New Prius Owner

Congrats on your new Prius! I'm still waiting....

Where do you live? I think that's going to be one of the questions someone is going to ask. Also, how long are your trips so far on average? Short trips and cold weather can decrease overall milage.

I imagine there's a "break-in" curve as well from what I've read here.

Andy

 

Congrats!

There's a lot of factors affecting your MPG. Tire inflation, temperature, winter vs summer gas, type of roads, length of trips and even amount of oil all contribute. There is a "break in" period and part of that is the driver learning how to drive the Prius.

 

Yes there is a break in period, not for the car but the driver!

There is a lot of good information here on this subject and some good graphs that show the difference in summer and winter effects.

If the search function is working again try mileage and you will get more info than you want.

 

Dave ~
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but after driving my new Prius around 1755 miles I'm rarely able to improve on 38 mpg for any sustained period. I assume from the reports of others that higher efficiencies are accounted for by a difference in the particular Prius you wind up with rather than any major adjustments or break ins. You may, however, learn from the onboard computer readouts how to maximize mpg in terms of your driving, but I wouldn't encourage you to expect a significant improvement. I take solace in the fact that 38 mpg puts Prius in the highest efficiency ranking of current automobiles. Not enough--but not terrible, either. Congrats on your purchase.

 

also depends on your commute. lots of stop and go, and lots of very short trips will be bad for mpg.

my first tank was 35 mpg 10 months ago, now i get between 48-54 depending on the season and what i'm up to.

set your tire pressure to 42 front/40 rear, easy on the gas pedal to accelerate, lift off the gas pedal when you reach speed and lightly touch it to maintain speed. this isn't your average car and there is a learning curve you'll go through.

check out this article by one of our MPG maniacs (evan, if you're reading this, you know that's a compliment) http://priuschat.com/forums/kb.php?mode=article&k=23

 

I think the Prius will goive just about 38 mpg in any driving condition. To get that low a number (not that it's abnormal) you need either really short trips (say 5-10 minutes) from cold starts, or sprint between red lights and brake hard enough so that the mechanical brakes are used (i.e no regen)

I'm not sure what your drivings condition are but if you are willing to test then for the next tank try driving the speed limit, use the cruise control in the beginning) and on top of that try to drive as if your brakes didn't work.

I play a game where everytime I have to use the brakes I've made a mistake IF I could have predicted it. The game is to use the brakes fewer and fewer times each commute. Doing this really improves mpg and only adds minutes to my commute (I do habe a 2nd rule that if someone honk me becuase I drive/accelerate to slow I get -5 points, this rarley happens). Doing these changes I went from 38 mpg to 54 mpg on my Prius test drive. Doing the same in my current car I've changed my time between fill-ups from 5 days to 7 or 8. So driving techniques can really improve your mpg.

That said for me it's a game and the difference betwenn 38 and a more nomal 48 might not be worth the slowdown for you. The Prius will have better gas milage then any other car on the road if you drive them the same way. So your 38 mpg should probably be compared to 18-20 in a normal car.

 

Welcome. I would check your oil level. Many of us had cars delivered with the oil over filled. Some have suggested this is how they are filled at the factory for the trip over here. Winter gas and cold temperatures will cause a major hit. You will do better. Driving differently is part of it. Remember EPA ratings do not reflect the real world. Keep track of your milage.

 

I bought my Prius in late October of 2005 and started off with about 40 mpg gas mileage. After lot's of reading of driving techniques offered here and about 2000 miles of driving experience my tank average has climbed to just over 50 mpg. The two key things that you need to be concious of to get mileage that approaches the EPA rated mileage is to do your best to never let you mpg dip below 10 mpg during and taking as much opportunity as you can to get 99.9 mpg to show on our display whenever you are at your desired speed.

So far my rule of thumb is that if I accelerate from a stop and I see my mpg stay in the single digits for more than 2 seconds than most likely I'm going to be averaging in the low to mid 40's. However, if I can manage to avoid the single digit mpg from appearing than I'm on my way to exceeding 50 mpg. A brief moment of single digit mpg rapidly deteriorates your average mileage. In contrast a brief moment of plus 100 mpg doesn't make that much impact. To have any hope of getting towards 50 mpg you need to either limit your driving to just the highway at driving at the speed limit, or you need to demonstrate being able to get your Prius to cruise substantial distances with 99.9 mpg on your display.

The most critical part of the drive that will effect your mileage are the first 5 to 10 minutes. In that very first minute it can be difficult to avoid going into single digit mpg. I usually do a light pulsing of the accelerator to get the car moving around 20 mph and then coast a bit then repeat. I can usually get my Prius to settle around the mid 20 mpg area. If you can achieve this, then you're on track to getting good mileage. Within this most critical part of the drive the one area that is very important is figuring out ways to minimize your gas engine idling while stopped. If you are stopped at a traffic light and you hear your gas engine running, you are wasting gas going nowhere. When you're burning gas and not moving you are at your worst possible gas mileage. If your stopped and your gas engine is stopped this is good.

If you have the courage you can get an EV switch installed that can help you avoid this worst case situation of idling for a long time while standing still. I just installed one and it's use has definitely helped my mileage.