Each state has their own laws and requirements for classifying a sale as a lemon. There might be federal regulation on it too, but I'm no lawyer....

I would look it up online. You can also call Toyota directly and their arbitration process allows for the dealer to fix any problems within a reasonable amount of time to your satisfaction. The Toyota manual that came with the purchase of your car [or should have; mine did] has information on this process and the numbers to call.

If you do not have this information, let me know and I can provide.

 

maybe 3

 

Well I doubt you would do so well with a law suit, you know those infamous little words "your miles may vary". The other thing is that i don't think they are actually Toyota's mile estimates anyway, that's the EPA. I could probably get those miles with my driving (given I am almost getting them on the Corolla), but it is very remotely possible there is something wrong.

Aren't we dealing in the whole world of averages and so on??

--des

 

To keep all of this in perspective, I'm not insistent that MY Prius get 50 mpg. All I want to ensure is that my Prius is not "out of whack." I believe that because I live at the top of a 450-foot elevation hill, and the school, train station, soccer fields, dance classes, and work are down at 0-50-foot elevation, my mpg is simply not going to be as good as the mpg of someone doing the same type of commute but without a 450-foot elevation to deal with.

Secondly, prior to living in my current home, I lived in a home that was 35 miles farther to work. The distance of my work commute is significantly less today than it was before I moved into this home. It's not apples to apples, since my life would be much different had I remained living where I lived (my kids would take more public transit had I remained living in San Francisco, probably). Yet I am betting my carbon footprint today is far less than it would have been had I not relocated.

Of course, I probably would have changed jobs already if I had kept that 50-mile commute.

Again, my goal is to determine if my Prius is "broken"
in some way, not really to get my mpg up to it being equal with all you flatlanders.

I'm bringing my Prius to the dealer tomorrow, just for the 5,000 mile check-up/ripoff (mostly because they offered to detail it for me when I brought it in for the first time). I will ask them to see if they can figure out why the mpg might be lower than normal.

I should also run some sort of "flat land" test, to see if I can get mpg in the low 50s.

 

Have you checked to see if someone here or www.priuschat.com is in your area and could drive your Prius?

Just a thought...

 

why would someone else driving it make a difference? I understand that technique can improve mpg, but shouldn't I be able to get a good enough understanding of whether my car is "broken" if I warm it up, head to the flatlands, and then do a 50-mile "test"? If I still get under 40 mpg, the car is a lemon. If I get 45 or so, the car is working correctly.

True, it might tell me something if someone else can drive it and get 50 mpg on the uphill/downhill "normal" commute.

and I'd be happy to have someone else try it out

 

To isolate the reason for low fuel economy.

Related topic, I would not mind having Bill Kinney drive my Insight to observe how he got 168mpg on the MPG Challenge at HybridFest 2007. In my case, it's all about the driver.

 

I agree, you might want to have someone else give it a spin to see what results they get....

 

wow that sucks. I drive 20 miles (highway) to work and get about 51-53 and around town get about 80. Because most is highway, my average is listed as 57 right now. Before I got this car I used to have a heavy foot, and now I'm that annoying slow person that everyones zooms by to pass. BTW I'm in a hilly area, eastern TN.

 

How hilly is "hilly"? What is the elevation at your home and at your work? (you can get this through Google Maps, and some other places)

I bet 10% of the miles on my Prius involve climbing or descending a 450-foot hill, and I don't think the coasting descent makes up for the energy used in the climb.

It's either that, or my car sucks.