Help increasing 06 Prius gas mileage

I'm sort of disappointed. My Prius is stuck at 40-45 mpg for around town, This is a lot lowere than the 60 mpg on the sticker in the sales lot.

I think you can actually SHARE some secrets of frugal driving, not looking for anybody's tips on how to do better.

I am stuck at 47MPH (mostly highway). I am looking up to you to teach me how to do better:D

Cheers,
D~
Check out my Prius Blog

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the long absence, but now my 06 prius is at 10500 miles and hovering at 47 MPG, still good right?

fuelzilla, you have AIM or yahoo?

Your mpg sounds good to me. I'm driving around town, mostly, and averaging 48 to 49. My Mercury Villager 99 with only 35,ooo on it, and I might add, regret selling, only averaged 20mpg. Letting it go for $10,500 irks me that I did that. Biggest worry for my wife is she heard the Prius magnetic field is cancer causing. Any words of wisdom, anyone....

53 MPG is not bad at all. Here are some tips that helped me improve my gas mileage from 43.3 MPG to 62.1 MPG.

1. Don't go over 65 MPH on the freeway. The fuel efficiency drops drastically between 65 and 70 MPH. You will get the best gas mileage at 55 - 59 MPH.
2. USE CRUISE CONTROL on the freeway. You WILL see an immediate result with this.
3. USE CRUISE CONTROL in the city as much as you can. You can get on cruise control at 25 MPH or above.
4. When you accelerate, don't slam on the gas. Go easy and gradual. If you are at 25 MPH or above, you can use the "up" and "down" shift on cruise control to accelerate or decelerate.
5. If you see a red light ahead of you or when you KNOW you'll have to stop soon, let go of gas and start coasting. The less you have to rely on the brake to stop, the better gas mileage you get.
6. You won't get as good gas mileage when your outside temperature is below 40 F or above 90 F. The idea temperature is between 50-70 F.

On your next trip, try going steady at 57 MPH with cruise control on the freeway while having your "Trip Information" on your screen and see what it tells you. I think it will raise your eyebrows. Good luck :)

I just bought my Prius 2 weeks ago and after 1082 miles I'm up to 51 MPG. I was worried after the first tank of gas I was only averaging 46 but have paid attention to my driving style and watched the average go up gradually. My driving is a mix of highway 2-3 days a week and around town the rest.

glenn

Toyota and/or the dealership is NOT who makes the 61mpg guestimate, it is the EPA, and it is estimated at optimum performance levels, as an average, not an absolute every time figure. Jeff if you would look at the other MPG estimates out in the REAL world and compare them with what the vehicles HONESTLY are getting, trust me, you have got a winner with your Prius!!!

Mike

I've had my 2007 Prius 5 months, have about 5500 miles and have consistently gotten ONLY about 35 mpg in town. On rare occasions when I do highway, I average about 47 mpg. When I first questioned my Toyota service center at about 2,000 miles, I was told there was a break-in period. Now at 5500 miles, I'm told there's a 15,000 break-in period! Everyone who has written here talks about GREAT mileage well before 5,000 miles. I just took it in for its first service and asked them to check it and they said there was nothing to check for mileage -- just be patient. What gives?

My 2006 has 26500 miles. My overall average is 49 mpg. One interesting observation is that I drove to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming last summer and then back thru Idaho and Oregon and then home to Pismo Beach, CA last August. I was amazed that my average for the trip was 51 mpg. I wasn't exactly going slow thru the long desert runs in Nevada and Idaho. It took me a while to realize that the oxygen sensor was probably cutting back on fuel mixture when at altitude. Yes, I am an engineer, nuclear.

Poor advise. Don't EVER go below the stated speed limit. I recently took a course on driver safety and the damn instructor wanted to spend 30 minutes chastising drivers for going over the limit. All the while I'm looking at his handout that shows drivers who were UNDER the limit/driving too slow, were the NUMBER 1 CAUSE OF ALL ACCIDENTS, BAR NONE. I repeat, going below the speed limit is the number 1 cause of all accidents on the road today. Keep up with the flow of traffic. Don't forgo safety for mpg. If traffic is too fast for you, get off the interstate and take a different route. It's safer.

And, from personal experience I've found the largest factor in determining gas mileage in a Prius is the use of climate controls. The fan in particular. Try setting your temp, then put fan on lowest setting. If you need to cool/warm up quickly, set fan a little higher, then down to lowest setting after a few minutes.

Well, actually speed never killed anyone. It's actually massive deceleration, usually caused by stopping that generally kills or injures. I suppose you could say that the massive decelleration generally puts you below the speed limit, probably at least at the time of injury (TIC).
I don't think this really supports Mabulok's assertion though.
I will say, however, that I feel much less safe driving 55 mph on California's freeways than I do at the speed limit or higher though - not that I do that very often.

