O.K. I'm bragging here. My little c just took the top spot on Prius Chat's Top 20 list in competition with all non-plug-in Prii. Top 20 MPG Record Holders | PriusChat
that is insane! would love to hear your tips!! but, an average speed of 27mph is pretty slow - i personally don't mind driving at that speed to get that MPG, but i think other drivers would
Keep in mind that average speed includes idle time, stopping and acceleration. So if you drive mostly city with a little highway then 27mph is about right. My commute is 98% highway and even with a cruise speed of 60mph my average indicated speed is 43-46mph.
The purpose of this tank was to maximize MPG. So, I chose where to drive and when to drive. I have a couple of loops and round trips that I know from prior experience return good numbers. I did try a new direction and route or two, but they weren't as productive and hurt MPGs. A large portion of time was spent driving on 40 to 45 limit city streets (450 or so miles) where the traffic lights are not synchronized, rather they are set off by sensors, so unpredictable. Therefore, as F8L suggests, much stopping and acceleration. I drove about half the distance at night to stay cooler and minimize traffic. I fell in love with 'reverse passing' and don't think I caused much angst or anger to following traffic. In fact, the only finger I saw came from someone who didn't like the fact he ended up trapped behind me and I was only doing 65 in a 70 zone! The 15 seconds he had to spend there were too much I guess. This was on one of the two times I needed a short trip on a four lane highway to get to one of my 'sweet spots' during heavier traffic. Not one person honked at me.The other 250 miles were on a rural road I know well from my 'Sunday drives.' I get small 'hello' hand gestures from the locals as I wave them around me and a few baleful stares from the livestock. I don't have any secrets or special knowlege that can't be found on the forums here. All I needed were some patience and my two days off to go with familiar topography. That's it. As you can tell from my fuelly history, there's nothing special happening during the normal course of events. I think a really skilled hypermiler could probably break 100 MPG if driving my routes. Then again, maybe I'm being too modest.
I think it's only a matter of time before someone breaks the 100 MPG barrier here for a tank. I have a question: The HSI infoscreen only goes up to 99.9 MPG. Other than calculating fuel consumption at the pump, how will this person prove just how much over 99.9 MPG is obtained? Is there a way to temporarily change the HSI output to l/100k for this purpose or something of the kind? I've done a cursory scan of the manual and haven't run across anything. F8L?
