I Got My Prius Today!!

My mileage experience was not good at first, the car takes a while to train you how to drive it. I was only getting ~35 mpg the first few weeks, though that was in December and January.

Also the mileage is difficult to track in the short term because the fuel bladder varies in volume as temperature changes. I recommend that you start tracking all fueling and total miles traveled because that reduces the influence of the bladder's varying volume.

For mileage, "drive as if you had no brakes" is generally good advice. Whenever possible, coast up to red lights. Sometimes braking a little early is smart, to give the light time to change, or the cars ahead of you time to get going when it changes to green.

Hills are there for you to exploit, and it seems to me that coasting down hills averaged with burning gas going up hills gives good mileage.

The car will always burn gas to warm up and usually it takes 10 minutes to be fully warmed up. This means short trips give you crummy mileage. (For example, my 6 mile commute).

I find myself going a little slower to get good mileage when I have the road to myself, but if someone gets behind me I hit the gas to keep a comfortable distance ahead.

The mileage on a suburban 35 mph road can really be terrific. I've seen a computer simulation that says 32 mph is the car's sweet spot, and combined all-electric & gas burning mileage at 32 mph averages to over 80 mpg.

On the 35 mph roads, you get up to speed with gas and then let the electric maintain it. In zero winds on level ground the electric can maintain speeds below 41 or 42 mph. However, going downhill, the electric can help at higher speeds. I've seen it keep the car moving at 50-55 mph on a mild downhill grade.

Alas, strong winds can have a noticeable effect and almost always reduce mileage.

At highway speeds, going 55 mph can keep your mileage above 50 mpg, but if you go to 65-70 mph, it will fall just below 50 mpg -- on level ground.

-- At least that's what I remember of my experience with it.

Oh, a great website is: http://john1701a.com/

-- a lot of great info and interesting stuff there.

 

I'm so happy for you! I picked mine up on December 1st and I still love driving it and I'm still learning new things about it. My gas mileage has been great but I know it will take a dip as I'm using the air-conditioner for the 1st time as it is so darn hot!
Kathleen

 

Welcome to Prius owernship. Have a great time with the car and don't worry about mileage for a while. Your mileage will be better than almost anyone else on the road even before you change your driving habits!

 

Congratulations, Tatania! You'll get much better milage than almost any other car on the road, no matter what you do, so get to know how your car drives and responds without worrying too much about milage at first. Practice pressing the voice button and saying "Screen Off!" This reduces the distraction of the MFD and the constant instantaneous MPG readout. To really track your MPG, note your odometer milage on your gas purchase receipts so you can track it over time. Some people use a spreadsheet.

Have fun driving! You have a great husband!

 

I've notice I've never been disappointed when getting in my car. Don't worry about poor mileage at first. It will improve in a month or two when you've learned better how to drive it and it breaks in a little.

Enjoy!