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2003 miles trip Prius Review

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by OMG, Jun 12, 2014.

  1. OMG

    OMG Junior Member

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    So me and my wife took a 4 day vacation to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon from up north with our 2007 Prius.
    Total of 2003 miles roundtrip.
    Average speed 75 – 90 mph on the long stretched roads which was 80% of the trip.
    AC was on and temperature varied between 98-110 degrees.
    Mostly long stretched flat roads with 25-35% low incline uphill driving.
    2003 miles total, used 43-44 gallons of fuel and average 45 mpg and about $150 dollars in cost.
    - Great on fuel
    - Drove with the gas light flashing for 60-70 miles before refueling. (as soon as the gas light started flashing I took it really easy on the car with speeds under 65 mph, was afraid we will be stuck on the road)
    - 457 miles when I refueled after driving with the gas light flashing for 60-70 miles and it took a little over 10 gallons of fuel, normally it takes about 8-9 gallons to fill up.
    - Very sluggish passing other vehicles and uphill driving.
    - I ended up switching fuel from 87 Octane to 89 and up which made quite a difference when passing and uphill driving mostly because I was doing over 75 mph. I was also passing vehicles uphill after filling with 89+ Octane.
    - Needed to give myself quite a distance from the oncoming traffic to be able to pass.
    - Got some odd looks from people while passing them.
    - The multi display touch screen got way too hot I couldn’t even touch the plastic around it.
    - The multi display screen was always switching from charging the battery to battery being used every second even when the battery was at 30%. I found that very annoying.
    - For the most part the battery stayed between 30-60% charge but mostly 30%.
    - Went uphill a couple of times with the battery at 30% and it depleted to purple 20% and then the engine ran only.
    - The battery pack fan went on when I stopped at a gas station after 9 hours of continuous driving while the car was on and stationary and it went off 10 minutes after we started driving again.
    - Cruise control was great.
    - Car is a little noisy and also can pull left or right a little at 90 mph if really windy or passing big trucks.
    - We drove in Vegas for a little bit and that when the battery pack was charge to about 70-80%.
    - The car’s edge is in town driving.
    - The radio was acting a little weird changing radio stations and volume by itself. It seemed that bumps and the heat was mostly the factor.
    - I am assuming this car is not an uphill kind of car due to the way the system is charging the battery pack on and off every second and if there is a lot of hills car will most likely run on its little engine only.
    Overall we loved it. Mostly because of the miles per gallon we got. In some places we paid $4 a gallon of gas.
    If you have questions fire away.
     
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Great summary! It looks like it was in series mode as it was trying to charge and use the battery at the same time. I would think it'll go straight to parallel mode (engine to wheels and engine to motor to wheels) but perhaps it was trying to charge the battery because of A/C usage.
     
  3. OMG

    OMG Junior Member

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    Yeah I don't know because we had the AC off for a bit and still did the same thing. The yellow arrow from the battery pointed to the electric motor and then would point to the battery. It kept doing that on and off every second pretty much the whole trip. The battery wasn't getting over 30%, only when we let off the gas and it was charging. Only when we went downhill and very little touch of the gas the yellow arrow would stay pointed towards the battery and it was getting charged over 30% up to 60% unless we let off the gas completely. Also the battery very rarely charges over 70%, we would have to let off the gas completely and go downhill for 10-15 minutes.

    If we would slightly touch the gas to where the yellow arrow would stay pointed at the battery the car would just slow down and at highway speeds we couldn't do that.

    Under 50 mph the battery charges better and is keeping he battery at 40% - 60%.

    Now the thing is that in this trip there weren't very many hills and battery ran down to purple.

    I am wondering how it would be if I drove a trip full with hills?

    Not sure if that's normal for a prius but that's how mine operates.
     
    #3 OMG, Jun 13, 2014
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2014
  4. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    I found this brace helped with passing semis and feeling wind pressure.
    prius g7 plate | eBay
     
  5. N3FOL

    N3FOL Member

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    Nice report. The 2nd Gens are truly dependable and have great mpg.
     
  6. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Awesome write up! Your prius seems to run differently than mine on the highway. Mine is almost always -engine powering the wheels, and topping off the battery, the battery usually only kicks in when going down and up hills. The arrows seem pretty consistent. P.s yours seems to get better milage then mine
     
  7. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    There's always the possibility that it didn't want to charge because of the heat. (since charging/discharging the battery would generate even more heat).

    Mine would keep out of the battery's storage unless I'm passing uphill, then I've seen it drain down to 2 or 3 bars on the Gen 3 but it's a pretty steep mountain road.
     
  8. OMG

    OMG Junior Member

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    Yeah not mine even straight driving is using the battery storage and keeps the battery at about 40-60%.

    I don't think mine would make a steep mountain trip. It just uses the battery storage too much even for straight driving. I don't know if the software needs to be updated or what. Gas mileage is great though.
    If it sits for a day or so battery will be low. Not sure what's up with that also. Dealer that I bought it from have it sit for a while in the parking lot in the winter.

    Or maybe the battery is running out? I guess will see.
     
    #8 OMG, Jun 23, 2014
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2014
  9. OMG

    OMG Junior Member

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    Also I noticed my gas lines are slower now. On a full tank I drive for over 100 miles until the first line goes off. Not sure why.
     
  10. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    It shouldn't. Ideally, it does want to keep it at 60% SOC (that's 6 bars out of 8) so you'll never see it at 8 bars unless you go down a hill where you're braking and topping the battery off.
     
