Hi All,
My new Prius has about 130 miles on it now. My average mpg according to the computer is 41 mpg. Do I need to use tecniques like pulse & glide to get better mpg, or is there something about "breaking in" a new prius that may be causing the mpg to be at 41 when so many people report such higher mpg?
Thanks.

 

Give it time - and give yourself time.

The car will improve with more miles, and you will improve also.

Your driving skills will have more of an impact on FE than anything else.

I would say that pulse & glide can wait until you get more familiar with your new Prius.

Congrats on your new purchase.

Regards,

 

My mpg is starting to rise steadily now, and I don't even feel that I'm doing anything different, habit-wise. I think that after at least a few months of driving your hybrid, you sort of get a "sixth sense" about what sort of things to do and not to do. I'm talking about that level of precision where it matters exactly how much you press the pedal in a given scenario, not big things like whether you speed or stay idling at a light.

Look at all the records of the cars entered in the mileage database. Many of us start out pretty **** low. I know I did (some would say I'm still pretty **** low). But invariably, there's an upward trend - nobody gets worse as they drive their car more!

 

41 is really good out the door. I was getting 39 out the door during my first few hundred miles.

First off, if you can tollerate a harsher ride, bump your tire pressure to 40/38 or 42/40 front/rear respectively. Check it about every 2 weeks and top up if you need to. That should help your mileage. Dirve that way for a few gas tanks and see what happens.

There is a break in. As the car breaks in (which I hate to say break in because the vehicle is very well built and the tollerances are very tigh) you will notice higher and higher mileage, to a point.

Weather has a significant effect on vehicle performance. Choose a cabin temperature in the fall/winter which will keep you just comfortable, say between 68 and 70. And in the summer choose a temp between 74 and 78. Let the a/c system manage itself and you will be kept comfortable at the setpoint on the climate control screen.

 

Javawebgrrl,

Hang in there. It will improve. Check out my tanks in the Db. I started at 38 - now at 7000+ miles I just averaged 52.5 and 495 miles at last nights fill-up! Same commute, same driving style. (Okay, I'm sure that my style has improved a bit over the miles.) My partner and I took the Prius on a 2500 mile road trip 1 month after getting it. Right at about 3000 miles the mileage shot up from around the low 40's to the high 40's and it's stayed there ever since!

Be patient and around 3000 you should see it improve! As another post said you're already doing really well out the door...

Atlprius

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by atlprius

...Be patient and around 3000 you should see it improve! As another post said you're already doing really well out the door.

Interesting thought hit me when I read your comment. I drive a non-hybrid 2004 vehicle (while waiting for my '06 HCH). When I purchased it the dealer told me to not be overly concerned with the low gas mileage for the first 3000 or so, that the vehicle was "designed that way". He went on to explain the vehicles computer runs the mixture extra rich for the first 3K miles and also adjusts the timing (can't remember if it advanced or retarded it) to allow the new engine to be broken in.



As I read this and other posts I see a recurring comment that "my driving style did not appear to change, but I began to get better mileage" I am wondering if what is being seen is a similar feature?

 

I averaged 48 mpg on my new prius for the first two tanks and that was driving it in variable conditions. Now that the weather is getting colder I'm sure the numbers will go down. The pulse and glide is a good thing if your on flat terrain but I live in a hilly area so I don't expect anything higher than 48 mpg and less with the cold weather or a/c running.

 

Well, most every vehicle has a break in period where all the moving parts set in. It will vary from vehicle to vehicle depending on the precision of the initial build and the way the vehicle is driven. I'm not so convinced that the dealer's comment about the comptuer running the mixture rich is all that accurate. I think a better way to describe it is that the computer is adaptive, as such is provides a fuel/air mixture which is a hard programmed baseline for the computer and then as the vehicle is driven it adjusts that mixture based upon what the computer is reading from the various onboard sensors. I think he was giving you the bonehead description of this process rather than giving you the straight talk.

 

I've read the computer controlled slightly rich mixture break-in system is also implemented in other cars, like the smart diesel. In gasoline engines it's quite possible they retard the timing a bit as well to put less stress on the engine as it breaks in, and in the Prius this was a significant jump in FE, not a gradual climb as one would expect from a traditional physical-only break in.

Also, as far as FE goes in the Prius, you will take a huge "hit" if your trips are short. The during warm-up time the engine won't shut off when the car is stopped, plus it's running a rich mixture to get the heat flowing into the catalytic converter, so there's a huge mileage penalty during the first 5 minutes or so of driving that really shows up with shorter trips but is masked if you make longer trips.

 

Some see more of an improvement than others. If there is an improvement due to break-in on the Prius, I haven't seen it yet at 4500 miles. It has been pretty consistent around 44 mpg, regardless of my attempts to apply techniques described here. Inflating the tires to 40 PSI and driving more slowly does not seem to have made any difference, though it is possible that any gains might have been offset by an increase in the proportion of mountain driving.

Our Escape Hybrid has been pretty constent around 29 mpg during the warmer months, dropping a couple in the winter, or if there is anything on the roof rack. The Escape has about 10K miles on it, so it's about as broken-in as it's going to be.

Going uphill just kills the mpg averages on either car, and I never make it up on the way back down, even though the gauge read the max on most of the downhill. (It is true
that some of the "hills" I am referring to are actually mountains).

These figures are still way better than I got in my old cars, (a Civic and a RAV4, which got about 32 and 21 mpg, respectively).