First tank for me...I'm also in Chicago. So far about 26-27 mpg.

 

I'm in New york city. Been getting Low 20's during this cold streak. was getting 28 mpg during the summer with the same commute.

2 mile commute (which includes a combo of 13-14 lights and stop signs, and a whole mess of turns), car is not even fully warm by the time I get to work. Should have bought a regular car given my commute, but love my tch nonetheless.

 

My guess many wouldn't have bought the TCH had they known
the real mpg consumption. It is misleading (to say the least) of
Toyota to state that mpg rating is 38-40.

40 mpg in the city??
We just heard, in NYC is less than 30 in the summer.
But let's forget the many stop and turns in NYC.
Even on the highway, where I always achieved better mileage than in any city, it's impossible to get 38 in the colder months.
Ok, some of you live in California of Florida..but still, official mileage
doesn't say you have to live there...

In any case, 38-40 is rather under ideal circumstances.
A more honest rating, in my opinion would state:

"38-40 in summer months (25% of the time), on highway, or in the city if driving at 45-60 mph on level roads with no more than 1 stoplight/mile; Driving in colder months (75% of the time) or having a short commute will lead to dramatically lower mpg (up to 30% lower)"

But of course, Toyota prefers to have it's customers buy the TCH first, and find out by themselves what the real life economy is...

Generally I am pleased with my TCH so far though.
(except for the never ending squeeks and rattles coming from oll over the
cabin area, )

 

I can't really blame Toyota though, they are playing by the same rules as everyone else. When you see the ads for big SUVs claiming great hiway mileage under the most absolute ideal conditions, what good would it do Toyota to say that "Yes, our new Hybrid Camry might get the same mpg in the real world under some conditions". And even if they did, people that don't understand the flaws in the current system probably won't appreciate the comparative value of being told the truth either.

 

Well someone mentioned it earlier but don't forget to hit that ECO button. We used it all the time in the summer but haven't been using it in the winter. I mentioned it the other night to my wife and bang the car went into E and the ICE shut off and it would shut off at most lights.

We will see how much of an impact this has on the next tank or so.

 

With the below zero F weather I saw this happen several times at long lights/railroad crossings:
With the Eco button on, the engine shuts down at a stoplight.
The coolant temperature gauge quickly drops and after a little over a lines worth of drop the engine turns back on to raise the temperature.
The coolant temperature goes back up to the previous level and the engine shuts off again.
<Repeat>

 

What is the wind like in the cold climates?

I have noticed that my biggest contrubting factor to what mileage I can get is the wind. I am in Texas so the climate is mild compaire to the upper north (west or east), but if I have a strong cross wind my mileage can drop by as much as 7 MPG. I wonder if some of the low mileage was from wind more than anything else.

 

Using ScanGaugeII, what I find is the following. The bottom edge of the "blue" part of the temperature gauge corresponds to a water temperature of 35 degrees C. The top edge of the "blue" part corresponds to 45 degrees C. With ECO switched "on," the heater blower doesn't start up until the water temperature reaches 47 degrees C. The temperature gauge reaches its "normal" operating position (1 tick mark below half-way) at a water temperature of 60 degrees C, and doesn't rise higher unless the water temperature becomes dangerously high. With the ICE "off," the water temperature quickly falls in winter because of occupant heating demand. [Don't forget that the thermostatic valve that connects the engine to the car's radiator only opens above 82 degrees C nominally, so that, for in-town winter driving, the thermostat remains closed. It's only the smaller mass of water in the engine and heater radiator core that is hot. Its thermal capacity is smaller, so the water temperature drops more rapidly in winter when the ICE is "off."] When the water temperature drops below 53 degrees C, the ICE starts up again to re-heat the water; it shuts off again when the temperature reaches 57 degrees C. It will continually cycle "on" and "off" to maintain the water temperature in this range to satisfy the occupants' heating demands. These numbers are quite consistent from day to day in my experience.

Stan

 

Hi. We bought a brand new 2006 Prius in Brooklyn NYC. We broke it in and were getting 41 mpg. Then we received a postcard saying it needed to be "reprogrammed". We brought it in for reprogramming and ever since then the mpg has been dropping. When it dropped from 41mpg to 39mpg we took it to the dealer who told us nothing was wrong (blamed it on A/C which we don't use). The mpg has been dropping steadily since then (about 1-2 mpg per week) and is now at 23mpg. It is very obvious that something is wrong. We took it back to the dealer who tried again to tell us that the heat, tire pressure, gas type changes in winter/summer, etc. would affect the mileage. Well, obviously this is not the problem so we insisted and finally they told us that they were waiting for a back-ordered scanning tool so that they could test the car again. I insisted that they re-progam the car again in case something went wrong with the programming and they said they could not do this without the scanning tool. Does this make any sense to you? There is something obviously wrong with the car for it to drop from 41mpg to 23mpg. What should we do next? At 23mpg the Prius makes no sense. Thanks.

 

lizprius2006 — The colder weather has a very considerable effect on fuel consumption. This applies, of course, to all internal combustion gasoline engine vehicles, not just hybrids. I don't know whether this is what's causing your current bad fuel economy (FE) numbers, but before you conclude that there's something wrong with your Prius, I suggest that you conduct an experiment. Take a decent return trip of say at least 50 miles each way. Have the vehicle warmed up before you start. Look at your trip's FE figure. If it's closer to what you were getting before (it won't be quite as good because of the colder air temperatures), I'd conclude that there's nothing wrong. If not, perhaps you do indeed have a problem.

Stan