  11. cipsaz187

    cipsaz187 Member

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    I recently did a 2K mile trip on my "09 Prius.

    A few things to point.

    1. Avg speed always below 80 mph. Average is about 75 mph. The 90 mph sounds very rough on Prius.
    2. Battery stayed at 85% full most of the time.
    3. Was always refueling at 3 bars of gas.
    4. The 90% was driving on cruise control.
    5. Avg mpg was about 46.
    6. Didn't have problem passing. If you drive fast, you might need to do a lot of passing which I hate, so I tried to follow the speed limit.
     
  12. Data Daedalus

    Data Daedalus Senior Member

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    Just did a 300+ mile round trip from London (UK) to the Glastonbury area via Weston-Super-Mare and back. First really long distance journey of about almost 200 miles non stop.
    How did my 2008 Prius T Spirit do?

    *Most of the motorway part of the journey was accomplished on cruise control.
    *I kept to between 65 and 68mph.
    *It was a hot day (24 - 25c on the MFD) so the AC was on - set at16c, but on the lowest fan setting.
    *I had no problems going up hills.
    *The HV battery gauge was at least in the high blues, and occasionally would be all green (except the last top bar) for a short while - despite AC usage.
    *The HSD bled off excess battery power on downward inclines, so that I was going downhill at 65mph (99mpg) with only the electric power arrows showing on the MFD.
    *I'm absolutely certain that running the entire journey with AC was definitely beneficial for the HV Battery.
    *On the return journey, I went a bit faster at 68mph for about half the journey. I didn't notice any appreciable impact on MPG.
    *Indeed, I started the journey with 62mpg and finished with 66.2mpg and 532 miles from a tank of fuel. There were still 3 pips left.
    *I'm now at 66.2mpg, 562 miles and have only 2 pips left - I might well hit 600 miles before I refuel.
    *The Prius IS a very good cruiser, and at times, it felt like I was flying a private jet, not driving a car.
    *Tyre noise depended on the road surfaces - some were very quiet, others produced a roar.


    iPad ? HD
     
    ftl likes this.
  13. Scallywag

    Scallywag Member

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    First, I'm noticing 25C = 77F is a "hot day"! It was over 32C here this week! Still warm enough for A/C though.

    Also, I'm assuming your 66.2mpg is imperial, giving 55.1 mpg-US. Given that assumption, it brings it right in line with good highway cruising for my vehicle as well. The battery-only for downhill was likely a power glide or "warp stealth", where the engine is spinning some without fuel but the system applies electric power to more or less offset the drag.

    I would be scared to try for 600 miles on a tank! But my understanding is you don't have the fuel bladder in the UK? So you can more reliably guess that there's really 11.9 gallons in there at full.
     
    Data Daedalus likes this.
  14. OMG

    OMG Junior Member

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    Now that we do city drive only battery stays above 6 bars and does whatever you describe it should do.



    very true I drove the car fast
     
  15. Data Daedalus

    Data Daedalus Senior Member

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    Just to let you know that I was finally able to get 628 miles out of that tank of fuel. I had 66.5mpg indicated, and it took just over 43 litres to fill up the tank again. For me, that's a new record. And to put it into context, my old 1998 Mazda MX-3 1.6i used to give me only 230 miles before it needed refuelling. My last tank was about 575 miles @ 62.5mpg - though I did fill up before the last pip started flashing.

    Overall, this is indeed a very impressive vehicle, but the truth is, to achieve these types of MPG results requires driving to an entirely new set of rules and discarding some old ways of driving that we've learned from driving fossil fuelled vehicles.

    Like a Glider pilot learns to take advantage of air thermal layers in the sky, so we Prii pilots learn to take advantage of favourable inclines on the road, and momentum from energy produced by the ICE. We learn to glide powerlessly where possible, and feather the throttle where applicable to still fly along at say 55mph while getting 99mpg on the MFD while the ICE is running!

    We don't have to be slow to get these kinds of figures - however, you quickly realise that you've become another ECU in your Prius, albeit a biological one :)
     
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  16. Scallywag

    Scallywag Member

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    Comes out to ~55 mpg-US, very nice!

    You're absolutely right about the new driving style. Unfortunately, I occasionally make trips that require driving to make good time rather than being overly concerned with MPG (which is how I usually drive). I recently drove a 1200-mile round trip (600 miles in one day there, 600 back a week later). Making such a long trip in one day, I find it more important to make decent time and cruise at 75 mostly (usually crested hills around 70, some bigger ones even slower, while driving down hills at 1500 RPM or 85mph, whichever was slower) and make pretty good time while being somewhat conscious of fuel economy and vehicle health. I found I could get pretty good economy (~45 MPG) with this technique while averaging ~75 mph for the trip. Sadly, to make my preferred economy, the trip would be over two hours longer, and I'd be a hazardously slow vehicle in 70mph speed limit zones.
     
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  17. LibertyDefender2

    LibertyDefender2 New Member

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    Go ahead, speak Geek, I still respect y'all. One day Ill need your know-how, but for now, I'll just be be me.
    - just got my beautiful sheepskin seat covers and a sheepskin steering wheel cover. Gray. All gray. So perfect. So pretty. My interior is all gray. I haven't covered my back seat, but being that it is leather, And I rarely have passengers, I just may leave it bare.

    Adieu for now. Luv my Prius!!!


    iPhone ?