I'm getting only 40 MPG in Palo Alto area, CA

palo alto has a lot of stop and go. most of the people seem to rush. i go through that area a lot. with only 800 miles on your car, this is normal.

i live in san jose but work in san mateo.

 

I commute from Fremont to Santa Clara (about 16 miles). My mileage has been 55mpg (F to S) and 45mpg (S to F). The difference is explained by hill climbing and the need for headlights.
And, my commute is about 50/50 city/highway.

Prius specially likes mild congestion when you actually travel at about 45-55mph for a long distance. Yesterday I got 51mpg returning home due to that.

PS: your mileage would increase slightly after 2500 miles when ECU adjusts and optimizes itself provided that you don't reset it by disconnecting the battery.

 

my mileage jumped.. literally from 45 to 60 between 15k and 20k miles on my car.

good point ceric. the prius does like mild congestion. i get around 62mpg highway when mild conjection is taking place. i like 55mph to 60.

 

10 miles is a short commute - close to mine where I average @ 50 MPG.

You'll read this from a ton of others, but your car is nowhere near "broken in" and the mileage may go up slightly with time.

YOU are nowhere near broken in and have probably not yet learned the ways of the force - ahhhh the force of your FOOT on the gas.

Here's my history chart see for youself.

http://www.w8kc.com/priusmileage.htm

 

I'm also in the Palo Alto - Mtn View area with a very short commute (9 miles, my wife drops me off so we can carpool for half of it). I'm always on the street, lots of stops and can barely maintain 40MPG. If we get on the highway on the weekend, the MPG goes straight up. This is a huge improvement from our last car (also a Toyo) that actually gave us 17MPG during the daily commute and 24.7 max on the highway. I am happy.

 

My commute is from Newark (fremont) to Mt. View, 39 miles round trip, normal week my average is around 53-56mpg, total mileage now aprox. 7300 mi. Weekends are what kills me, going fast (70's) and the hills to the coast. Good luck, it will improve with time.

rusty

 

Your short commute is tough on mileage, but your numbers sound a bit low to me. Have you checked your oil level and tire pressure? An oil overfill will hurt your mpg (and yes, our new Prius was delivered with an overfill), as will low tire pressure.

 

Doesn't seem low at all. PCJr said 10 miles ROUNDTRIP. That's 5 miles one way. No way any time for ICE/O2/Cat to warm up. You should be getting in the 30's with a commute like that.

 

Learn from the display of mileage at five minute increments, and watch it over some trips that last 20 minutes or more. You'll see the fuel efficiency steadily climb as the engine warms up. There's a lot of mass there to heat up to its steady-state temperature, and that takes energy. (Try throwing an engine block in your soup pot and see how long it takes to bring the water to a boil - but don't drink the resulting soup!). This is true for any car; we just notice it more on the Prius because A) we get constant and detailed info on our mileage from our car, which is not a feature of most cars and B) most of us bought it because we wanted to minimize our gas consumption.

My daily commute is 10 miles one-way, and if it takes me 20 minutes my MPG starts at 30 and winds up at 50-60 in the final 5 minute interval. If I am doing kid taxi service on the coldest winter weekends on Long Island (2 mile trips, with the car cooling down between each trip) I sometimes average as low as 33 MPG for the weekend. My present summertime tank average is 47-49 MPG - same car, same driver, just different trip patterns.