0 Degree Temps

Low temperatures will impact directly on mpg. I am struggling to get more than 35mpg during the las two days when temperatures have been in single digits. With the 2005 Prius I have found the cabin to warm up quicker than in other conventional vehicles. Maybe the thermos or the small sized engine help to that.
I am truly hoping the mpg goes up as soon as the weather madness stops.

 

Actually, I would like to hear from other drivers as to what MPG are they getting while weather hits us with single digit temepratures? Just hoping I am not the only one struggling to reach 40MPG.

 

I don't know if it is my imagination or not, but my heater seems to be more anemic that I recall last year. Even after the car has been running for ten minutes, the cabin still hasn't warmed up and when I force the heat through the dash vents, it doesn't seem like much air is blowing. Granted, it has been cold (single digits), but I don't recall even thinking about the heat last year when it was even colder.

Also, has anyone else had a problem with the windshield washer jets icing up internally? This is a first for me, too. Maybe I'll have to try some of that new weird yellow and pink colored windshield washer fluid?

 

When the temperature drops below the teens, 40mpg is no longer safe...

 

DOH. I forgot about the filter. I haven't even peeked at it for over a year. Thanks!

 

At first I thought I would be able to hold it at 45 MPG, but the last few days the MPG has been hovering around 40 MPG. I noticed the mpg takes a good hit if you let it idle with the heat on. It's the same way on all cars, but you never notice it unless you have the mileage screens like you do with a Prius.

That's ok, I'd rather be warm than get 50 MPG on these 0 degree days anyway!

 

Temperatures of -5 to +35 F (averaging about 25 F) have seen a milage of 41.2 for me. This is a decrease of about 25% from summer conditions.

 

My 04 Prius is not garaged, either, and most of my trips are the 3.5 miles back and forth to work, so I'm expecting to do worse than most. Our Wisconsin temps have been down into the teens and below, lately. I don't run the heater unless necessiatated by the windows. I'm getting exactly 40mpg at this moment, 280 miles into the tank.

In order to promote topic drift, I submit the following: I had occaision to ride 65 mph with the cruise for twenty minutes on a more-or-less flat interstate, and I noticed four bars that got consistently better. (Say, 25/33/40/45 or so.) I would expect this, because the car is warming up. On the other hand, I'd expect the fiery ICE to warm up completely in less than 20 minutes, but I'm no expert. Am I witnessing warm-up in the battery? Or does the engine take this long? Or, do you think it's any number of external factors, like wind, inclines, magical faeries, or the like that caused this?

Brad

 

We only have about 2,000 miles on our car, but I am getting in the high 20's to low 30's for MPG when temps are below 15 degrees. I have to admit that I don't skimp on heat and I do mostly short trip driving. My cumulative MPG is around 39, with 75% of that below 50 degrees.

Aside from MPG, which is much better than our other car even if I'm in the 20's, I am very impressed with how quickly the Prius heats up. Much better than any other car I have owned.

 

I got mine last January. Bitterly sub-zero weather. Not yet broken in. A ten-minute commute preceded by 4 or 5 minutes warming up the car to get some heat into the cabin because I'm a wimp. MPG around 30.

I'm hoping for better this year. With 6,000 miles on the car it's almost broken in. (I don't drive a lot.) And if very cold weather does not kill the EV switch entirely, I'll gain a little efficiency by finishing the drive home in EV mode, since it's going to over-charge anyway on the obligatory warm-up the next morning.

It's been a few degrees below zero all day today. Ten minutes is enough to get tolerable heat out the vents, but no comparison to the Camry I drove the other day while the fuel TSB was being done.

 

With temps now at -32 C, and a 10km commute in speeds 60 km/h or less, around 37 MPG (U.S. Gallon). Much less than in temps of +15 C, but given the conditions, still very good.

By comparison, my 2000 GMC Sierra would give me the heart-stopping 6 MPG (U.S. gallon) under the same conditions.

I like to be comfy, I run the heat full blast in winter and the A/C full blast in summer. That's what HVAC is for.

I park in heated parking at the condo and at work, the few times I've parked outside, around 3 MPG less.

 

I'm down from 48-52 mpg to 40-42 mpg when the temp is in the teens. Toyota service guy says this is not surprising. Not that I'd expect them to admit anything was wrong.

 

Admit what ?

A winter MPG drop is totally normal, with any vehicle.

It's the Multi-Display that clues you into what has been happening for decades.

 

I think Scoop's point is that if something was wrong, service departments often try to avoid admitting it. We know that a drastic drop in mpg is normal in cold weather, probably more so in the Prius than in other cars. But a person who is unaware of this (due to not having frequented Prius Chat) would have reason to be suspicious of a service department that answers all questions with "That's perfectly normal!"

 

My tank MPGs went from mid-high 40s to mid-high 30s when it got seriously cold (-9F last Monday). Not that I expected anything different but it was painful to see it go below 40 MPG. :-(

On the UP side, at -9 both my wife and skating coach had to crank their cars (Subaru and Saturn) a bit and let them idle a good 5 minutes before they felt they was running well enough. AND they reported the car feeling 'back to normal' after about 5 minutes of driving. My Prius started right up; push Power and go. It never felt different from any other day in the 3 months I've had it.

 

38-39