New Prius owner looking for comments
 

Hi

A few months ago I posted a message looking for comments because I was looking into buying either a Prius or Civic hybrid. I decided to try the Prius.:D

I like the Prius very much. It drives great and I have increased my fuel efficiency from my previous vehicle so that is great to.

I'm not getting the advertise fuel rating though so if anyone wants to share their feedback it will be greatly appreciated.

I have now consumed two tanks of fuel with my Prius and I have averaged 45 MPG each tank. The MPG is what I calculated at the pump not from the Prius display panel.

Most of my driving has been on rural and city roads so I was expecting my MPG to be more like 58 MPG.

With the first tank I was learning how to drive to get better MPG. On my way to work and on my way back home (about 20 minutes long) I would reset the Prius average MPG on the Consumption window and see how much my driving habits would affect the MPG.

At first I was getting about 40 MPG but by the time I filled the second gas tank my MPG between home and work had improved to 58 and I even got as much as 65 on a few occasions. So I was very surprised to calculate 45 MPG for that second tank also.

I have noticed that the gasoline engine runs a lot for the first 5 minutes of my trip and that the bar graph on the Prius Consumption window for this first 5 minute usually shows about 30 MPG, the other bars on the graph will show somewhere between 60 to 65 MPG.

I run the Prius on batteries alone as much as I can so when a arrive at my destination the battery graph can show 50% or lower so I imaging that could be why the gasoline engine is ON more for the first 5 minutes of my trip, it is charging the batteries. Could using the batteries too much become counter productive in achieving higher MPG?
To bad I can’t plug the car home and charge those batteries.

Usually a vehicle’s MPG increases after the vehicle has gone through its break-in period.
Will the Prius’ MPG increase more toward 58 as the break-in period is reached?

Anyway thank you for patiently reading through all this and thank you for your advise and comments.

Re: New Prius owner looking for comments
 

Hi,
Welcome to the Prius world!
Prius and any car do the warming up the engine and use more fuel in the first few minutes than later driving, therefore short trips, less than 20 minutes like you, made worse fuel economy.
Your assumption is correct.
Have you ever read the pulse and glide article below?
http://hybridcars.about.com/od/owner...seandglide.htm
The basic technique is avoiding to use the battery power.
The plug-in mod is very expensive, I think.
However, there is an option to install an engine block heater.
A few hours of heating your engine in the morning will increase your first 5 minutes mileage number very well.

edit:
You'll see a few percent increase of fuel economy after the break-in period, but you can't expect to increase from 45 to 58 mpg, it's too much. :)

Ken@Japan

Re: New Prius owner looking for comments
 

Hi bourgeog, I will repost here my newbie hints just now posted at Prius Online:

If the engine oil is too full, bring it down to the top dimple on the dipstick.

If the tires are too soft, bring them up to the Toyota spec of 35 front 33 rear, at least. Higher would be a bit better, but not all agree with such a radical idea :)

The suspension alignment could be quite far out. It has happened. Early days are the ideal moment to have your shop to confirm that these adjustments are within spec, on their dime.

The rear brakes might be dragging, either from the parking brake cable being too tight or binding, or because the self-adjusters aren't behaving. Very easy to test for both. Just go a few miles down the road, stop, and apply a wet (for personal safety) finger to each of the brake drums. If either is anything above slightly warm, further examination is warranted. And waranteed :)

A driver new to Prius might have the air conditioning or defrosting systems on, without necessarily wanting them so. The owner's manual job it to prevent that; our job is to somehow decode the words therein.

These all refer to setting up the vehicle, and should precede your efforts to drive in the special Prius way.

As far as doing the best driving, don't get advice from me because I am not usually a very good dancer. But I have a reasonable understanding of the systems, and have been around long enough to see all sorts of problems posted. Many of them get resolved, eventually.

DAS