Originally Posted by vjmeht

First time Prius Owner here.
I've had this since late Aug 2007. so far I'm impressed.
It gives good mileage(Around 38-40 in town, 48-50 highway) if you’re coasting or cruising most of the time. I’ve had it since late August. I like it but I’d rather have something bigger of course with bigger you trade off some mpg.
Fortunately my commute is less than 5 miles, before it was 30+. They say it will get better MPG once it hits the 5,000 mile mark. I have family and friends that live all over so I end up refilling more often than expected, not that I’m complaining!
For ~400 miles to the 10-gal tank it’s much better than the 300 miles per 20 gal I was getting on my old 95 Windstar. My next vehicle will likely be a Highlander Hybrid.

I was wonder what techniques could be employed to further improve its MPG. I'm at 3000 miles now. Should I use an Ethanol mixture? I notice the MPG goes down when I run the heating. I figure though since the engine is warming up anyway I may as well utilize that by turning on the heat. My guess is in summer the mileage will go up. But I expected around 45 in town and 55 or 60 on the highway. I try to coast when I can. I heard that you can "lightly" push on the accelerator and it will run off the battery at speeds ~35 or below. Is this true? Anyway I was wondering if anyone had tips or ideas on how to squeeze as much mpg as possible from their prius.

I live in Redmond, WA btw.