Hi from WBL Minnesota,

Picked my '06 Prius in January. Averaged 37.5 mpg when the temp was sub 0 but now I'm getting around 45 mpg with the temp between 25F (night) and 40F (day). Can't wait to see what it can do when it warms up. Still breaking it in - only ~2500mi.
One upgrade (dealer installed) I recommend for MN winters is heated seats- I'm toasty warm when it's -15 F and the engine hasn't warmed up yet.

 

I think you will see a huge increase as temps rise. I am in MN and have a CVT Insight, and this winter I averaged around 50MPG, but in the summer I can get as high as 60MPG.

In Minnesota, it seems we have a triple threat affecting our mileage in winters:
1. Cold temps cause engine to run less efficiently
2. Using winter blend of gasoline (contains less energy per gallon)
3. All gas in MN has 10% ethanol, which won't give you as much bang for the buck

So we will never see the lifetime MPG figures that some of these people on here are getting! But the factors above affect all cars around here, so at least we can get a fuzzy feeling that we are doing better than most cars on the road :-)

 

Congrats on the new car! Well, January, so not *brand* new, but still, I hope you're enjoying it. When my mpg went down in the cold weather (Chicago- it's not as cold as MN, but it does get pretty cold here) I consoled myself by remembering that even if I'm feeling the cold pinch in mpg, all the other cars on the road are affected, too, and my hybrid is still doing SO much better than all of them. I guess that pretty much echoes what Kevin said. Anyway, welcome to the forum, and I hope you get the chance to look around and find some tips for driving strategies and q&a on the hybrid's little quirks. Good luck with the new car! Once it gets a little warmer, I'm sure you'll start to see some numbers that will make you smile!