2004 Prius can I get more than 30mpg?

There is a seven second delay when you first make the Prius ready before the engine starts unless you put the car in reverse before it starts up or "if you car has one" the EV button is pressed
Then if the HV battery has enough charge it will inhibit the engine from starting. This is because the Prius has no reverse gear, and is purely an electric drive in reverse "the electric motors turn backwards".
If the engine does start this actually reduces the amount of reverse power. Pressing the EV button allows the car to be moved a short distance "moved on the drive way" without the engine going into a warm up cycle saving fuel.

Once the engine has started the Prius goes through a complete warm up cycle. This is designed to reduce the amount of emissions the car produces when cold. If you drive just after the engine starts the car will run mostly on electricity and you will see the battery monitor reducing the amount of charge shown. This is to reduce the load on the cold engine again to reduce emissions.
When the engine has reached temperature the battery will be recharged up to about 5 blue bars on the display.

John

 

Look at the display to see how many bars are shown, and what color. The engine will always start to warm it's self up if the conditions in my previous post are not met, or if there are only 2 or 3 bars of charge showing. It makes no difference if you are holding the brake or not. Once warmed up the engine will stop if you are not moving even if you are in drive with your foot on the brake.
The car is designed to do this to reduce emissions. Try putting the car in reverse before it starts or press the EV button if your car has one. Keeping your foot on the brake will maintain the status. Releasing the brake the car will try to creep in reverse and the battery state of charge will steadily go down.
This should stop the engine staring but you can move in reverse, and with the EV button forwards.
All the UK / European cars have an EV (electric vehicle) button my understanding is that most US models do not.

John

 

44 is very good this time of year alice. i think it's operating normally. you can make small improvements over time by studying the economy threads here. all the best.

 

Single fill up calculations are very poor indicators of MPG as the fuel tank has a bladder in the US that makes "filling" a moving target. The accuracy becomes better over a number of fills. The MPG gauge on the dash is a little optimistic "2 or 3 MPG over", but reading that and subtracting the over read gives a very good indication.

John

 

It's very normal for the engine to start as you described Alice, it'll run continuously 'till coolant's at least over 50C, say 5~10 minutes or so. Then it just shuts down when decel or light load, and at stops.

 

If you

If you press the "info" button at the side of the screen or steering wheel it will change to a display showing:- four wheels, an engine, a motor/generator, and a battery with colored bars. These bars show the state of charge of the battery. The computer once the engine is warm will try to maintain a level of about 5 blue bars.
This screen shows what is happening as you drive.
Most people run pressures of 40 psi front 38 psi rear. If the ride is to hard for you drop them 2 psi all round.

John

 

Alice.
I do honestly believe you have nothing to worry about. As you get used to driving the Prius "don't baby it" your mpg will improve, but from the display you are showing us your figures are very reasonable. Warm weather can make more than 5 mpg difference to the Prius, and calculated consumption from tank to tank very unreliable the gauge on the display generally doing a better job.
Also bear in mind if you are reading mpg from a UK member such as myself our gallons are 10% bigger than the US gallon so we regularly see 60 mpg plus. Also our tanks do not have the bladder making tank to tank refills much more predictable.

John

 

Yes that's the one. As you can see the charge is shown at the level we would expect of 6 blue bars. This can go higher "coming down a hill", and change to 7 or 8 green bars.
Driving the car from cold may take the display down to 2 purple bars, but it will soon recover returning to it's present state. The reason for this is that as said previously the car will run on mainly electric until the engine is warm.

John

 

also, stop and go traffic will reduce to two purple bars and remain there with the engine cycling on and off every few minutes, until you get going again.

 

Have you been letting the new year in bisco with a little drink?

 

maybe. tee many martunis?