Colder weather has zapped my mileage to 44mpg

After watching my water temp the last few days during my commute I find that even during my uphill position of the commute the water temp does not heat up very fast. The downhill portion is worse and if I try to do any high speed gliding the temperature gain slows down or even reverses. I'm going to put my upper grille blocks back in today to do some more monitoring. If it doesn't get any better I'll purchase some material to partially block the lower grille as well. It sucks not being able to warm up the car fully during a 13mile commute and as such my milage has dropped into thr high 30s to 40mpg.

I'm also going to bug my roommate to let me get my stock rims with Nokian i3s out of his storage so I can swap on an instant 5mpg or so gain.

 

You're very welcome!
The table tag is very simple.

Code:

{table="head"}date|miles|mfd mpg|cal gal|cost|gal pump|cal mpg|$/g
11/12/09|376.6|40.8|9.23|27|9.856|38.21|2.739
12/10/09|485.2|45.5|10.66|23.50|10.23|47.42|2.719
{/table}

Please replace the "{" and "}" with square ones.

Ken@Japan

 

should sticky this one. i see a lot of "self formated" charts that would benefit greatly from this.

 

I used 1" foam pipe insulation. You can get a bag of four 3' pieces at Home Depot for a buck. Cut the pieces in half, long ways, opposite of the pre-cut slit. I then chopped off about 8 inches at the end, you can use these pieces to block 50% of the upper grill if you wish. Since I cut the length they stay in the grill easily w/o any tying or taping. Easy mod, low cost, and quick install.

 

In my 2009 Gen II I dropped from 42 MPG to 33 MPG this last week. My commute times also went up dramatically (25 mins->50 mins on I35E).

I haven't blocked the grill yet-I'll get the foam this weekend and start that and see if it improves things.

 

I hear ya. I'm gauging about 45 or 46 MPG's even though we're only down in the 40's F these days. Doing some short trips to store though. Work is only 5 miles away.

In warm weather, I get a little over 50 MPG's.

 

You saved me a lot of typing. My result was 49, now 46. Eric.

 

Here's my 5 years of average temperature vs mpg. I average the daily average temperature for the period of each tank. I'm in Texas, so my lows are not as bad as many areas.


www.enerjazz.com/prius

 

I love threads like this one. Maybe I've become jaded myself because now when I read titles like "Cold Weather has Zapped my mileage to 44mpg" I myself think-hmm maybe something is wrong. But I know when I first started to investigate and research The Prius I used to laugh when Prius owners "complained" about the low mileage of anything below 45...

It's a testament to HSD and The Prius that mileage is considered "Zapped" at 44 mpg. 44mpg is great. Considering most ICE options, even in the most efficient, smallest econo-box form barely offer around 30 city, and maybe 35 highway.

Congratulations if you can drive a mid-sized Prius through the heart of winter and get 40+ MPG.

 

Nice! Here is mine, a bit dated:

I live in North Alabama but have no explanation for the curious dip at 70 F. It is an older Prius without the thermos. Perhaps it is the radiator grill block effect?

Another, NHW11 record from GreenHybrid.com:

They too had an interesting dip but nearly 30F lower.

Then this third entry:

A smaller range, no evidence of a dip found in the other charts.

Speculation, Spring and Fall are when we tend to get most of our rain. The other chart with a dip has temperatures consistent with Arizona. Perhaps their rain comes at colder temperatures. The dip could be just the rain effect.

Bob Wilson

 

I wish I was as lucky as some of you! My first tank 46.5, second 43.2, third is on the way to becoming 34!! My area is hilly and cold but at this point, I am thinking I could have saved a whole lot of money and bought a cheaper car and be getting the same milage!

 

This is assuming the other car would get its max EPA rating in the same conditions?

 

Which car? Have you checked out the user reported mileage from Fuel Economy?
Bob Wilson

 

Please remember that you probably drive the Prius all year and during warmer weather the excellent MPGs will bring your overall total yearly MPG to much better levels...thus negating a lot of the slight differences when comparing to cheaper cars during cold weather driving.

 

My first full tank at -8 to +20 with snow and slushy roads I went from 48 - 54 Mpg to 40 MPG for the tank. Keeping the heater off after an initial warmup.

 

I figure it will worth it after all, but I'm still thinking about it. My last trip delivered what I was afraid of... indicated MPG of 40... more likely 37-38 calculated. For the Prius, I honestly think a MPG like that in the hwy is ridiculous. Trip was under the coldest conditions so far... average temperatures of 10F... that's only 9-10 MPG better than my previous CR-V in similar conditions... Grill blocking seems essential in my situation. Scaugauge may even be able to pay for itself in my case because I drive a lot... almost 13K already in just 5 months...

So, I'm now trying to figure out where I can get the best value for a scangauge... not sure if I buy it by itself and use a velcro to stick it to the steering column or buy the one with a kit that mounts on the rear-view mirror... any suggestions?

 

I recently got a camelcamelcamel.com alert showing that Amazon has it for $139.95. See http://www.amazon.com/ScanGauge-Compact-Multifunction-Computer-Customizable/dp/B000AAMY86%3FSubscriptionId%3D02FECJA8FNG9YV9PZKG2%26tag%3Dws%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000AAMY86&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER. I think that's about the best you can hope to do.