skip to content

Gas Consumption - Can this be Right?

Created February 26, 2007, at 10:50 pm by JRP

I just purchased a one-year old Prius with 16K on it, from a Toyota dealer (previous loaner car). They filled up the tank on Wednesday when I bought it, and I've driven 298 miles since then. The tank is already at only 2 bars left to empty, and just driving to work and back today (approx 5 miles each way) made it go from three to two remaining bars.

Can this be right?? Supposedly I'm averaging only 40mpg, mixing highway and local driving (California resident, so when I say highway, I'm talking about between 70 - 80 miles per hour).

I'm new to all this and have been reading a lot of the forums to get better acquainted about the car, but this gas consumption - especially the drop from three to two bars in the course of just today - has me worried.

On top of that, the battery has only gone to full charge twice this past week, and today while driving home got down to only three bars also (though still blue).

Is there something wrong with my car??

Thanks for any help and sorry this is so long.

View user profile
Towshar
Member

4 years ago

I've also seen some forums and discussed with other hybrid users the "calibration" of the fuel guage. It's been suggested to run your car from full to the fuel warning light once every 3 to 6 months. While I'm not sure the role it serves, I just bought my car a month ago. On my first fillup I went 290 miles until the warning light. On my next fillup it was 340. And on my most recent one it was 400 miles. It's certainly possible that the previous drivers more frequently filled it up when it got around halfway and never let the gauge go to the warning light.

Along with my advice, definitely take Maria's. Her suggestions are the prime ones for getting the best mileage out of your prius.

Good luck and happy driving.

View user profile
Journey203
Junior Member

4 years ago

You might want to check out this page...

http://www.hybridcars.com/gas-saving-tips/maximizing-mileage-toyota-prius.html

Basically, to squeeze the most mileage out of a gallon of gas you can't drive a hybrid the way you use to drive whatever car you had before. You have to re-learn how to drive... at least how to drive your hybrid. I've had my 2007 Prius now for a month and am averaging 49 mpg on a combine city/highway driving. When I drive only to work (5 miles each way on city roads) I do very poorly but still in the low 40s. Driving on the highway gets me low 50s but as I increase my speed it decreases the miles I get out of a gallon of gas. I've become a proud slow driver on the highway <65 mph but I make sure not to drive on the fast/pass lane. :)

View user profile
JRP
Junior Member

4 years ago

Thanks for the good advice, and for the reassurance that there isn't anything necessarily wrong with the car! It really helped to hear it.

I've been reading about the driving techniques, and am trying to incorporate them into my local driving skills. I was able to increase the average MPG a little by trying to implement them where I can. Much of my driving is local, though with short stints on local highway,too. Today while driving on the campus where I work, I was able to successfully pusle and glide - it was neat to see no arrows anywhere on the display!

I'll just have to eat the mileage on the highway trips, because I cannot drive the speed limit in California - I would be a road hazard in that case, for sure!

One last question on this subject - any opinions on whether it's possible that the fact that this was the dealer's loaner car will permanently impact on the MPG? I ask this because of what I read about breaking in the hybrid system and getting the best mileage after about 5 - 10K - this car is past that point, but Im sure previous drivers didn't try any of the techniques. Could the car have been "broken in" the wrong way?

Thanks again!
Jessica

Post a new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.