Prius V Fuel :: Minus Temps Killing Mileage
Dec 19, 2013
I have a 2012 Prius v, and over these past few weeks I have gotten the worst gas mileage ever. The car was recording mileage at about 35 mpg, but actual has been closer to 32. Yes, I know that it's because Wisconsin has bee recording temps. in the zero or below zero range; but it's still pretty discouraging. In summer I get the normal Prius ratings for mileage ( about 44). How to increase my winter mileage?
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I knew when I bought my car it wouldn't get optimum mpg as no car would with the many short trips I have to make every day but I have 5000 miles on it already and have averaged approx 46 with all the city and highway combined.
I took it into Toyota last week for the tire rotation and ever since it has been horrible. There were 120 miles on the tank and I refilled because I couldn't stand to see it staying around 39 on the computer. I have never seen that before. I checked the tired and they had brought them down to 32psi so I put then back to 40/38 and refilled.
Not noticing much of an improvement, sadly. Hovering at 40 mpg still. Weather has changed a lot. Temps much higher daily mid 80s to low 90s. This is my first summer with the car and yea the ac has been on nonstop with the higher temps.
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While most of the emphasis I've seen on improving fuel economy seems to focus on warming the car up quickly in cool/cold weather, I seem to be experiencing significant mpg drops at the other end of the spectrum.
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Last week I switched my wheels and tires out from OEM 15 x 6 wheels with 195/55R15 Good Year Fuel Max tires to 16 x 7 Drag DR9 wheels (16.55 lbs.) with 205/50R16 Good Year Fuel Max tires. ( I wanted a different look) At first I didn't notice any change in mpg's, but that soon changed. The temps went down into the 20's for lows and 30's for highs. I went from 48 - 50 mpg to 41 -43 mpg in just a few days. I assumed that the drop was due to the cold weather. This morning I decided to check the tire pressure in the new tires. 32 psi all the way around. I asked the guys that installed the tires to fill them up to 44 front, 42 rear. I guess that never happened. Anyway, I looked on the sidewall of the tire to check max pressure and I was shocked (51 psi). I ran 44 front, 42 front on my old set, because that was what I was advised to do.
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Winter temps are dropping my mpgs from 51-53 mpg to the 44-47 mpg range. Snow, rain, slush puts drag on the car, as well as temps in the 20-40s causing the ICE to run more during warmup and during the 15 mile trip I make daily. Also mpgs in town on 1-3 mile trips are dropping into 29-33 mpg range. I guess the Prius isn't made to thrive in cold temps. I don't know if there is much I can do about it. I did remember to raise the pressures in my tires which has dropped also.
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Typically here in the Phoenix area the coldest it gets in the morning is mid to upper 30s for about 2-3 weeks in dec/jan for the low and 50s for the high. Half of November, Jan, Feb & March temps are around 40s for the low & upper 50s-60s high
With these temps is it worth grill blocking?...and how much of a MPG gain would I get?
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We gave the Prius a good workout in the rain for the first time today. Central Florida has been having serious amounts of heavy rain, creating water covered roads in our area. Normally the digital fuel mileage display shows around 55 MPG for most of our driving. However today it dropped to the upper forties very quickly.
We were running the wipers on continuous (low and med speeds), the AC (defrost) was running to keep the condensation off the windows, and the headlights were on. I wonder if the extra resistance of the water on the road also had an effect on the fuel mileage.
Even though we hit some fairly deep water and created large amounts of splash, the car tracked straight, the brakes worked well, and the power was totally uninterrupted. Other than the poor fuel milage we were impressed.
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I've had my XB 5-speed for nearly a year and 10000 miles. It as been dead on reliable and fun to drive. My gas mileage has varied from 26 to 31 in mixed driving and from 32 to 35 on the highway. I use premium fuel only because I can get it without ethanol. My fuel mileage also increased a couple of mpg due to getting the power robbing ethanol out. True it is probably not enough to offset the extra expense but I like not having the stuff in my car. My only dissatisfactions has been with the transmission gear ratios. They are way to low. This torquy engine could easily do with a ratio that would drop about 500 rpm for more relaxed highway cruising.
As it is, though, my XB will go up any hill or long grade without breathing hard! Another is the instrumentation. I don't mind the center mounted set-up but speedometer and trip meter for mpg ratings are both inaccurate. My speedo reads about 2.5 mph high and the fuel mileage read out has about the same error, also on the high side. I have the stock 16" tires. The clutch has a narrow engagement band and can be difficult to be smooth on. The car is fairly quiet, is comfortable and this years hot, humid summer has shown it has one of the best air conditioners I have ever experienced in a car. I thought it might be an electric unit rather than a belt driven compressor because there is absolutely no perceived drag when the compressor kicks on.
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Recently returned from trip from Austin Tx to Monroe LA. Gas mileage decreased from about 43.3 MPG to 38.5 MPG. A little annoyed by this but I guess I can attribute this to the increased weight in the vehicle. Still taking care in for other thing. Maintenance needed light came on & I assume it may be for a 15,000 mi checkup since it is nearing that mark.
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2011 Prius for wife. Mileage has always been upper 40s to low 50s until the last week or so, now she is seeing 35 mpg displayed.
I have asked for a check at fill up. I just pulled the car out to wash it and noticed the engine came on right away, same when I put it back into the garage. In the past we would get part way down the driveway before the engine came on. Also did a code check and no codes found
What are the approximate outside air temps? 40s am 70s pm.
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I've had my car going at 45 mpg the past 2 years. I just hit my 45k mileage mark. I drive mostly on the highway to work so getting 45 mpg is pretty good for me. This last few fill ups, I noticed my gas mileage has gone down to 40 mpg. I thought it was a mistake if it was just once but the last 7 fill ups has been that way. It just went down all of a sudden and has stayed that way.