I've been driving a rented Prius around New York the past week. I've done everything wrong.....driving it like a taxicab. Had the heat cranked up in the cold, with a high blower setting. Filled it up today.......getting 45 mpg. I thought that was really very good. Nice car....fun to drive.

I have an 06 prius and get 51 mpg. I do mostly hiway driving. It all depends on how you drive the car in order to get 50 plus mpg. It is not the most comfortable car on the market but I did not buy it for comfort. I do a lot of driving so it saves me a bundle at the pump. I am considering changing my oil to synthetic type oil. I read someone elses article that did this and gained another 3--4 mpg.

Impressions of Driving 2008 Toyota Prius

Weaknesses:
1. NIMH battery, twenty-eight 7.2 volt modules and holds a charge of 6.5 amp hours. Not powerful enough, gas engine kicks in at the first hint of any serious demands.
2. Visibility – good up front, but very bad on the rear sides and rear. I live and drive in a large city aka “combat driving,” it’s difficult to see when someone is flanking you even if you turn your head and look. With all the twitchy lane changers, you can get killed if you can’t see what’s going on. My car has been slammed into 3 times over the last 10 years by idiots, one uninsured.
3. Backup beeper – extremely annoying. How do you turn the $!@&!! thing off?
4. Can’t turn headlights on, must use driving lights during daytime, or else the dash lights, like the speedometer, will dim so much that you can barely see the display, even with dimmer all the way up. Is there an override that’ll fix this?
5. The speedometer and fuel gage, etc., are stuck in a hole at the very front of the dash, so the passenger has little idea what’s going on. Move it out a bit so everyone can see this.
6. Idiot lights, no RPM indicator, no temperature gage for engine, no oil pressure, etc.
7. 1.5 liter engine, slightly underpowered for some interstate highway hills, acceleration a bit lacking at highway speeds. Overall performance is Ok, but if you have to go up some Interstate hills, you’ll hear the engine kick down, twice, and it revs up pretty high, more than I like to see.
8. The center dash controls for climate, display, etc. Too many button pushes to get something simple done, like recirculate/circulate, and turning AC on or off. Just to go from recirculate to circulate air, you must push three buttons. (change the display, push recirculate, push display button again.)
9. There can be a very slight hesitation upon taking off from a stop light due to the engine startup. You can also feel it “surging” at highway speeds sometimes as it’s trying to decide which engine to use, regenerative charging, etc.

Positive:
1. Leg room, nearly identical to Camry. I can’t stand the Corolla for this reason, legs hit steering wheel even with the seat all the way back, and then must extend arms straight out with elbows almost locked to reach steering wheel. This is a huge plus, enough to make me not want to buy it otherwise. The car’s shape or unusual look or styling has no impact on my buying decision. If this changes to Corolla dimensions in a future model of the Prius, I won’t buy a Prius.
2. Fairly quiet, smooth ride, wouldn’t be afraid to drive it long-distance, pretty decent road car.
3. Surprisingly roomy.
4. Gas mileage exceeded my expectations; I recorded 48, 49, 52, 54, 37 (severe Santa Anna headwinds for 200 miles) and 49.2 mpg, with most of those miles being highway miles at up to 75 – 80 mph, about 10% city miles. At lower speeds, 40’s, 50’s and some 60 mph driving, gas mileage went as high as 54 – 56 mpg. If you really babied it, slow acceleration and keep it down to 60mph, I believe you could get at least high 50’s mpg.
5. There are some people in the oil exporting nations that lie awake at night and fantasize about methods to kill Americans and destroy America. I can’t stand the concept of sending truckloads of money to these folks. That said, even if battery technology isn’t where it should be, why couldn’t the Prius operate on 85/15 Ethanol to allow further significant reductions in gas usage? How difficult can that be?

We have been getting around 40 mpg based upon actual gas consumption, while the console shows 44 mpg. Have others experienced this difference?

It must be that those consuming alcohol are frequently those driving slowly (hard to see the lines if you're going too fast while inebriated).

Any idea how the Prius does at altitude? I live in Colorado at about 6500 feet and commute to places as high as 8400 feet. My Tundra is only getting about 15 mpg.
Thanks.

2006 Prius has 72K miles and is averaging 48-50mpg during the summer (mostly 70+mph highway driving) and as low as 43mpg in the cold Michigan winter months.

Short 5-10 minute trips are killers for mpg.

We bought the car to save money on gas when it was selling for $2.25/gal. Now at over $4.00 per gallon, the Prius is money in the bank.

Keep tires to max specs.

