Finally had Prius show it’s stuff.

[broski499]

Overall I’ve been pretty disappointed with my 2008 Prius gas mileage. Lifetime mpg has hovered around 45mpg. My commute has always been rather short which is what prob hurts my mpg the most, under 10 miles to get to work. I live in a somewhat hilly area, very little flat ground, lots of hills.

This weekend I drove up to Bakersfield and back and then had back to back trips up to Long Beach and back for two days. As much as I hate traffic the Prius really shines in stop and go. I was blown away. Finally got a tank of 54mpg.

All this to say, when the Prius is in its correct habitat, it works well.

Any advice to help increase my miliage on my short trips would be appreciated. I’m in south Orange County so cold weather is not really a problem.

Thanks!

[redpoint5]

There isn't much to do with the Prius, and all the normal tips apply, such as higher tire pressures, driving slower, avoiding brake use, etc. 45 MPG on a 10 mile commute sounds fine.

[Daox]

A block heater will probably be your best mod.

You may not have to deal with cold weather, but your engine still thinks 70F is freezing cold.

[JSH]

I second the block heater recommendation. I had a 05 and a 09 Prius. Both got about 25 mpg for the first 5 minutes as they warmed up. To increase MPG on short trips you need to get the engine to warm up faster.

[broski499]

Once I'm able to upgrade from a cart port to a garage I will definitely be doing the block heater! I don't think my association would like the extension cord ahha.

[S Keith]

You're pretty much in a near worst-case situation. 45mpg sounds fantastic.

Try to keep perspective. A small 4 cylinder non-hybrid would probably get high 20s/very low 30s on your commute. Your Prius results are a 50% improvement on that.

[broski499]

That’s a great point. My old Camry was averaged 25 mpg around where I live so the Prius really does step up the mpg.

I think I’m just jelous if all the other Prius’s on here getting 50+ haha

[vskid3]

Are you familiar with the Prius' warm up stages? There's a chance that you could be stuck in S3 and not make it to S4 (full hybrid operation) until late in your trip, if at all. You need to reach operating temp (73C, 163.4F), stop with the ICE running (or hold the brake and blip the gas to get it to turn on, if it was off when you stopped), and let it idle 5-10 seconds before it'll shut off and go into S4. It's kind of silly, because having a perfect commute with all green lights and no waits at stop signs will prevent you from getting max MPGs.

I like to have instrumentation that shows at least the ICE RPM and coolant temp. This allows me to get a good idea of what stage the car is in and what options I have available (the app Hybrid Assistant shows what stage you're in, if you want to be sure). Add an EV mode button to kill the ICE before hitting S4, and you can get pretty good mileage on short trips with lots of <40MPH driving.

[JSH]

It is also important to remember that mpg is a very poor unit to measure fuel economy. Saving 1 mpg is not a linear relationship and means a whole lot more for a truck getting 15 mpg than your Prius getting 45 mpg. Going from 45 mpg to 50 mpg is only going to save you 2.2 gallons of fuel every 1000 miles.

[ThermionicScott]

Yeah, but EcoModder isn't about being content that you're beating the MPG of a pickup.

@broski499, you list a partial grille block as a planned mod, have you tried one yet? Might be really helpful on those short drives.