I test drove a new prius last night. I noticed on the computer mileage display that the mileage that was displayed was very low. The salesman stated that the mileage is low until the car has been running long enough to charge the batteries, 10 minutes or so he said.
Well my wife will be the main driver of this car and her commute to work is about 10 minutes. Is this salesman correct? If so, does that mean that the mileage for short trips, which is most of our miles. will be worse than my current vehicle?

Yet another salesman who has no clue.

You don't have to charge the batteries every time you start the car. What's the temperature like where you drove the car? Where I am, it's 20F or so in the morning. For a short period of time, my mileage is bad because the engine is running at higher RPM for faster warmup, but it jumps right up after driving a mile or so.

I have no doubt that if my commute were reduced to 10 minutes that my lifetime mpg would plummet. The emissions equipment is warming up, the engine is warming up, etc.

But I'm confident it'd still be at 40+ mpg. So Anderbr, to me, depending on what car you're coming from would determine if that's reasonable enough for you to make the switch. If you're coming from a Civic or other non-hybrid gas-miser, maybe not. If you're coming from a gas-guzzler, then maybe it will.

Rick

What he said.

Depends on what your current car is and what MPG you get now.

A Prius, even driven stone cold, will still get better mileage than most other vehicles even when that other vehicle is warmed and optimized. You won't get the EPA numbers, but you're still better off than you would've been most of the time.

And consider what your mileage is on your existing vehicle when driven cold. Every vehicle gets lousy mileage for the 1st few miles until its warmed up. You need to look at apples to apples- cold driving in existing car vs cold driving in Prius, especially since you only saw a "cold" prius on your test drive.

It was about 40F when we test drove the car. I drove about 2 miles on the highway and then when I got off the exit, I pressed the button to display actual mpg. I took off, quicker than I normally would, and the mpg display went from 11 to 14 and quickly worked its way up to 38. That is when the saleman made his comment about low mpg when you first start out after the car has been sitting for awhile.

Thanks for your reply.

Thanks to everyone.
My current car gets 17 mpg city.
So a measley 40 mpg would be very welcome to me.

Do they make block heaters for a Prius? That'd make the car warm before you ever left the garage...

Im in Fla. So we have a warmer climate.. Wifes average 48 - 56 / My average 47 - 50, and my sleep # is, <j/k>

I purchased the car for her as she drives a 50mi commute 6 days a week to work.shes been getting 500-512 mi per tank.

I drove the car for a week and only got 475 mi. (heavier foot)?

If I floor it from a dead stop it will be like 15 (with a 0-60 in 9 seconds) then work its way up to 47 as I let off the pedal..

She can also run EV (stealth mode up to 30mph) on the 04'..

04' # 5, W/leather & JBL omitted.
"Prius, Just ask the person that drives one"
04' Tundra, 18mpg city & 22mpg hwy.
04' Prius, 60mpg city & 53mpg hwy.

Kenstyle NHW20 AERO Kit

one thing you guys failed to mention: the 04-06 prii has has a thermos like bottle to keep the engine's hot coolant so that the next time you have a cold start, the wait for the engine to warm up is drastically decreased. By how much? I don't know maybe someone can provide this info?

The coolant can be kept hot for 6 hours or warm for 3 days... correct me if i'm wrong.

i got around 20 km a liter when i drove a civic 5 spd using advanced hypermiler techniques
and now I drive a salvage nwh20 prius that gets almost to 25 km/l with 192,000 km to date.

Yes, there is a block heater and the engine block has a difficult to reach hole for it. The discussions indicate it saves about 100 ml. However, it doesn't have a thermostat so it needs to be put on a timer circuit.

Others have reported some help from an air-shield and I tried it too. I found it shortened the warm-up time from ~1.2 miles to ~0.7 miles. It also seems to reduce air drag but I don't have any numbers on that effect. I plan to take the front bumper off and see if an automated mechanism can be used that is temperature controlled.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
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