Does anyone drive their Prius 'normal'?

[qbee42]

I drive my Prius just like I do any other car. For me that means driving the speed limit and trying to time lights. In the summer I average 56 mpg on our local roads. On the highway I average 47 mpg at 70 mph. In the winter those numbers drop to 47 and 44. Note that the highway mileage doesn't suffer as much from the cold.

Tom

[mrblaise]

I drive 135 miles round trip every day between Ventura and Los Angeles. My trip varies between going up and down grades, stop and go traffic and dealing with the usual crazy L.A. traffic. I drive "normally" and easily average between 45-49 mpg without trying to increase the mileage at all. Not too shabby .....

[seasalsa]

Brian,
You will find that your definition of normal will change after getting your Prius. You will have no problem getting MPG's in the 40's. After a while this car seems to get under your skin and change some of your driving habits.

One of the major factors has to do with braking. Whe you let up on the gas the car goes into regenerative braking and in many cases will slow you down to where you want to be without even touching the brakes. This teaches you to try to time traffic signals to avoid using the brakes. Also with this feature your brakes will last much longer.

Go for it, you will enjoy it regardless of how you drive.

[john1701a]

Originally Posted by BrianNC

So anyone here who drives their Prius 'normal'?

An interesting omission from the subject title...

HERE is hardly representative of the typical owner. We are enthusiasts & supporters here, a "small" group of devotees. After all, most owners don't participate in online discussions about their vehicle.

JUST DRIVE IT is the motto for the typical. Those are the owners that, at most, do a few online searches for Prius content. They're the ones I hope to at least catch their brief attention long enough for a download of the User-Guide. Beyond that, they just enjoy the drive.

.

[xsmatt81]

69mph is a sweet spot for highway. last week i made a 200 mi trip and kep it at 69-70 with cruise on. My mpg was about 49.7 anything over 70 though will be lower from what i have seen. If you gun it, or dont feather foot pedal at all or try to coast at least to light's your mpg will be in the mid 40's or lower.

[xsmatt81]

69mph is a sweet spot for highway. last week i made a 200 mi trip and kep it at 69-70 with cruise on. My mpg was about 49.7 anything over 70 though will be lower from what i have seen. If you gun it, or dont feather foot pedal at all or try to coast at least to light's your mpg will be in the mid 40's or lower.

[stemchick]

What is "normal" anyway? LOL. I live in RURAL Montana. 67 miles to the closest town. That is where I work! So, it's a decent commute on a two lane rd that is all up and down. During the day, when I am in a hurry to get to work, I set the cruise at 70 (and still get passed!) and get about 40-45 mpg depending on the weather. At 4am on my way home, I have the whole rd to myself, so I have to admit I play the game with the MFD! it is fun to see the little green cars stack up, and that mileage just go up, up, up! (to about 50-54mpg) I am still new at driving the car, and the commute, but I am sure it will get better as I break in my new "yota!"

[tkil]

Switching from mildly agressive (fastest two lanes, 10-15mph over the posted limit) driving in a 1995 Subaru Legacy L (2.2L, AWD, 140hp, 5 speed manual tranny) to sedate (speed limit, two right lanes) got me from 22mpg to 50mpg.

Switching my driving style in my 1995 got me to 30mpg.

So the first 8 mpg (~30%) improvement is pure driving style. The next 20 mpg (~90%) improvement is purely from the technology of the 2004-current Prius.

Regarding driving style: if you have multiple lanes to use, do the math to determine the difference between 55mph, 65mph, and 75mph; on my 25mi commute in Southern California, it was less than 5 minutes. I found that well worth the relief from worries of speeding tickets, and the general mellowness of just cruising along without looking for the next gap in traffic.

I'd consider myself mostly a "normal" driver; I accelerate briskly to the speed limit, then use the cruise control as much as I can. I see anything from low 40s (on 75-80mph rural interstates in the desert southwest, at 5000+ft elevation) to low 50s (long 55mph secondary highway miles, or 45mph arterials).

Either way, I'd say "just drive it" and see how amazing the milage is. If you want to put the effort into the hypermiling techniques, well, the sky is the limit. (Well, at least 100+mpg, but you'll be pissing some people off at that point.)

Happy driving!

[a priori]

"Normal"?? I know I have modified my driving habits since purchasing my Prius. Still, I would frequently find ways to better regulate my driving when I drove an Altima. The big differences?: I can truly and easily coast with the Prius and I can take visual cues from the MFD to allow me to drive at a farily high efficienty.

I know that I accelerate at a much more even clip when driving my Prius. I also pay even more attention to MPGs because of the MFD. The instantaneous feedback really has made a difference in how I drive.

You can see my lifetime MPGs below. Please note that this number represents about 2.5 months of late summer/early fall and 5.5 months of cool to frigid weather. My three most recent tanks all have been above the 50 MPG mark, so I believe I am doing fairly well and getting back on track. I expect it will be a couple of months before I get my overall average back obove 50.0.

[KandyRedCoi]

Originally Posted by BrianNC

Hey! Newbie here and just started looking at the Prius. I currently have a car that I probably average about 20 MPG, and I figured even if I only averaged 40 MPG with the Prius it effectively is like buying your gas for half price.

Most of the posts I read everyone seems to be into optimizing gas mileage by changing their driving habits. What I am looking for are those that drive their cars the same way they drove before they got the Prius. 70-80 MPH on the highway, driving 'normally' around town, not trying to optimize gas mileage.

So anyone here who drives their Prius 'normal'? The closest I have seen so far was a member from Michigan who drove round trip to FL and averaged 70 MPH and still got about 50 MPG. I am interested in what kind of gas mileage you are getting. Can I drive a Prius like I do my current car and still average say around 40 MPG? Any stats from anyone? Thanks!

yes i avg 42mpg drive about 100miles/day with 90+% of it on freeway
one of the reasons why i bought a prius, u can still drive how you normally would and still save gas...period

only thing i do differently is use the cruise control as often as i can, since it will help in economy just a bit