2012 prius mpg

Based on data from 1,082 vehicles, 80,717 fuel-ups and 31,089,510 miles of driving, the 2012 Toyota Prius gets a combined Avg MPG of 45.75 with a 0.05 MPG margin of error.

Below you can see a distribution of the fuel-ups with 7196 outliers (8.19%) removed.

Following shows the average MPG of each of the 1,082 vehicles in the system.

• jerry

  2012 Toyota Prius
  Added Nov 2012 • 306 Fuel-ups

  Property of kkjerry

• 56.6Avg MPG

• Prius Top Option Grade

  2012 Toyota Prius Premium 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic
  Added Jan 2020 • 60 Fuel-ups

  Property of nerdkmutt

• 43.9Avg MPG

• Griffey

  2012 Toyota Prius Five 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added Sep 2012 • 176 Fuel-ups

  Property of richardtung

• 48.5Avg MPG

• Toyota Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Four 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Jun 2017 • 161 Fuel-ups

  Property of MisterWubbs

• 47.0Avg MPG

• My Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Three 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Aug 2017 • 1193 Fuel-ups

  Property of Jasonw10

• 39.6Avg MPG

• 12 Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Four 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added May 2021 • 12 Fuel-ups

  Property of bwinkler

• 45.5Avg MPG

• Toyota Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Four 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added Aug 2019 • 100 Fuel-ups

  Property of sriddle7

• 46.0Avg MPG

• Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Two 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added May 2017 • 300 Fuel-ups

  Property of ac7ss

• 50.0Avg MPG

• 2012 Prius III

  2012 Toyota Prius Three 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Aug 2019 • 25 Fuel-ups

  Property of GeorgeKalopisis

• 45.1Avg MPG

• White Prius III

  2012 Toyota Prius Three 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added May 2012 • 122 Fuel-ups

  Property of cdsnoccs

• 43.9Avg MPG

• Chunker Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Three 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Sep 2017 • 342 Fuel-ups

  Property of Chunker2

• 43.3Avg MPG

• 2012 Prius 2

  2012 Toyota Prius Two 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added Jun 2017 • 308 Fuel-ups

  Property of ferdmack

• 42.0Avg MPG

• My Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Three 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added May 2018 • 134 Fuel-ups

  Property of tencentblues

• 39.4Avg MPG

• Barcelona

  2012 Toyota Prius Five 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added Aug 2020 • 69 Fuel-ups

  Property of Tomskii

• 44.7Avg MPG

• My Prius 2012

  2012 Toyota Prius Four 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Sep 2020 • 20 Fuel-ups

  Property of apapabear1024

• 39.1Avg MPG

• Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Two 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added Oct 2017 • 305 Fuel-ups

  Property of norimakiusa

• 48.0Avg MPG

• The Queen's Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Four 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Apr 2017 • 150 Fuel-ups

  Property of Dyjital

• 40.8Avg MPG

• My Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Dec 2020 • 28 Fuel-ups

  Property of Garbage1FF

• 49.3Avg MPG

• 2012 Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Three 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT
  Added Aug 2017 • 201 Fuel-ups

  Property of jhg6308

• 45.3Avg MPG

• 2012 Toyota Prius

  2012 Toyota Prius Three 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Automatic CVT Hatchback
  Added Jan 2018 • 414 Fuel-ups

  Property of Terrill

• 46.8Avg MPG

Whenever a new car hits the market, there’s always a website somewhere on the Internet keeping track of how real-world gas mileage differs from the EPA’s official quotes. 

So it’s no surprise that owners of the 2012 Toyota Prius C have started to keep track of the gas mileage of their car on websites like PriusChat.

One post, What Is Your Lowest M.P.G?, caught our attention, as it highlighted one simple fact we sometimes forget. 

Even in a hybrid car, your gas mileage will vary. 

Under 50, over 50

In ultra-controlled EPA gas mileage tests, the 2012 Toyota Prius C is rated with a city gas mileage of 53 mpg, and a highway gas mileage of 46 mpg, resulting in a combined gas mileage of 50 mpg. 

2012 Toyota Prius c ECO Score Display

We’ve encountered people who have achieved much higher gas mileage figures, but as some Prius Chat participants have discovered, the opposite is also possible. 

One poster describes a short, 5 minute trip up the road resulting in a gas mileage of just 31 mpg, while another jokes about a mad dash to the local hospital resulting in a fuel economy of 36 mpg. 

As another points out, the faster you go, the worse the fuel economy, citing just 22 mpg while traveling at 100 mph in a Prius liftback. 

Urban lover

Although it will work as a long-distance car, cars like the 2012 Toyota Prius C are designed to be urban cars. 

With an engine tweaked for efficiency rather than power, the 2012 Toyota Prius C’s engine will be less efficient traveling at 70 mph on a freeway for extended periods of time than it will be driving around town at an average speed of 35-50 mph. 

In fact, at speeds above 60 mph, the engine in the Prius C does most of the work to push the car along, while at lower speeds it works in tandem with the electric motors to produce the most efficient power blend. 

