Alright so I have a 2010 Prius and its got around 260 miles on it. I have been trying very hard to get the mpg around 50. Right now I am sitting a 38, got it from the dealer at about 25. It was going up very fast at first but has seem to plateu. On top of that I drive it like a grandma watchin all my bars, coasting, and keeping my realtime mpg around 50 or more. I was thinking, meh engine needs to break in. So my dad gets one with about 8 miles on it. Goes to work comes home, 44mpg! Getting it to 50 sadly has become an obsession now. Need help or advice. THANKS!
:welcome: I suspect you are over thinking this. Just drive it, get used to the controls, be normal. Once you get comfortable, you can start to read here how to get the best mileage, but first, lets be safe and learn how to find all the knobs and buttons when you need them. I reset my mileage every tankful, and yes at the start of a tank little things change the mileage quickly, while after 400 miles it is harder to sway the mileage of the whole tank.
First, welcome to Priuschat and congrats on your new Prius! :welcome: Secondly, my opinion is that you rid yourself of that pesky obsession. At least for now. Think of it this way, you are the equivalent of a new sportsman. And you are immediately obsessing over an inability to hit the ball far and straight and exactly where you want to even though you just bought your first clubs/bat/shoes. My opinion is that you spend the first few tanks just driving the car. Get a feel for it. Get comfortable with the deceleration of the regen brakes. Get comfortable with acceleration rates. Get comfortable with timing stoplights. Then, after at least a few tanks, start thinking of ways to increase your mileage. Besides, the Prius is a car that should be a joy to drive. If you spend all your time obsessing over mileage, you will never have that initial joy of the drive. p.s. I'm not condemning high-mileage quests and hypermiling. Quite the contrary. Just a more enjoyable approach.
Suprisingly after all the talk up of how different it was for some reason it came quite natural to me. Your right though and the first thing I did was find excuses to drive, and get used to the car. Now Im on to trying to peak the mpg. I am still on the first tank though so maybe after the next one. Thanks for the input.
I LOVE driving it. The mpg watching to me is like interactive driving that makes it even more fun. It is a blast to drive though regardless.
smirv - There is good advise above. Oh, good to have you aboard too. First, get several thousand miles on her, then worry about mileage. I like the Hybrid System display. After the car is warm, you will notice that if you can drive in the 30-45 mph range with a steady foot, the ICE will shut down, and your mileage indicator will increase to 99.9 mpg. Obviously, the more you drive in that range, your average economy will increase. It takes a while to learn how to drive the Prius. I can assure you that now that it is warm, you can manage 50+ mpg without much effort, unless you are "power accelerating" from light to light. Accelerate modestly from a light,get to speed then stay with the flow, but try to drive a steady 30-45 mph. When a light in front of you starts to change to red, get off the pedal and let her coast as much as possible. Report back after you have a few miles and experience with the hybrid.
Sounds good. I actually have been doing the coasting like a mad man any chance I get. Also, I did notice when I keep that bar in the grey, or the first half, it stays electric. I drove it last night and got over the little plateu a bit, with some hard work. I will report back though after my first fill up. Thanks again everyone for the input.
Oddly enough, "interactive" is how I would describe driving any vehicle, with or without an MPG meter.
Maybe I phrased it wrong. Let me be more specific for you Chris :mod:. I mean I feel more involved while driving than in previous/other vehicles I have driven. Better?:cheer2:
1. Inflate the tires. 2. Buy a ScanGauge so you can see what's happening. The MID is about 7% optimistic. A closer approximation is to add your tank's trip meter to the distance to empty & divide by 10.
