We're back from our drive home !

You still did worse then epa rating of 51 on the hwy. I once was able to maintain 70 MPG on my normal drive for about 100 miles and I was still hanging on to about 63 after 200 miles where it seemed to settle in at, but then I took a drive to see a Pirates game in Pittsburgh (about 220 mile Interstate round trip) and still ended up with 55 MPG on the tank.
Congratulations on your new prius, and congratulations on your good start.

 

I had the same reaction when I got my Prius on March of 2006. I couldn't figure out why some others complained when I thought I was getting great mpg right off the bat. Now that the car is a year old with 15k miles and the weather is warm again I have noticed an increase in fuel economy.

 

Pola, congratulations on a good start. My cross contry trip was 45mpg when the car was about a month old. I believe the driver does more adjusting than the car does in the "adjustment period".

 

Mine is an 05. I now have about 37000 miles on it. I was getting about 57 with the original tires, but have changed them and now i am ONLY getting about 50.

Seems strange to complain about 50 miles per gallon.

 

I'm sorry by the way I worded my reply it came off sounding harsh,
I am not a hypermiler by any means, I think they sacrifice quite a bit of comfort to accomplish many of their feats, such as pumping tires up to 60 (never exceed the tire sidewall)
I've got nearly 5500 miles on my prius now in the 2 months that I've owned it and learned so much.

A few tips that seem to help me
1. during the first 5 minutes of driving just drive it even closer to normal while it warms up. If its cold outside turn off the climate control.

2. As far as accelerating from a stop light / stop sign, or pulling out of parking lot, I play a silly game with myself and I just pretend that I am driving a 300+ HP rear wheel drive car and I don't want to spin the wheels.

3. I use cruise control pretty much everywhere instead of P&G.
35 MPH speed limits I set at 38 and then on longer slopes where the cruise will get regen I'll just depress the accelerator pedal enough to make it glide, if its a slope that I'll pick up too much speed on the glide i'll just let it regen.

40 MPH speed limits, I set it for 39 mostly because it is hard to do a good glide over 41MPH because you end up really using the battery.

45 MPH speed limits, I set it for 48 and I will just let it do everything again on its own but again lightly hold the accelerator on longer slopes if it is doing a regen

all other highway driving I set for 3 - 5 over the limit (it seems most people go about 5 or 7 but frequently come close to running into the back of the person in front of them so you stay right with the flow of traffic with out becoming a nuisance

4. Anticipate stops well ahead of where you are at on city roads because if you can see that the light will be red you can glide a good 1/4 - 1/2 mile, yes it annoys the person behind you but when you arrive at the light right as it turns green they seem to not mind anymore.

 

Pola, my lifetime is 49+ mpg. My 45mpg trip to Indiana when the car was a month old is holding me down. The car is stock except for the 45/45 tp and blocked grill when it gets cold. You may want to start posting your mileage at www.greenhybrid.com to see how you compare to everyone else.

 

pola it was my experience that glide was easier to maintain after 3000 miles break in .I also am on greenhybrid.com
research pulse and glide