New Prius C owner, need help calculating mileage

When it says 0 miles, that's accurate, no matter how many miles are on the car. Only the initial fill up mileage is suspect. You give us no information about mileage so I'm going to tell you to fill up before.

 

Without knowing any other information, you could probably make it, but I wouldn't risk it. Just add a gallon. Running out of gas in the c is worse than in non-hybrids.

 

It sounds like you'd be running on fumes, if you make that trip.
Not to ruin your awesome "I just got my car" vibe, but you may want to look at this:

Ran out of fuel AND battery!! | PriusChat

Don't chance it. The last bar will flash and it'll feel like you're starving your brand new baby until you refuel, even if it's just a gallon.

Enjoy!

 

When I responded I hadn't hit refresh, so I only saw the initial post and not your second post.

 

Real-world fix? Put in 2 gallons before your trip.

Then go back to your dealership and get filled up. Start your mileage watching from that point.

But you still can't be sure where the fill-up stopped, so your first REAL mpg check will be after YOUR first fill-up that you stop filling at the first click. Repeat. Check your mileage.

The first tank will enable you to feel out your new car and how to drive it. Then you'll be ready to start checking mpgs for real.

 

This^^ exactly. The stealership will probably only put in 8 gallons and call it full. The gauge will show full but will drop to the next bar super quick.

 

You can put more in, but it's recommended you don't. But for future posterity, the tank will hold ~ another gallon of gas after the first click.

The fuel clicks are almost 1 gallon each, but not quite. The PC has a 9.5 gallon tank and 10 clicks.

 

You will get much much better MPGs in the summer... especially if you are using the words blizzard. Click on my fuelly signature and you can see the fill ups in accordance to weather (at least here in Ga).

 

I just got a C4 too. Here is what I learn. Hope it will help you to increase mpg.
1. For the 1st 5-10 miles. I got only 25 mpg due to gas engine is on all the time to heat up the car. Nothing much you can do about it.
2. To increase gas milage, use ECO mode most of the time. In this mode, you will lack of power, but most of the time, you don't need power. Except for steep hills or entering highway, I find ECO mode will handle everything fine. So turn off ECO mode when you are in this situation. Doing this will bring you up to avarage about 45mpg.
3. Here is another trick to increase another at least 5mpg. This trick require driver's labor and only work at speed under 40mph. You need to speed up faster than car in front of you about 1-5 mph, then let go the gas pedal, then gentlely press on the gas pedal to activate EV engine only. You try to control your speed with traffic flow using EV engine only. The longer you stay on EV engine, the better gas milage. This way, you still tailgate, and use only EV engine. Unlike, hypermiller idiots, pissed off all the people behind them. Of course, this have to be in ECO mode. Normal mode will easily kick on the gas engine. Keep in mind, gas engine is evil, and it sucks the heck out of your gas milage.

 

its always foolish to believe all cars are the same, same model or not but typically:
My Prissy has about 2 gallons before reading zero when indicator is dead center 1/4 tank. And when the last bar flashes I have about a gallon left (3 gallons at 1/4 tank) and that is typical engineering specs for all cars to have at least 30 miles to empty tank when gage reads empty. Its a safety precaution. In my car I could esily go 70 miles before the empty bar flashes but that doesn't say yours will, just likely to. I determined those nubers from refilling the tank from 'empty, 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 full indications based on the number of bars just turned on. The next higher bar just turned off. If just your 1/4 bars have been on a while its no longer 1/4 tank but vcloser to 1/8 tank. So in your case I hope you added a gallon or two before embarking to be safe.
Now what is this aversion to filling or partially filling your tank?
PS BTW running your fuel injectors dry when the tank is empty is very bad on injectors and may cause a severe drop in mpg and have to be replaced due to unnecessary wear. Its not a good thing to run near empty.