I test drove two priuses (I nominate priora as the plural) tonight. Overall I was reassured--my overall impression is that it feels like driving a car with a pretty nice overall ride. I didn't mind the brakes at all. The only part of the drive I thought was lacking was, precitably, the power/pick-up from a total stop.<br><br>Unfortunately I did have one significant disappointment. With all the talk about 52mpg city I made the mistake of believing the hype. The first model I drove is being used by the dealer as a local shuttle car--purely city driving around Providence, RI. A glance at the console reveals that they've now put 242 of these city miles on the car. Average mpg: 37.<br><br>37??? What gives? There's been talk on this board of teasing your accelerations to avoid the IC engine kicking in--is driving like that the only way to realize the amazing fuel economy????

&gt;&gt;37??? What gives? <br><br>I get my worst mileage when doing demo rides. Idle time and warmup will kill mileage quickly. You will be able to get 42mpg which seems to be close to the lifetime average from other owners. I drive 100 to 200 miles per day city and highway and get about 42 mpg. If I try to get good numbers it easily climbs to 47mpg

Yeah--trying to drive more efficiently does seem to have a big impact. I tend use more power to get a decent acceleration off of, say, a red light--I get to cruising speed as quickly as I can. In a pretty short 150 mile or so test I did 40mpg air conditioned.<br><br>I also drive 5-10 mph over the speed limit which means on a 65mph highway I'll set the cruise control as high as 75mph. If I dropped 10mph I'd probably see better mpg numbers.<br><br>I think knowing your mileage from minute to minute is too much information. I'd be curious how such a meter would behave in my regular car--Altima with 5-speed transmission. I think the way to drive the Prius is to turn off the energy consumption display (yes--it can be done. Blasphemy, I know.) and just drive--let Prius do what it does. It is, after all, a truly automatic car.<br><br>Actually, I think the word "automatic" is misleading. Most people associate the word "automatic" with transmissions but that's really not what's meant when we talk about Prius. It might be more accurate to call Prius a computerized car.

Particularly when used under 'test-drive' conditions, i.e. short trips, long drains on teh battery as they discuss features etc. mileage may be low. However, my real life mileage for over 1400 miles has been between 49-51 on my 3 tanks of gas.

If you're looking for a light-to-light "beast",<br>you should be looking elsewhere (although the <br>performance can be pretty impressive -- and<br>a cause of chagrin to, for instance, BM-er<br>nerds in the next lane -- in the right<br>circumstances &lt;G&gt;)<br><br>As to "Average mpg: 37" ... I assume you're<br>looking at the MD in the dash. That's a <br>'guestimate' of the MPG since the last time<br>the meter was 'reset' -- last fillup, or <br>whenever. It is known to be "less than entirely<br>accurate" (shall we politely term it &lt;G&gt;) and <br>it is rather sensitive to driving behaviour/<br>conditions over that interval. [Think of one's<br>overall grtade in school -- a bad mark in one <br>subject can pull down the "average" dramatically,<br>and a whole bunch of good "marks" are required <br>to boost that overall figure back up.]<br><br>The only reliable indicator is calculating<br>the figure with miles travelled and fill-up<br>gallons/litres data [preferably over multiple<br>tanks of gasoline]. MPG in the hi-40's to<br>mid-50's range is very typical and not difficult<br>to achive.<br>As always, depending on local (environmental &<br>road) conditions and your driving style, YMMV.<br><br>Hope this helps (and prompts you to take<br> another look...)<br><br> jim (& Sadie)<br><br>[BTW: Plural of 'Prius' is 'Prii')

The initial mpg reading is known to be inaccurate possibly because the dealer prep involves running the engine for awhile without moving. You should hit the Reset button when you get the car. The mpg reading is pretty accurate except that it is about 2 mpg too high.<br><br>stephen

Dealers routinely move cars from place to place on the lot, which kills gas mileage because (as mentioned here before) the cold-start mileage is much much worse than the steady-state mileage.<br><br>Some dealers also have a tendency to run the A/C on the "MAX" setting, even when you don't need it.<br><br>From personal experience, my mileage was reading in the mid-to high 20's when I first got it, and jumped to 43 (on the gauge) after I reset the meter. I'm still on my first tank, so I don't have any "fill and spill" mileage info yet.<br><br>Cheers,<br>--Tom

My husband and I have consistently gotten 47-52 miles per gallon on all of our tanks of gas. The key is in how you drive it. There are techniques that will improve MPG. I would imagine that the car you test drove was driven by a lot of people who wanted to test its limits, its pick up, and really stepped on the gas. Here's what we do to drive it for the best fuel economy:<br>- we drive 5 miles over the speed limit or slower<br>- we coast as much as possible rather than accelerating right up until we want to stop<br>- we link trips so the engine is warm<br>- we try to drive a consistent speed on the freeway<br>- we limit our use of air conditioning (although even when we used it the whole trip from LA to SF we still got 47 mpg<br><br>These driving techniques have made us much less susceptible to road rage- and make driving very peaceful- an amazing accomplishment in urban CA.

One warning on the displayed MPG...when I got mine (with CD player installed at the dock) it was reporting 60mpg...I was really getting 42ish like everybody else. Turns out my CD player was incorrectly connected to the wiring harness, after the Toyota Tech corrected the wiring...it shows 42mpg.