Surprised by my own Prius!

[seasidetraveler]

I will be the first person to admit I have driving habits that most would say don't mix well with a Prius. I have always known I COULD get better gas mileage if I was a little more tame, but never thought I could get such a HUGE increase.

This weekend my friend and I traveled North to Fresno CA, he had a festival to help with, and I had my sister's college graduation to attend. Since a lot of my family would be there, I told him we could take my Prius and then he could have it for the weekend - if I needed a car I could drive another car easily. My friend is a very careful driver and obey's ALL traffic laws- even the ones related to speed haha. I have always told him he should borrow the Prius for a week and see what mileage he gets, thinking he could get maybe 55 mpg, while I "only" average 49 mpg long term.

Yesterday he called me concerned because the gas gauge had not moved since he had the car and over 200 miles on the trip meter. I told him not to worry, the first bar takes a lot longer to go than the rest, so with his driving he shouldn't worry. He picked me up today and there was 305 miles on the trip meter, and STILL only one bar was gone on the gauge! I thought either he tricked me or the gauge was broken for sure. I usually am lucky to get 200 miles on half a tank, let alone one bar!

We went to fill the car up and it took 4.5 gallons, including top off. He averaged 66 mpg!!! That is remarkable! You may be wondering what type of driving he was doing, right? Well, he was staying in Auberry, CA which is 26 miles from Fresno, in the mountains, so driving up and down the mountain, plus he went up to a casino in Oakhurst, CA for a lunch- so that was another trip to the mountains- not the ideal mileage for our dear hybrids.

I really may have to re consider my driving habits. 66 is much higher than 50, and I can save a substantial amount of $$ just by driving the speed limits!

I am still in shock...




EDIT:

I had him drive back to LA today, so we'll see what mileage he averaged on the freeway, plus the huge grade after Bakersfield. He will be taking the car tomorrow because he fell in love with the Prius and wants to show his work mates- so we'll find out what he averaged tomorrow. The screen said 53 mpg, but it is always way off- so I am thinking he got at least 55 mpg.

[mcbrunnhilde]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(seasidetraveler @ Jun 3 2007, 10:21 PM) [snapback]454823[/snapback]</div>

The screen said 53 mpg, but it is always way off- so I am thinking he got at least 55 mpg.
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FYI the screen is actually extremely consistent...if you look at an individual fillup and get a figure that's way off, then you are looking at inconsistency in the pump/nozzle/bladder, not in the screen display. Most people who track their lifetime mileage on a spreadsheet find that the screen is approximately 2% optimistic over their calculated mileage. The Prius is especially susceptible to way-off calculations at individual pumps because the bladder is so temperature sensitive.

I hope you decide to go the speed limit and increase your mileage. It only takes a few more minutes, and you'll actually arrive at your destination more relaxed and in a better mood!! :-)

[acdii]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Jun 4 2007, 01:34 AM) [snapback]454844[/snapback]</div>

FYI the screen is actually extremely consistent...if you look at an individual fillup and get a figure that's way off, then you are looking at inconsistency in the pump/nozzle/bladder, not in the screen display. Most people who track their lifetime mileage on a spreadsheet find that the screen is approximately 2% optimistic over their calculated mileage. The Prius is especially susceptible to way-off calculations at individual pumps because the bladder is so temperature sensitive.

I hope you decide to go the speed limit and increase your mileage. It only takes a few more minutes, and you'll actually arrive at your destination more relaxed and in a better mood!! :-)
[/b]

Actually, that depends on how poorly the previous tanks were. If as the OP said he is getting 49 MPG, then someone else drives it and gets better MPG, it will take longer for the avg to go up on the display, so 53MPG does sound about right. It is an average over however many miles since the last reset, so if it was never reset and the car has 4000 miles on it, that would be the average over 4000 miles. I have about 2000 miles since(or had, it is in the shop now with a funked display) the last reset and it was running about 47 MPG, then my last tank calced out at 53 MPG, the display went up 1 MPG over 400 miles. At last sight it was hovering about 48.8 MPG, but my average was just around 51 MPG. It takes much longer for the numbers to go up, than they do to go down. If the OP gets back behind the wheel and resumes the driving the same as before, the 53 will drop rather quickly and then will be closer to the actual avg, than it is now.