2023 LE fwd mpg, what are you getting?

I'm really disappointed that it doesn't give heat during stop and go "step-in-the-floor" motions, and your comment made me think that the thermostat might be faulty.

 

I have switched to using the defrost/feet setting - along with not turning on the ICE the other good thing about this setting is you can use recirculate - I find using recirculated air defogs more efficiently, which is why I never understood why Toyota makes it inaccessible for defog only. And hit the AC for a minute and you'll clear the window really fast!

 

Recirculated air does NOT defog a window. It causes fogging in the car. Cold air holds less moisture so that is why cars turn on the AC when in defrost mode. Recirculated air does defrost a window faster because warmer air will be blowing over the window melting the ice but then it will fog up quite quickly.

You can test this easily. On a cold morning with the car locked press and hold the A/C button on the remote. It will "precondition" the car. Go out 10 minutes later and all the windows will be fogged over. This is because (stupidly) the Prius uses recirculated air to warm up the car.

And while you can put the air flow to window/floor it isn't as effective as just window in defogging the car. There should be the option (which they used to have way back when) to run the air flow just to the window without turning on the AC.

 

65 mpg cruising on highway at 85 mp

 

I don'ts usually speed up for tail gaiters, but there is a lot of road rage and very fast drivers in Texas. Sometimes it is very wise to get out of there way.

 

I discovered something new about the G5 and managed to squeeze even more fuel economy out of it. About 10% more to be exact!

 

No fluke. And the answer was here all the time. I experimented with it early on, but decided to shelve the strategy after. I can't remember why either. One factor was popular opinion that these engines have an ideal acceleration band. That's B.S.

 

AC makes condenser coils cold. Hot coolant heats air. Hot humid air goes over cold condenser coils. Condensation is pulled from the air as it builds on the coils. The moisture on the coils drains out the ac condensation drainage line. That's it. It's not rocket science.

Recirc ON should be default for MOST situations. You don't want to eject that cooled and/or dry air that your car just worked on. Recirc OFF shouldn't be used while cooling, and only during defogging on dry cold winter days if you're really struggling to defog, which this car should not struggle. You don't want to bring in saturated air when it's rainy out. If someone farted or whatever then crack a window for a few seconds, but no reason to turn off recirc when you're running AC or defog.

None of this is hard to figure out.

 

I just recently discovered the driving tweak. It will be weeks before I finish a tank on it. But my numbers are about 10% higher than they were before, all across the board. So I'd say 70 MPG's on a tank should (could?) be the norm now in good weather. If I try hard, 77.

The trick is to simply accelerate easy whenever you can. In the past I would always try to accelerate from stops to the top of the "Eco" band? Which now that I mention it, is not really the Eco band at all I don't think. The Eco band is the first segment, the 2nd segment is the "Medium" band? And the top is the Power. So top of the Medium band in the past.

My EV time is often lower now, and I am not dropping the throttle to force EV mode at speed. I just accelerate easy when nobody is behind me, oftentimes getting up to city speed without even firing the ICE. This is why I say that the "efficient acceleration point" is bogus. I am just "driving like a Prius" when nobody is around, letting the ICE run longer than in the past, and saving a ton more fuel.

G4's could have never done this comfortably as the battery was too weak. But the G5's battery is strong enough to accelerate to city speeds without being ridiculously slow. So, less throttle, and let the computer do what it does. If you've ever noticed that you get better MPG's when on the phone and not paying close attention to acceleration points, you're getting the gist of things.

There's still a LOT of strategy to getting good fuel economy with respect to anticipation of what's happening ahead of you, this tweak just deals with acceleration. And I still accelerate the old way when people are behind me (staying out of the Power zone). But when alone, I try to stay closer to the Eco limit and it's paying huge dividends.

 

This sounds great in theory but as someone who lives in Oregon I can ALWAYS tell when someone has recirculated air in their car because all the windows are fogged up. You should NEVER use recirculated air unless there is a fire or some asshat in a diesel is in front of you. The air quality in a car is terrible, the AC is not pulling enough water out to compensate for the water in the car and the passengers breathing out moisture laden air. If you run the AC and use fresh air it reduces the moisture in the air entering the car which then absorbs moisture in the car and exits the car with that moisture. I have literally tested this on multiple occasions. You can as well. Next winter when it is cold and wet in SoCal turn on the front defroster and go into the house. Come back out in 10 minutes and all the windows will be fogged up.

 

I'm guessing you live in the rain forest of Oregon. Not living there, I rarely have issues with window fogging with recirc on with AC. I've had it happen when it is actually raining out, but have also seen it with the recirc off.

The max AC setting of dumber climate controls will turn recirc off. Better automatic ones will turn it recirc on for more efficient cooling, but leave it off when humidity levels are over a certain point. Just saw that this weekend. The Subaru turned it off when the weather got mistier.

The climate in most of the country favors leaving recirc on for cooling efficiency. The climate of Oregon may not do so. Then it also has a climate in which getting a new car without AC wasn't unheard of. Lack of AC means the car has no way of drying air regardless of what position recirc is in.

Turning on the defroster will turn the recirc off. If the window fogs up, the temperature setting is too low. The system chilled the glass to the point that the dry air coming out of the vent can't remove the condensation.

Turning recirc on with defroster or windshield vents takes going into the menu. Some of my past cars wouldn't allow it at all. Recirc on will eventually lead to too much moisture in the air for the defroster to defog. I can only see having it on for literal defrosting while the car is warming up.

 

Never in Florida - you don't want that 100F air pumping into the cabin, you'd never cool the car down.

Now when it's pouring rain and 100F....that's a nightmare scenario trying to keep the windshield clear and stay cool.

 

So far I've driven about 5600 miles and the economy has been as low as 56 mpg and as high as 61 mpg for me. Majority of my driving is highway. Cruise control set on 75. I make up all of my mileage when I'm driving on the regular roads with stop lights and lower speed limits, and lots of coasting!!

 

Updated Record High 79.3 mpg driving 2,831 miles on 3 full tanks of gas.