1.4 miles to work and 1.4 miles back from work

no. you should buy a bicycle.

 

I walk to work about that far everyday, and here in New England, it is up hill in the snow both ways, year around. You are in Austin!

 

Yeah, sorry to say, no way to improve it. Personally, I would definitely bike or walk that distance as much as possible, but since you came with a car question, I'd say this: if you do drive regularly, you're probably getting double the mpg you would with a "normal" car, so although it's quite low, it's good for the distance.

Also, another way to think of it, let's say then 28 mpg real life, 2.8 miles a day, after two weeks of work it's only one gallon of gas, not bad!

 

Never mind bicyle: just walk, LOL.

Your's is an enviable commute, fwiw. My closest job place was a bit over 6 km, say 4 miles. I walked that once or twice, but it was just a bit much. Currently I walk about 1 km to train, then maybe 0.5 km at other end. That train costs me $187 per 28 days, starts to add up after a year...

 

I hold the belief that the Prius engineers were trying to meet emissions standards. Once the Prius warms up, one way to meet the standards is to not burn much gasoline. This interests customers, who like high mileage, but is a side effect of pollution control.

Sadly, there is no chance you are going to warm up any gas engine in 1.4 miles. A Leaf would have been good with that commute.

(I claim the Prius likes being driven, do not buy it to store for 3 months a year, and do not buy one to go 6 blocks)

 

Unfortunately because of the engine warm up time you can't really do much better. The only other thing you might want to consider is a plug in conversion kit that would let you plug the car in and run in electric only mode for your commute... then you could use no gas to get to and from work. However, it's unlikely that the conversion would actually pay for itself over the life of the car.

 

you could cut out the floor and do a fred flintstone. WILMA!

 

I would bike that for sure (when the weather is nice).
my work is 10 miles and I bike that when its nice.

 

Forget these naysayers. I say get those tires over 40 psi, get the no ethanol gas, remove the seats/radio/other dead weight, draft other cars, and you're looking at a rockin' 35+ MPG.:rockon:

 

:welcome:Like everyone says, no way to increase it much higher than it is. I hope you take it out on weekends for longer drives so the oil warms up. You definitely qualify for "severe" driving conditions.

 

You realize that at 30 mpg you can go about 300 miles on 1 tank

To go 300 miles with a 2.8 mile round trip commute will take you 108 round trips, or about 4-5 months to use that 1 tank.

If you got 50 mpg, you could go 500 miles, or 178 round trips, which would take about 8-9 months.

So we're basically talking about 2 tanks per year vs 3 tanks per year. This would be about $40-50 in savings.

Basically, my point is just drive your vehicle. It won't achieve super great mileage over such a short commute, but the different to your pocket book is very small.

I mean you will only commute 700-1000 miles per year. The oil lasts 10,000 miles. Does synthetic oil go bad? Do you have to change it every year? A synthetic oil change is about $60. The oil filter doesn't last forever either.

 

Double? More like triple what my old Subaru achieves for such a short distance. It warms up much faster than my Prius, but requires a lot of fuel to do so.

An engine block heater will help boost mpg, but won't likely save money for so few annual commute miles.

 

I you simply must drive such a short distance and want Prius-like mpg on longer trips then you should have waited for the PHEV Prius. Short of trading it in for a new car I would just grin and be happy that you are getting better mpg than most others cars in the same circumstances.

 

This kind of situation calls for a mod I wish was available when I have to do those quick trips to the corner store! A simple way to bypass the engine warmup and stay in electric, and a simple plug in trickle charger for the battery!

 

This would be a perfect situation for a BMS+ kit. You would add another Prius battery pack, get the wiring kit from BMS+ ECU screens and you would be going all electric. The best part is, even though the EV range of the BMS+ is limited, the comute is so short that it will work. Even an Enginere 2kw kit should work, but it would probably end up costing 50% more than the BMS+ kit.

 

LOL! I used to tell everyone that's how I got my Geo Metro to do 90 MPH! And yes, it would do that speed....downhill with a tail wind. I even got so lucky as to get pulled over in VA and get the ticket for it. You wanna talk about "shake, rattle, roll", that car started doing that around 65mph, smoothed out around 80, then rock n' rolled the rest of the time above that.

That car was a good case for the higher MPH the lower MPG.

55-65 MPH = 54 MPG (heading west through MD)
65-70 MPH = 45 MPG
70-75 MPH = 40 MPG

The trend continued up to around 80, when I bottomed out around 35 MPG.

 

I have a 1.5 mile commute, and we do better. I am in FLAT south-central Kansas. I'm guessing you have hills. That means you will always do worse than me on the short trips since Prius does not like to use the ICE for power when cold.

Anyway, here are things to do, if not already:
Yes, bike/walk when you can.
Otherwise:

Tires to max sidewall 44 psi cold pressure.

Full lower grill block (gen 2 owners block upper grill) -$2 for pipe insulation. Remove part or all of it on long drives in warm and hot weather.

Go slow. I sense you are, but you can drown in 2 feet average depth of water. Try not to use your brakes beyond a little regen when above 7 mph. Ideal would be to gently get to a speed that lets you glide (no bar in hsi) to the next stop without brakes. Your time value and of course traffic will cause you to go a little faster.

Consider any alternate routes that have fewer hills and/or stops while not adding a lot to distance.

Get a Scangauge II to better watch what is going on, not just on the commute but in general.

Make sure your oil in not overfilled and that the proper 0W20 synthetic is used.

I assume the car has no readily discernible alignment issue. If in doubt, have it checked.

Never use heat in your fair city, and keep AC use to a bare minimum. At the slow speeds, roll down the windows instead.

Just a few thoughts for you. We have been as low as 40 mpg on a tank, but that was in sub-zero snowy weather with defrosting of ice before proceeding, etc. We can hold 50 mpg when other local driving is mixed in. Must say I do not measure the commute in isolation, but we do it enough, if it was in the 30's I would know it.

Good luck.

 

Also, check that you get EPA-ish mpg under conditions approximating those cycles. In other words, when on a longer drive do you get 50 ish mpg on the freeway at 65 ish mph?

 

Oh I would kill for a 1 mile walk to work....in Austin no less.
Get a bike!!!
Park the car!!!