This One Really Pushed the Prius – A Four-Day Family Getaway!

[Paradox]

Wow, you sure have getting high MPG's down. I have taken two road trips now in mine, the last with me, my wife and 3 year old son and my parents and I got 49.1 for the whole ~325 mile trip. Even with that my total mpg since I bought the car is still low 46's... Share your secrets! lol

Really though, I drive my 2010 like I did my 2006... Normally. I drive it like a regular car and i still am impressed with the numbers I can get. That's what I always tell other people, you don'd need to change your driving style to STILL get impressive numbers with a Prius.

Glad you had a great trip, and I'm sure like me, there will be MANY more to come! I just love using the AT now.

[ggood]

Originally Posted by Paradox

Wow, you sure have getting high MPG's down. I have taken two road trips now in mine, the last with me, my wife and 3 year old son and my parents and I got 49.1 for the whole ~325 mile trip. Even with that my total mpg since I bought the car is still low 46's... Share your secrets! lol

Really though, I drive my 2010 like I did my 2006... Normally. I drive it like a regular car and i still am impressed with the numbers I can get. That's what I always tell other people, you don'd need to change your driving style to STILL get impressive numbers with a Prius.

Glad you had a great trip, and I'm sure like me, there will be MANY more to come! I just love using the AT now.

Good, I feel better now! My numbers are even worse because of a lot of short trip driving, and running AC to counter the killer heat wave down here.

[a priori]

Originally Posted by V8Cobrakid

that's great to hear! my 04 packed to the brim with two mountain bikes on a rear hitch gets about 30mpg while cruising over 70... and my car has the same rim size as yours.. and may be just as "light"

so 50+ mpg is excellent

Remember: I kept all of the luggage INSIDE the car. The drag of a bike rack would just kill the mileage. Getting 30MPGs under the conditions you described (including the bike rack) is pretty impressive.

Originally Posted by usbseawolf2000

That kind of MPGs with the 17" wheels are very impressive!

Originally Posted by FireEngineer

You know if you put some 15" wheels on..........

Wayne

Nope! Stayin' with those 17s. I like the look; I like the driving feel; and with the mileage I'm getting, I'll live with the 3MPG "drop" from using those wheels.

[a priori]

Originally Posted by Gen 3 for me

Your experience makes me more comfortable to be buying one.

Originally Posted by Blind Guy

THANKS, these are EXACTLY the kind of posts we need!

Since we also have a V w/ AT coming to port 7/7/2009, we read your posts with GREAT anticipation.

Thanks, folks! I'm glad these posts help. I need to remind Gen 3 for me that winter fuel economy in Illinois (at least where I live) is a whole other story. In the past couple of winters I've seen my mileage drop by as much as 20MPG to a tank.

Seasonally, my numbers for the past two years in the 2007 looked like this:
Summer 07. . . . 52.4
Fall 07. . . . . . . 51.0
Winter 07-08 . . 43.7
Spring 08. . . . . 54.4
Summer 08. . . . 57.6
Fall 08. . . . . . . 51.8
Winter 08-09 . . 46.0
Spring 09. . . . . 55.5

My driving did improve, and the car usually gets better mileage with age, but I also installed an electric engine block heater early in Winter 08-09 (well, FireEngineer installed it for me). That made a difference!

[nola_Prius]

Originally Posted by a priori

Thanks, folks! I'm glad these posts help. I need to remind Gen 3 for me that winter fuel economy in Illinois (at least where I live) is a whole other story. In the past couple of winters I've seen my mileage drop by as much as 20MPG to a tank.

Seasonally, my numbers for the past two years in the 2007 looked like this:
Summer 07. . . . 52.4
Fall 07. . . . . . . 51.0
Winter 07-08 . . 43.7
Spring 08. . . . . 54.4
Summer 08. . . . 57.6
Fall 08. . . . . . . 51.8
Winter 08-09 . . 46.0
Spring 09. . . . . 55.5

My driving did improve, and the car usually gets better mileage with age, but I also installed an electric engine block heater early in Winter 08-09 (well, FireEngineer installed it for me). That made a difference!

Why are the Winter months noticeably lower MPG??
I thought getting the cold and more dense air, and not using the A/C as much should improve the fuel efficiency.
I'm new to hybrids, but am I missing something?

[a priori]

Originally Posted by basspro

Very nice report. I have being driving my 2010 Blue ribbon V with Nav for about three weeks now and was just wondering how have you been able to get those high 50 MPG's. I am just getting into the low 50's meaning 50.8 to 51.8 just driving on Eco and really babying the starts and stops. What do I need to do to get into the high 50's like you, since we have pretty much the same car and options. Lastly your numbers are all based on MFD right and not actual pump numbers?

