Prius Mileage Per Bar

[howser178]

Hi all, I have recently purchased a 2007 prius T-Spirit for my wife. First impressions of the car are wow! Amazing car which makes me wonder why the roads aren't crammed with them.

Since owning the car (tank filled after purchase) my wife has driven 130 miles with a rough split of 70:30 Motorway:Town driving. In this time the computer shows an average of 54.6mpg; however, we have already lost 3 bars of fuel. Can anyone give a rough guide of what you usually get per bar??? I know this is likely to vary, but I am thinking that an average of just over 40 miles per bar is not a true representation of the mpg that the computer is showing.

Many Thanks,

Andrew

[dwilson]

Hi all, I have recently purchased a 2007 prius T-Spirit for my wife. First impressions of the car are wow! Amazing car which makes me wonder why the roads aren't crammed with them.

Since owning the car (tank filled after purchase) my wife has driven 130 miles with a rough split of 70:30 Motorway:Town driving. In this time the computer shows an average of 54.6mpg; however, we have already lost 3 bars of fuel. Can anyone give a rough guide of what you usually get per bar??? I know this is likely to vary, but I am thinking that an average of just over 40 miles per bar is not a true representation of the mpg that the computer is showing.

Many Thanks,

Andrew

Hi. I have done just over 400 miles since the last fill up and have 3 bars left - will fill up soon. My computer is showing an average of 62 mpg.

[Jan&tone]

I used to get between 540/600 miles from a tankful on my gen2, roughly 55/60 miles per blob. But that's not an exact science, sometimes it would go for 40 miles per blob , sometimes more, it depends on how much the electric motor is driving you....

[howser178]

Thanks both, will just have to wait and see what the rest of the blobs bring home! Can I ask what sort of driving you were both doing, whether it was motorway or around town? Those mpg figures are impressive.

[dwilson]

Thanks both, will just have to wait and see what the rest of the blobs bring home! Can I ask what sort of driving you were both doing, whether it was motorway or around town? Those mpg figures are impressive.

Hi - well I filled up today and entered the data on Fuelly - if you click on the icon you will see the details. The 62mpg turned out to be 54.7mpg - but apparently it is a bladder tank and I think I may have squeezed more in!

Anyway that was not on motorways but included a mixture of traffic jams through town and reasonably freely flowing A roads. I have also had headlights and heater on a fair bit. I think I would do better if it was less hilly!

I had done 440 miles and had 3 blobs showing.

[Terry953]

Hi all, I have recently purchased a 2007 prius T-Spirit for my wife. First impressions of the car are wow! Amazing car which makes me wonder why the roads aren't crammed with them.

Since owning the car (tank filled after purchase) my wife has driven 130 miles with a rough split of 70:30 Motorway:Town driving. In this time the computer shows an average of 54.6mpg; however, we have already lost 3 bars of fuel. Can anyone give a rough guide of what you usually get per bar??? I know this is likely to vary, but I am thinking that an average of just over 40 miles per bar is not a true representation of the mpg that the computer is showing.

Many Thanks,

Andrew

Had alarming experience to-day with my Auris HSD T3 after looking at my fuel bars in the morning I had two left, so mentally made a note to get filled up over the week end.

However into this afternoon and not many miles later I glanced at the bars and was presented with a flashing last bar!! and a LOW FUEL warning on the R/H display thingy. Quick check of the 'miles left indicator' and it said 20 miles.

Immediately selected 'ECO Mode' and !Removed! footed to the nearest pump, [Reassured my wife that if we did run out of petrol we could get there on 'EVO' Battery power].. Any way got to pumps OK with 13 miles left.

Question Time,

1.Has anyone actually run out of fuel? Please relate your experiences. I believe you get an audible warning at some stage but it must be at a very late stage.

Moral of this story for me and other Auris owners FILL UP ON THREE BARS B)

Cheers TerryB

[timberwolf]

Hi - well I filled up today and entered the data on Fuelly - if you click on the icon you will see the details. The 62mpg turned out to be 54.7mpg - but apparently it is a bladder tank and I think I may have squeezed more in!