I found a 94 octane gas combined with my slow starts and coast to red lights driving = 60+mpg in my 2001 Prius.

A little faster downhill and coast up hill using battery as long as possible.

Turn a/c off going up hill but use fan, and a/c back on at crest of hill.

Watch battery/engine monitor and jack rabbits to the rear; just let them go; you can usually coast passed them at the next light.

52 miles per hour highway
45 in town.

By idling the car when you start up in the morning, you are only fooling the car's computer into calculating a higher gas milage incorrectly. It doesn't include the gas you burn warming up the car and charging the battery when it calculates your MPG, but you are still burning gas to do it.

I am very frustrated with my 05 prius. Currently I am getting 38 mpg -- tops! I have 38,000 miles on it. My dealer said it is probably the quality of the gas but it is no different from the gas I used when I got 49 mpg. Any suggestions? Is there anything a dealer can do to improve gas milage, in terms of a tune up?

Going into winter not happy with my mpg on my '08 Prius. Was getting approx 48 mpg, and now down to high 30's. What gives? It's Nov. in Northern Illinois, but I don't understand why this would affect the mpg so dramatically. I'm not a lead foot, and constantly watch the monitor to see how I'm doing. I'm amazed how even going as slow as 25 - 30 mph shows mpg of only around 30! Any suggestions for upping my mpg would be greatly appreciated!!

To the man who asked about Prius and cancer...I drove a Prius for a year and honest to goodness, was diagnosed with anal cancer after that year. As soon as I heard about the potential electromagnetic problem, I dumped the Prius and got a non-hybrid.

A friend's daughter also drives a Prius, and recently had to have "pre-cancerous" lesions scraped from the bottom portion of her uterus.

All true.

I liked the Prius and loved the carpool-lane stickers. But I could not keep driving it if there were even the slightest chance it activated the cells that turned into my cancer.

I'm still alive, but not sure about the future. Chemo sucks.

I have a really long commute- I drive 200 miles EACH way on my Prius (just once per week). It's mostly freeway all the way, and the thought of going under 70 mph is too mind numbing to be taken seriously. But, with cold weather, I'm down in the very low 40s mpg. My all time best for thi kind of driving is 47 mpg, and I haven't been that high for a tankful in months. I'd be very happy to consistently get 45 mpg - is that possible at the 70 mph I'd like to maintain?

Hmm, I traded my '05 Corvette for an '06 Prius. I did this because I hate OPEC. All the same, my first few weeks had me stuck in the mid 30-mpgs, that is until I read a few posts from other Prius owners such as these here. Pretty soon, I was reeling in mpgs in the 40s. The only thing I did was remember to let the electric motor do most of the work as for as long as possible and as often as possible.

I recently took the Prius on a road trip to Columbus GA and to Birmingham AL. Myself, a passenger, 4 days worth of clothing and a load of photography gear (about 200-lbs or so). We took I-95 from Northern VA to I-81,...which is nothing but mole hills all the way to Atlanta. The Prius still yielded a a solid 44mpg. That said, surprisingly, the return trip yield 41.x mpg.

All the same, I often tease my non-hybrid car friends alot because the Prius does so well in fuel economy. I tell ya, I just may sell my '06 if gas goes North of $3 and buy an '08 as I'm sure Toyota did a lot of improvements to the 3Gen version over the 2Gen version.

Hth
JMD

I think 50mph is closer to the sweet spot. But most road I drive, I’d get run off the road doing it. So I only do it on the back roads when there aren’t other cars around.

I also tend to think that moderate acceleration is better than hard acceleration. Hard acceleration may involve lower mileage over a shorter distance but you also use more battery assistance doing it. Moderate acceleration does not drop the mileage as much as hard acceleration and requires less battery assistance.

But I think the bottom line on acceleration is the difference between the two methods, regardless of which is better, is probably on the order of 0.01 – 0.001 gallons per acceleration. I’m not sure that difference would show up on a mpg readout accurate (at most) to one decimal point. Things like tire pressure and clean air filters will have more of an effect on mileage than acceleration.

Changing my commute to optimize the use of 50 – 55mph roads has helped. I’m on my third revision to my commute. I’ve gone from using about 1.08 gallons round trip to using 0.92 gallons round trip. If I had more time to deal with the traffic in the morning, I could probably get it down to 0.82 gallons round trip. But I can shorten the time of my commute by 15 minutes by drivng an extra 6 miles on back roads.

The one thing I keep reminding myself every night as I make the last leg of my commute, an 8 mile uphill climb, and my realtime mileage drops into the 20-30mpg range… its still better than the 18mpg I used to get in my Jeep Wrangler.

Overall, I’m averaging 53 – 56mpg.