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We have a garden variety 2007 basic Prius. That description will tell you that I'm no Mechanic. The mileage was between 40 and 43 MPG for years. Now it has suddenly dropped to 33 and 35. The average temp here in Florida is fairly consistent at above 60 F, so that is not it. Oil changed at the dealer, and not overfilled. Tires at the right pressure. Worn to perhaps 50% of their avg tread life. Also, I had the 12 Volt battery replaced at the dealer a few months ago, and no change. Is there a way to check?
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My 2012 Prius v (lowercase v) has about 80,000 miles on it, my work commute is 180 miles round trip daily. I had been getting 40-44 for about the first 18 months of owning/driving the exact same commute. In February I noticed when I filled the tank that the range showed around 370, which seemed odd, it was always over 400. I started tracking my mileage and it declined quickly. By mid-March I was getting a range of 320-340 with each fill up, and calculating MPG of 29-31. The dealer has had the vehicle for over a month now and can't find "anything wrong with it". Ummm, the MPG has dropped about 30%, isn't that something wrong?
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I turned on the car, CONS showed 56.0mpg,
backed out of the garage (about 20 feet) 55.8 mpg,
waited for the garage door to close 55.0 mpg (ICE started),
got to the end of the street (about 200 feet) 54.0 mpg
outside temp was 51F, humid, cloudy
had about 90 miles on new tank of fuel
I know you get big swings in fuel economy when you reset the trip on fill ups but I just thought it was funny that the mpg would drop 0.8 mpg while not moving.
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I recently purchased a new prius 2015. When I first got the vehicle and filed up it would say I had approximately 600 miles to go now it says I have approximately 400 something and I actually get a little under 400. So how many miles do you get let tank? Are they mostly highway or town miles? When you fill up how many miles does your car say you have? Also I was wondering how to actually get battery meter to ever say full I can never seem to get the last bar. And when I purchased the car they told me I couldn't go any faster then 15mph in ev mode but I actually can't go any faster then 8 mpg which kind of mashes the feature useless.
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My 2006 Prius used to get GREAt gas mileage - 48 mpg around town and 55 mpg on the highway. Recently and all of a sudden, my mpg's have taken a nose dive. I now get 35 mpg! When I'm on the highway, I barely get 44 mpg. I took it to the dealer and they couldn't find anything so they are insistant that it's my driving, oxygenated gas and/or my tire pressure (even though they didn't check the tire pressure).
My driving hasn't changed; my friend with a 2004 Prius buys her gas at the same station and she's still getting ~48 mpg so I'm thinking it's not the gas; and I am OCD about keeping my pressure constant. (I own a compressor and check the tire pressure A LOT.) I drive 5 miles to work - about 15-20 minutes - on relatively level paved roads. About 2-3 times a week I travel longer distances at highway speed. I wash and wax the car fairly regularly to reduce wind drag. I have noticed periodically when I'm coasting downhill, my mpg's are less than 20 mpg so I'm thinking something's terribly wrong.
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Well been playing with all the mode to see what they do and the one thing I have noticed is I get worst mileage under ECO Mode. Why it doing this.
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So, I was in Wash. State for a while this month and rented a Prius. I decided to check some mileage on mountain roads, and here's what I got. All of these are indicated by the computer, so they are probably 5% or so high. Unfortunately, I did not see either the maximum incline or average incline of these roads posted anywhere, so unless someone else knows them, these numbers are not worth too much scientifically:
UPHILL:
Going uphill on I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass from the West (from Seattle), at 70 mph (the speed limit), fairly steady, with a few decreases for traffic and curves: 18.6 mpg.
Going uphill on US 97 to Blewitt Pass from the north at 50 mph, also the speed limit: 27 mpg.
Going uphill on the Olympic National Park road to Hurricane Ridge, speed limit varying between 35 and 25, with a couple of sections as low as 15 mph: 22.1 mpg. (Maximum incline here might have been 6 or 7 percent).
On the Hurricane Ridge road, I reset the Trip Meter A about a mile from the top (interestingly both segments of the uphill trip registered 22.1).
DOWNHILL, mostly:
The Hurricane Ridge downhill produced an interesting number, because I didn't reset the thing at the top, so I had a mile of 22.1 mpg at the beginning. You go down for about 18 miles, losing about 5200 feet of altitude to nearly sea level (Strait of Juan de Fuca). We kept driving, and at 24.7 miles (so about 6 miles of driving near sea level), the mileage gauge still showed 99.9 mpg. (I took a picture, but it's too fuzzy to put in here.) It was a couple of more miles before I noticed that the trip mpg was down to about 91.
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I have a 2006 Prius with 165K miles. My MPG suddenly went down 20% (47 to 38). Tires are fully inflated. I did change to high-mileage oil at last service, could this be the cause?
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Temps average maybe around 10-15F in the winter so mileage won't be great. Tires are up, grill is blocked. We're getting about 42-43 on the HSI which means about 40 mpg in reality (I've checked this many times and Toyota is off by 3 mpg on average in our car). But Mike in Maine shows up with a 60+ mpg in 15F temps, and I know my fellow Alaskan, Spiderman, is getting 50+ easily. My commute is more highway than stop and go. I don't use P&G but I'm very gentle with the go pedal. I feel that I should be getting closer to 50 here, even with the temps. Is this too much to ask? Maybe it is...
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I'm so fed up with this Prius C. I did nothing but city driving and I got 302 for a tank at 8.247. It's going to the dealership to see if something is wrong. I haven't got over 369 on a tank before and that was highway driving.
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