Congrats on the new BRM V!! To get into the 50s, you shouldn't baby everything. If you are just driving around town, then try to avoid stop signs and time stop lights. Don't brake unless necessary, so don't follow people closely. Always look ahead to see if the light is changing, there is no reason EVER to accelerate (meaning adding gasoline) toward a red light or a yellow light. Yes, my numbers are all based on the MID display. I don't feel I have enough tank fills to know the other data yet with any certainty. All the same, it looks as though the MID numbers are running 2-3 MPGs higher than the calculated numbers after tank fills.

Originally Posted by yogadoc

Thanks for the info. We are taking a trip to NY in a few weeks, it will be my first highway experience in my V. I'm spoiled by the incredible MPG I've been getting on my daily commute thus far. I hope I can do as well as you on the highways. Any tips for highway vs. back road driving?

I've been going counter to my own advice lately, because I've been using the cruise control and driving on Interstates. Those are not the places to see mileage go up. I prefer to drive U.S. Routes or State Highways -- both for the mileage and the scenery. The biggest thing in driving on highways is to gain speed on the downhills (not by coasting, but by accelerating) and bleeding it off (though not too slowly) on the rises. Another help is to get behind a big rig. I don't mean CLOSE behind -- you have to be certain the driver can see you, so if you can't see his side-view mirror (the whole thing), then he can't see you, and you are too close for safety's sake. You aren't getting much of a draft, but you are still getting the benefit of the air being "broken" for you.

Originally Posted by RodJo

Thanks for the detailed report! It performed better than I would have guessed, especially considering the strong headwind.

The headwinds have been real killers for me. I know this is the case with every car, but I've just been able to observe it closely on the past two round-trips I've made.

[The Electric Me]

When I first started to investigate Prius this is one thing that I found interesting. Most other vehicles forums, people would complain about not quite getting the published EPA mileage, or they would be happy about "getting" the mileage or exceeding it slightly.

Only The Prius owners would COMPLAIN about just getting the mileage. LOL! 50 mpg in a fully loaded vehicle on a long road trip? -Yes, no problems!

Interesting post. Keep the evaluations coming. It's heartening to me and helps me in my decision that you have the Prius 5 with 17 inch tires and don't seem to be suffering from any mileage hit due to the larger tires. Of course it is all relative, maybe you'd be averaging 2 mpg more with 15 inch rims...but it's all good.

[yogadoc]

Originally Posted by The Electric Me

When I first started to investigate Prius this is one thing that I found interesting. Most other vehicles forums, people would complain about not quite getting the published EPA mileage, or they would be happy about "getting" the mileage or exceeding it slightly.

Only The Prius owners would COMPLAIN about just getting the mileage. LOL! 50 mpg in a fully loaded vehicle on a long road trip? -Yes, no problems!

Interesting post. Keep the evaluations coming. It's heartening to me and helps me in my decision that you have the Prius 5 with 17 inch tires and don't seem to be suffering from any mileage hit due to the larger tires. Of course it is all relative, maybe you'd be averaging 2 mpg more with 15 inch rims...but it's all good.

I'm getting 65+ mpg with my V on my daily commute to (22.1 miles) and from (22.9 miles) work. I think the mpg you get will have more to do with your driving style and the terrain you are covering than the wheel size. The handling of the V with the 17 inch wheels has been a very pleasant surprise. Make sure you test drive cars with the 17 and 15 inch wheels before making a purchase decision.

[Bica2go]

Originally Posted by nola_Prius

Why are the Winter months noticeably lower MPG??
I thought getting the cold and more dense air, and not using the A/C as much should improve the fuel efficiency.
I'm new to hybrids, but am I missing something?

Nola_prius, you'll find other threads here talking about the lower mgp in the winter. It's normal. I'm still waiting for my Prius, but I've noticed this with every car I've owned. The winter gas is a different formulation, the car is colder and it takes time for it to warm up and run efficiently. You notice the difference in a Prius because of it's outstanding performance: a 10% change in mileage in my Audi A4 (2.5mgp) doesn't seem as bad as 10% in the Prius (5mpg) .

[Tideland Prius]

That's pretty impresive a priori. Funny how anything under 50mpg is just... disappointing

Originally Posted by nola_Prius

Why are the Winter months noticeably lower MPG??
I thought getting the cold and more dense air, and not using the A/C as much should improve the fuel efficiency.
I'm new to hybrids, but am I missing something?

Just to get it out of the way, it happens to all cars. All cars get poorer mileage in the winter.


Back to your question, it's because there's a winter fuel blend with more additives to prevent the fuel from freezing over which means in one unit measurement of fuel, you have less actual petroleum burning because of the extra additives. In addition, you use the heater to keep warm. The heat comes from the engine so the more heat you want, the more the engine has to run. (Some of us keep the climate control temperature lower so we demand less heat from the engine, thus allowing the engine to warm up faster).

Snow and ice hurt mileage. Everytime you spin the tyres to get out of the snow ditch, you're wasting fuel.

Running the rear defroster uses the most amount of energy and you run it more often in the Fall and Winter to keep the rear window (and mirrors if equipped) clear.