drop in mpg

I recently had a drop after the dealer did a 10ooo mile check up. It seems they lowered the tire pressure. Also I have been working from my home office ae my office gets renovated thus avoid noise etc so most of my driving is less than 2 miles which the car just runs on the ICE to warm the car up.

 

I used to bring my pancake compressor with me and fill the tires after they dropped them to the specs. The last time I was in I just told them 42 psi front and 40 psi rear and that's exactly what they did. So try and tell them up front next time.

 

Good idea thanks

 

Ha. A 25 mpg difference is more than "not that accurate".

 

Just do a manual test on your own until it goes back in. Do a miles vs gallons. Just fill up to the first click, zero your mileage, drive, then re-fill to first click and calculate. At least it will give you an idea of what it really is, without relying on the computer.

 

Just gotta love our CA toyota servicemen...Your says the onboard computer is not that acurate....mine says the cruise control wont slow the car down when going down hills....that all the responses on here mentioning using the A/C and tire preasure, some air hole being plugged in the back seat, etcccc this is depressing me LOL (kinda) I still owe $20,000 and feeling a bit like I bought a glorified golf cart. My car seems fine (2013) so far but if they are that frail where we cant let a shopping bag get sucked into a hole, or load to many pounds of luggage, drive in the snow/cold let anything stick out or cause drag. I think the C should be selling for $13,000 tops hehehehe

 

Aside from the battery vent, all those are things that will cause mpg drops in any vehicle. You just notice it in the c more, because a 10% drop in mpg for a car that gets 25 mpg is only 2.5mpg, while a 10% drop for the c is 5 mpg. The instant mpg feedback also magnifies that. The only other difference is that the battery is less efficient in cold weather.

 

you're getting 20-30ish and he got 56?

 

that's what jsfabb said to do in post #26.

 

I'm not following. Which mpg are you talking about: trip A/B or "from start"? What's the "main screen"?

Also, is any of this confirmed by calculating actual mpg between fill-ups (miles since last fill-up/gallons added 'til fuel pump auto-shutoff)? Even if the car's computer is way off, calculating your mpg that way should still give you something above 25 mpg.

 

^^^
In order to confirm whether or not you're getting good mileage, you really should measure it both via manual calculations and via the trip computer for an entire tankful. Better yet, track your mileage for each tank.

As I said earlier, short trips will kill your mileage.

 

You're welcome! We're just trying to get to the bottom of your mpg issues, since it seems the dealer wasn't very helpful. I'd recommend filling up when you have half a tank left or less, and tell us what you calculated vs. what the trip counter (miles/mpg since last fill-up) says. Length of trips and any conditions that might help or hurt mpg will also be helpful (speed, highway vs. stop & go, hills, etc.).

For the screen, my best guess is the "drive info" screen: http://static.ed.edmunds-media.com/unversioned/img/long-term/2012-toyota-prius-c/Temperature-display-thumb-717x477-127331.jpg

As far as I can remember (too lazy to walk outside and check), the only place your "from start" mpg is displayed is at the top center, and it's on all the screens. If you can take a picture of the screen that shows your mpg in the 20s or 30s after a trip, that'd be helpful. The drive info screen I linked to above would also be useful to see, as would the one that shows instant mpg and 5-minute averages in a blue bar graph.

 

explain please...