I wish I hit 35....I have been in the mid to high 20s for awhile....darn cold weather.

 

Sure, or you could do what I do and drive 45 mpg (summer) for 15 miles instead of 38-40 mpg for 20 miles the way I did for the first year in my TCH.

I never advocated driving further to get better mileage, I suggested checking alternative options which might give better ways to improve fuel usage. My change in commutes added 15 minutes vs best highway commutes down to 0 (or better) for really bad highway traffic. So I generally lose time. However I gain in consistency of my commute (it's pretty much _always_ 45 minutes now instead of 30-50 on the highway with no way of anticipating), shorter distance and higher FE. Again, it's all in the nature of the drive and the ways you do it--some of which is choice and some of which is learning curve.

 

Please don't take me seriously, I only meant it as a joke.
For the record, I always take the longer route (unless I have to go)
I'm usually not in a hurry

 

Our best tank so far has been 39.3 in NJ, with nearly 9k miles. Trying to hit the magic *40* has been elusive thus far. We'll see once the weather warms up.

 

I have about 2600 miles on mine and my best tank is only about 34MPG
I drive about 45 miles one way every day and it mostly highway miles, the hills are what kill my FE though...

 

Out of curiosity, do you use cruise control? And how fast do you drive? What kind of FE do you get per trip?

My experience is cruise is generally pretty good for highway driving, however it will start trying to accelerate up hills pretty fast at times which will drop the FE some, so I sometimes tap the brakes to override that seeming attempt to rocket up the slopes. You can usually almost maintain speed with some light pressure on the gas and decent FE rather than letting the cc gun it for 10mpg or something. And remember little things like warming up the car, letting it run at long traffic lights while it's still warming up, all these things eat gas and kill FE too.

Some random tips: http://green.msn.com/galleries/photo...=192&GT1=45002

And then there are all the hypermiler things too. But warm weather should help some, and hopefully learning more about what works best for you will help. Took me most of a year to figure out "full hybrid" mode or to discover my cross-country route was substantially better for FE than my highway route.

 

The TCH is my wife's car ... and she travels the Garden State Parkway for her commute. I've driven the car on the GSP as well many times, and the hills ARE mileage killers. I never realized just how many hills are on the Southern part of the GSP until we got this car. You can literally see all of them on the consumption screen. Up & down ... over and over.

 

I'm not sure how cold it was for you but I'm seeing a much larger range as the temps warmed from the single digits into the 30's. I went from a tank in the low 30's to 37 (calculated) with an average ambient change of about 25 degrees. I've just topped 2k miles so the breaking in period probably has something to do with that.

Good luck, I have the same goal. I'm looking forward to a consistent run of 40's and 50's.

 

We have lots of hills in Colorado and high elevation to cut off the air supply and we can get 39 to 43 on the high side. The tip I didn't see mentioned so far that makes a big difference is using the ECO mode on the Heating and Cooling.
Also applying light braking in advance of a stop helps with charging the battery. I saw a post on a Prius site, the best electric generation is a 22 second stop from 45 miles/hour. That is a fairly slow stop (if traffic will allow this).

I also have a post up called “MPGs and Fuel Brands Can be Compared” that is about the differences in brands of gasoline will make a big difference in your mpgs as well. I was getting 34 MPG and change brands and now I am getting 39 to 40 consistently.
I am sure these will help!

Good Luck..


Bill

 

You should get 2 or 2 1/2 mpg more once the engine is broke in. Starting at your first 5000 mile oil change it should start to slowly climb. You can pick up an additional 1 or 1 1/2 mpg simply by changing to the 0W-20 oil.

Walmart now carries it in the mobil one. (green cap). They offer a 0W-30, make sure to get the 0W-20 like the manual recommends.

You can also buy the toyota full synthetic at your local toyota dealer. Be sure to call first to see if they stock it.

I'm sure you already know to run 35 psi cold or higher in your tires. Sounds like you drive very similar to me. In time you will find various places where the TCH will easily go into the electric mode. I have a 8 mile trip on a local 4-lane highway where I drive home. Sometimes I can hit the EV mode up to 3 times. One place it will stay EV for 1 or 2 miles depending if the traction battery is full charged.