All the usual suspects

2012 Toyota Prius C

Just like other cars too, the gas mileage of hybrid cars like the 2012 Toyota Prius C will be influenced by the same issues that non hybrid cars have. 

These include poorly inflated tires, poor maintenance, bad weather, a tired driver, an overloaded car, and of course, running the air conditioning. 

It’s worth remembering too, that in cars like the 2012 Toyota Prius C, running the air conditioning will still have an effect on energy efficiency, even though it is powered by the car’s traction battery pack. 

Sit in traffic long enough with the AC running, and the Prius’ traction battery pack will become drained, causing its gasoline engine to kick in and your gas mileage to drop. 

Tips for better Prius C gas mileage

As we’ve said before, the best way to get good gas mileage out of a Prius is to accelerate smartly away from a stop light if you’re NOT in electric mode, so one motor can recharge the battery from the gasoline engine while the other contributes torque to accelerate the car along.  Coast, then repeat. 

This is different from single-motor hybrid cars, where power cannot be generated and used at the same time. 

Secondly, ensure that you’ve followed our handy tips on getting better gas mileage, and make sure you know which commonly-believed gas mileage tips are myths.

Thirdly, remember that gas mileage will and does vary from day to day. Instead of obsessing about a particular trip’s efficiency, examine your gas mileage every week or month instead of every trip or day. 

You might find it isn’t as bad as you first thought.

And remember. Your. Mileage. Will. Vary.

Do you have any Prius gas mileage tips? Leave them in the Comments below.

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With the 2012 Toyota Prius hybrid family now comprising four members, the subcompact Prius C hatchback is the one least like its siblings.

It's smaller, with a smaller engine and battery, and less cross-section to cause aerodynamic drag.

So does it consume less fuel? The EPA rates it at 50 mpg combined, as it does the larger Prius liftback--but the little Prius C gets a better city mileage rating (53 mpg) and a worse highway rating (46 mpg) than its big brother, which is rated at 51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway.

This weekend, over our usual test route of about 320 miles--which is roughly two-thirds highway and one-third urban and suburban--our 2012 Toyota Prius C test car returned 47.1 mpg.

That's well within the 10 percent margin we allow on the EPA combined rating, and it's an impressively high number.

The second trip odometer setting, which included an additional 117 miles before our tenure in the car, produced 46.2 miles per gallon on average.

Gas mileage aside, we enjoyed the little Prius C. Three days with the car confirmed that it's far more fun to drive than its larger and more ponderous siblings.

Its electric motor moves it away on electric power alone, and if the 1.5-liter engine comes on, the usual driving tricks let you accelerate up to speed and then lift off to revert to electric drive. We saw all-electric travel as high as 45 mph.

While its electric power steering remains irksomely free of useful feedback, the subcompact Prius can be tossed into corners and otherwise hustled through tight traffic more enjoyably than the Prius liftback--though a large rear-pillar blind spot doesn't help over-the-shoulder vision.

The rear window is also shallow, and to get any kind of rear vision at all, we had to remove the rear-seat headrests and leave them on the (flat) floor.

From behind the wheel, the Toyota Prius C hybrid has good, supportive seats and a clearer, more coherent dashboard than the big Prius.

Its energy-flow diagram and other info is displayed on a small full-color display rather than the scattershot arrangement of numbers, graphs, and icons strewn across the wide but short Multi-Information Display of the Prius liftback.

And the little Prius may have more useful storage areas, bins, cubbies, shelves, cupholders, and the like than any car we've driven thus far. We found a space for absolutely everything, from sunglasses to soda cans to toll tickets and cash to tall mobile phones.

If only those cubbies had rubber pads to prevent it all sliding around ... but that's fixable with a trip to the craft store.

2012 Toyota Prius C

The one chronic drawback to the Toyota Prius C, as we found during our First Drive last spring, is that it's noisy at highway speeds.

Remarkably noisy. So noisy that not only do you have to turn up the stereo a lot, but even front seat riders keep asking to have comments repeated.

We note that Honda added more sound-deadening to its Insight subcompact hybrid hatchback in a 2012 update to the 2010 original. We hope Toyota will do the same.

2012 Toyota Prius C, Catskill Mountains, NY, Oct 2012

Two other quibbles: It's impossible to run Pandora on a mobile phone through the car's audio system without first installing the Entune app, a step many other automakers don't require.

And the rear shelf over the load bay rattled in our test car, something we've never before experienced in a Toyota.

Otherwise, we liked the 2012 Prius C hybrid, it delivered the promised fuel efficiency--and we got a lot of questions about it too.

For the sake of your ears, we'd recommend it most strongly for buyers who don't spend a lot of time over 50 mph. It's fine at speed--but did we mention noisy?

Our test car was the 2012 Toyota Prius C Three model, the middle of three trim levels. That comes standard with automatic climate control, as do all Prius C models, and also a display audio system with navigation and Toyota's Entune connectivity system, using a 6.1-inch in-dash color touchscreen display.

With an MSRP of $21,635, plus carpeted mats for the floor and load bay ($225) and a $49 cargo net, plus a mandatory $760 delivery fee, its total sticker price was $22,669.

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