my c in the cold

It was about that cold in Milwaukee, WI last night when I went to work. My prius c started up right away as well after having been outside all day and night. Guess that's one nice thing about having the battery located inside the car rather than under the hood where it's colder

 

Welcome to the "subzero cold start" club!

Mine stayed frozen for a whole road trip, I had to open my door at the toll plaza...

 

Temperature was 5F when I drove to work this morning and 9F coming back in the afternoon. Round trip 42.3 mpg on drive information screen. Driver's door a little frozen in the morning. My average on the round trip to work during September 2013 was 64.8 mpg. Current tank average 50.4 mpg for 218 miles since December 23.

 

if you really want to know the ice temp, a scan gauge will do it.

 

Here in Minnesota, I've experienced cold starts from sitting outside all day in sub-zero F temps countless times over the past 13 winters with a Prius. The system is well suited for dealing with that.

I bet you'll be celebrating when temps above freezing finally return though. That's balmy in comparison.

 

I'm with ya, tgpii. I work in Orland Park, live nearby in Plainfield. This past Monday morning when I woke it was -16F. I was able to get the car to start without much of a problem; however the tank of gas I had in the car before, during and the few days after the "Polar Vortex" yielded my worst mpg ever, about 41.1MPG. I warmed up the inside car a few times for my young son & I on our way to school/work, that likely had a huge part of that disastrous tank.

 

Yeah, I got about 40 mpg on that tank too during that cold spell. Part of it had to do with the car sitting outside when I would start it up, around -15F or so. I then had the heat going full blast the entire way to work, as it was pretty cold outside and I figured I'll let my mpg suffer a little so I can stay warm inside my car even with winter gear on.

Now that the temps are a more "balmy" 35F, due to some freezing rain I drove even slower than usual (saw a few cars in ditches or crashed into a snow bank on a curb), and with some pulse & glide usage my mpg is back up to about 54. Not bad for winter weather and snow tires.

 

When it gets that cold, fuel economy takes a back seat for me. I'll gladly take a hit in fuel economy if it means keeping me (and the car) warm first. I remind myself that at these temps., I would get 12-17 mpg with my SUV so I'm still doing 2x-3x better.

Ice is scary stuff to drive on, even here in the northeast ice is the same stuff on the road as over there.

 

Yeah, when my first turn at around 15 mph caused the rear of my car to slide in the same direction, I figured it's probably safer just to take it slower. And this was on winter tires, so who knows what could've happened had I of been using all-seasons at that time.

 

I imagine exactly the same thing would happen. I use all-season tires. I've never used snow tires, though I've heard that they grip in snow and in extremely cold temperatures a lot better. I figure if the roads are bad, I don't want to be out there in the chaos.

 

how are you getting such great mileage, my very best one time was about 58 mpg but most of the time I am high 30s or low 40s and im not hitting the red most of the time and try to use Ev and much as possible?

 

Just got the Prius C December 27. Got 58 mpg on the way home. I have not hit that again for some reason. I am not even hitting 40 mpg on my 6 mile commute to work, stop and go traffic, Ev as much as possible and not going past the second green for the most part (staying out of PWR orange.). For example, I only got 38.9 mpg today on my 6 mile commute (26 minutes) this morning, light rain but 50 degrees. Its fairly level terrain too, a couple small hills but nothing really. Yesterday morning got 39 mpg as well same route 42 degrees and sunny. I get better gas mileage on the same commute back for some reason. Yesterday on the way home I pussy foot it as much as I could and got 54.5 mpg and it was 57 and cloudy but dry. That is at least what I expected. I was under the impression that a normal person driving like a normal person would get 53 mpg without even trying, what is wrong here? I had a 1995 Honda Civic VX that was getting over 30 and sometime 40 mpg in the exact same commute but it as a free car.

 

Make sure the battery vent on the back seat behind you is not block by something. Also raise your tire pressure to 42/40, mine is 51/49 with no problem for 1 1/2 years.

 

6 miles is marginal for the car to warm up, especially in cold weather. Also, stop/start traffic kills fuel economy as it takes a lot more energy to regain momentum each time, compared with smooth coasting in light traffic.
If you get better gas mileage regularly on your return trip it is most likely due to the route being overall downhill in that direction.

GT-I9300 ?

 

That's not very long for the car to find it's happy fuel economy place. Mine is starting to get better now at around 5000km. Cold mornings (especially when scraping ice) I start it in regular mode (not ECO) and de-icer front and rear while I scrap just letting it run. I don't gun it at first - I wait till it gets a little warmer. Mine seems to take about 5minutes to get itself awake when it's chilly out. My highlander hybrid used to take much longer. Once it is warmed up I find it is pretty good.

Also - short commutes aren't always my Prius's highest fuel economy - especially when it is cold out. I usually get around 40MPG when I do my first thing in the morning grab coffee and go to the river to walk my dog which is around 5 miles and is a mix of city a little highway. Then again having the steel rims and winter tires don't help.

Give it a little more time to get into its groove. I know when I first started driving a hybrid ('11 Highlander) it took me a while to learn how to "hybrid drive" - make the most of cruise control - use the power to get up to speed on the highway and coast as much as possible - no jump starting or green light racing, etc which all improved my ability to get better mileage.

 

Its doing better now. I added air to the tires, they were all under inflated (thanks dealership). Also, learning how to drive it as you say and its still only 380 miles on it so not broken in. In the mornings Im recently getting mid to upper 40s now on the way to work. At lunch over the same commute I get 57-62 mpg and after work I get 57-58 mpg. All this on the exact same 6 mile route.

 

yes 6 miles is barely enough to get warmed up for maximum efficiency. And the morning it can be severe stop and go, it can take 30 minutes to go 6 miles, that is down right ridiculous. It is about equal up and down small hills both to and from. At lunch when traffic is very light I get 58-61 mpg to and from same 6 mile route