Rural Mail Carrier seeks advice on Pruis

[daisyday]

Can Pruis do it ? Stop and start 505 times per day, 6 days per week....Heat of summer and cold of winter in Wisconsin? What will my mileage be? How strong is the braking system....?How tough is the transmisson/drive train? Any advice would be great. Currently use a 1994 NIssan 4wd SE6 PU. Well maintained at over 205,000 miles by son who is a great mechanic. Uses 7-8 Gallons a day on 53 mile route. Looking for alot better gas mileage, but savings in gas has to make the payment on the pruis. THanks

[Rae Vynn]

Hmm, I seem to recall that there is a prius chat member who is a mail carrier... the car got a little beat up, from bumping mailbox posts, I assume, but they were happy.

Start/Stop driving is where the Prius does an excellent job. I'd suggest immediately replacing the OEM tires with REAL all-seasons, or swap good snow tires with good summer tires each year.

I'd make a wild guess and say that, if you drive reasonably similar to other postal carriers I've seen, you might get by on 2 gallons of gas per 53 mile day... at $4 per gallon, that's a savings of $24 per day... or $600 per month (5 days a week and 4 weeks a month). Hmm, that's about a Prius car payment.

Of course, your mileage may vary, and other offers may apply. Offer not valid in Kentucky, Wyoming, or Alpha Centurion. See store for details.

[Danny Hamilton]

Originally Posted by daisyday

Can Pruis do it ? Stop and start 505 times per day, 6 days per week....Heat of summer and cold of winter in Wisconsin? What will my mileage be? How strong is the braking system....?How tough is the transmisson/drive train? Any advice would be great. Currently use a 1994 NIssan 4wd SE6 PU. Well maintained at over 205,000 miles by son who is a great mechanic. Uses 7-8 Gallons a day on 53 mile route. Looking for alot better gas mileage, but savings in gas has to make the payment on the pruis. THanks

Check out posts by Timm from Wisconsin.

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

He claims an improvement on his mail route from 8 MPG with his old car to 38 MPG with his Prius.

If you see a similar improvement you'll be looking at less than 1.5 gal per day.

You may want to try sending a message to Timm to see if he has further information he can share.

[hobbit]

Every time the local mail truck comes by and I hear its farty
little exhaust pipe vrooming as it hops from box to box, I think
how much better that driver's life would be with a hybrid. Pure
electric to drift between all the short stops, and kicking in
just the right amount of ICE for the longer shots. It is *totally*
the right application.
.
It might be a little difficult finding a right-hand-drive version
of the Prius in this country, though.
.
_H*

[daisyday]

Originally Posted by Rae Vynn

Hmm, I seem to recall that there is a prius chat member who is a mail carrier... the car got a little beat up, from bumping mailbox posts, I assume, but they were happy.

Start/Stop driving is where the Prius does an excellent job. I'd suggest immediately replacing the OEM tires with REAL all-seasons, or swap good snow tires with good summer tires each year.

I'd make a wild guess and say that, if you drive reasonably similar to other postal carriers I've seen, you might get by on 2 gallons of gas per 53 mile day... at $4 per gallon, that's a savings of $24 per day... or $600 per month (5 days a week and 4 weeks a month). Hmm, that's about a Prius car payment.

Of course, your mileage may vary, and other offers may apply. Offer not valid in Kentucky, Wyoming, or Alpha Centurion. See store for details.

Thanks for your input. Diana

[daisyday]

Originally Posted by Danny Hamilton

Check out posts by Timm from Wisconsin.

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

Introducing the Wisconsin State Local Forum

He claims an improvement on his mail route from 8 MPG with his old car to 38 MPG with his Prius.

If you see a similar improvement you'll be looking at less than 1.5 gal per day.

You may want to try sending a message to Timm to see if he has further information he can share.

Thanks for your input. I contacted Tim Diana

[patsparks]

Originally Posted by hobbit

Every time the local mail truck comes by and I hear its farty
little exhaust pipe vrooming as it hops from box to box, I think
how much better that driver's life would be with a hybrid. Pure
electric to drift between all the short stops, and kicking in
just the right amount of ICE for the longer shots. It is *totally*
the right application.
.
It might be a little difficult finding a right-hand-drive version
of the Prius in this country, though.
.
_H*

I'm sure a mailman would love to have time to "drift" between mailboxes.

How about a Honda CT110 postie bike? These things are bullet proof but will require cold weather gear.

[Godiva]

Originally Posted by patsparks

I'm sure a mailman would love to have time to "drift" between mailboxes.

How about a Honda CT110 postie bike? These things are bullet proof but will require cold weather gear.

But how many packages can you put on it? Securely locked against theft?

[Guzzle_Knot]

While I think a Prius would be great for the stops and starts of delivering mail, I wonder if it is high enough. Could get tiresome reaching up to all those mailboxes.

[Boo]

Yeah, but I think the largest issue is whether OP is able to and can get used to driving in the right passenger side seat while the steering wheel, gas and brake pedels are on the left driver side.