There are a number of differences between the USA and the UK Gen 2 models, we didn't get the fuel bladder in the UK, phew!

[dwilson]

Hi - well I filled up today and entered the data on Fuelly - if you click on the icon you will see the details. The 62mpg turned out to be 54.7mpg - but apparently it is a bladder tank and I think I may have squeezed more in!

There are a number of differences between the USA and the UK Gen 2 models, we didn't get the fuel bladder in the UK, phew!

Thanks for the info

[Jan&tone]

Thanks both, will just have to wait and see what the rest of the blobs bring home! Can I ask what sort of driving you were both doing, whether it was motorway or around town? Those mpg figures are impressive.

Generally motorway with a few country lane trips and 3 or 400 miles a year on the Isle of Wight, where I live town driving is usually half a mile to the town centre in the wife's Aygo:)

[DrCez]

Had alarming experience to-day with my Auris HSD T3 after looking at my fuel bars in the morning I had two left, so mentally made a note to get filled up over the week end.

However into this afternoon and not many miles later I glanced at the bars and was presented with a flashing last bar!! and a LOW FUEL warning on the R/H display thingy. Quick check of the 'miles left indicator' and it said 20 miles.

Immediately selected 'ECO Mode' and !Removed! footed to the nearest pump, [Reassured my wife that if we did run out of petrol we could get there on 'EVO' battery power].. Any way got to pumps OK with 13 miles left.

...

Moral of this story for me and other Auris owners FILL UP ON THREE BARS B)

Cheers TerryB

Did you make a note of how much fuel you were able to get into your Auris when you filled up? I would hazard a guess it was in the region of 37-38 litres even though the tank capacity is 45 l, because this is what happens with my Prius (which also has a 45 l tank). In other words there is a fair bit in reserve even when bars are flashing, alarms are sounding, and the range is down to 0 miles!. Before my last fill-up I drove about 70 miles with the low fuel alarm sounding (because I wanted to try for 500 miles on one tank for the first time), after which I filled up with 43.3 l.

Has anyone actually run out of fuel? Please relate your experiences. I believe you get an audible warning at some stage but it must be at a very late stage.

Over on PriusChat, bwilson4web tested this outcome in a Gen 3 Prius (see this link). In summary:

- His last fuel bar started flashing with 2.1 US gallons = 1.75 UK gallons = 8.0 litres left

- When he completely ran out of fuel the car switched to Battery power and kept going until the Battery was dead (he was disappointed that the car didn't try to shut itself down to protect the Battery rather than completely discharging it!)

Back in the UK johalareewi estimates about 7 l left in his Prius when the last bar starts to flash (see this post).

I had assumed that the low fuel beep sounds at the same time as the last fuel bar starts flashing, but your post suggests you didn't hear any alarm?

Of course the Auris HSD and Prius will have differences but I don't think you need to worry unduly when the fuel gets down to the flashing bar, and I know from experience that even when the range is down to 0 miles you won't be out of petrol. My guess is that Toyota have programmed the warnings and range with plenty in reserve because they don't want drivers habitually sucking muck from the bottom of the tank through the engine, and for that reason (rather than actually running out of petrol) it's a good idea to refuel sooner rather than later.

[Terry953]

DrCez said :--

"Did you make a note of how much fuel you were able to get into your Auris when you filled up? I would hazard a guess it was in the region of 37-38 litres even though the tank capacity is 45"

"I had assumed that the low fuel beep sounds at the same time as the last fuel bar starts flashing, but your post suggests you didn't hear any alarm? "

Thanks DrCez

I can confirm your guess regarding my refill, which was 40.odd litres and after RTFM I realised there was a lot of extra reserve left.

Regarding the Bar Flasher, again after RTFM there is no mention of an audible alarm for an AURIS, it just mentions that the flash rate increases and a 'LOW FUEL' warning dominates the R/H display.

Some good info in your post, much appreciated.

Cheers TerryB