of how to drive one of these. Once you figure it out, you will be able to get 55+ mpg.

 

The maximum I get is 400 miles per tank, generally 350 miles. I pump when it shows two pips. This is with more than 50MPG in summer.

 

Same here although I think I am going to start going to a single pip. My commute has changed to 94miles/day. I hate fuel up and wish I had the tank capacity of the GenIII. I would only have to refuel once a week then!

 

i had 2 pips from 400-500 miles. now i hve one, but, at 60mpg, i'll be good for another hundred miles.

 

might need a new 12v.

 

Given that the OP has only filled up once (and hasn't yet told us anything about his route or driving style) I think we should wait until he's got some more data before we start looking for problems with the car.

There's still lots of potential uncertainty in that 40 MPG figure.

 

Regardless of the # of miles in my trip, I always try to be consistent and fill up in the last pip. I find that when I deviate from my routine and fill up midway through my tank it throws everything off on my "miles per pip". I like consistency.

 

In my GIII Prius small-v (with the ATP), I picked it up with a couple hundred miles in Orem on Tuesday, drove it to Las Vegas on just about a tank of gas (wavering between enough miles left and barely enough miles left), and got around 44 or so according to the computer. Parts of I-15 are 80mph and doing that is ... well ... so the RADAR cruise was set to 85, shall we say? This was with hills and partially destroying the sacrificial plastic below the front wing on a suddenly-appearing gatorback (or what some might call a blown tire tread, which some other idiot drove over and tossed into my path). I then re-set the trip computer, finished the last 20 or so miles into Vegas, spent the night and drove home to the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Some up-hills, a few more down-hills and at the next fill-up (it's so amazing trying to get more than 9 gallons in the tank!) I was pushing 49mpg. I've done some more mixed driving and I'm staying just under 49. Unfortunately, here in the Desert Southwest, we have to do a lot of A/C so that's always running. We also have a lot of long, straight highways, which can eat into the expected MPGs, especially on windy days, and I'm sorry but I so love the RADAR cruise I use it way too much. I have a feeling that with more experience and more judicious use of the cruise control, I'll be pulling mid-50's in no time.

So to have someone say they're getting 40mpg on a new Prius makes me think either there's some small problem on the car or they're also still getting used to the slightly different driving style needed for those really high numbers. 'Course, I'm a newbie here so what the heck do I know?