What is your fuel tank range poll?

I am just wondering what kind of range people are getting between fill ups. I know somebody with a second-generation Toyota Prius that is getting roughly 550 km on a tank of gas. This ends up being about 343 miles for the people living in the US. This is with just one bar of fuel remaining in the gas tank. At very optimal summer conditions, and extremely good result would be 750 km or 470 miles. I hate to say it, but it's definitely not a lot better than my Honda Civic which is 1994. The gas tank sizes are exactly the same in both cars. This is a 2009 model, so one would expect that it has the latest firmware and any software bugs removed. The extremely long range can only be achieved during a couple months of the summer. Soon as it starts getting a little bit cool, the fuel economy sinks right down to the short range. The car is not driven on short trips, it does a 40 minute commute one-way everyday.

What kind of range are you getting out of regular gasoline which is 87 octane?

If I fill the tank when the last bar on the fuel gauge starts blinking it will take about 10 U.S. gallons, 2 gallons left in the tank. If I am careful enough to get 50 MPG I can go 500 miles. If I am driving on the freeway it would be more like 470 or 460 miles. I can safely go another 50 miles after it starts blinking so I could get a bit more.

Normally I don't let it get that low, I fill it when it gets down to about 2 bars or so.

This is in a Gen III forum, but discusses a Gen II Prius. It claims to be a Poll, but has no poll questions.

In any case I refill at the first station I have a CC for, past 400 miles.

930+km and fill with about 42 litres. I drive in urban areas, 37km each way commute, mostly flat with one hill of 2km which drops 150 metres and slight undulations. 40 sets of traffic lights each way and speed limits from 50km/h local streets, mostly 60km/h on main aterials and up to 80km/h for 10km each way, including the hill.
I also do a few short trips each week, under 10km.

With our ZVW30 and NHW11, we consider 500 miles, 800 km, to be travel for a full tank. I've gotten more but usually with a spare, 1 gallon, gas can in the car. But then most of our driving is in town.

Bob Wilson

I drive a 2010 Prius and fill up with regular gas. My commute to/from work is made in rush-hour traffic, 53km in each direction across the top of Toronto via the 401-series highways. On average, it takes me about an hour to make the drive; 45 minutes on good days 1:15 on slower days.

So far, my best tank (during the summer) was about 1100 km while my worst has been just over 950 km (although I'd guess that this will continue falling as we move into winter). I fill up each time with something between 38 and 40 liters of fuel; this works out to just less than two weeks between fill-ups.

But fuel economy is not the only thing to consider.

With my previous car, a Hyundai Accent, I had to fill up once per week (same size 45 liter tank). Although the Accent gave a nice, relatively quiet ride, it was a bit tedious to drive in stop-and-go traffic, with engine vibrations originating from air conditioner load, radiator fan load, and rear-defroster load. Then there was the automatic transmission constantly shifting up and down as traffic moved and then stopped. And wear on the brakes that doesn't happen in the Prius since most of the braking energy is regenerated and returned to the high-voltage battery.

The Prius is the only car I know of that rewards you for driving in stop-and-go traffic, both from a fuel economy perspective and from a driving enjoyment perspective. There's nothing smoother in stop-and-go traffic traffic than an engine that's not running. The air conditioner is driven by the high-voltage battery and the radiator cooling fan never cycles on-and-off since the engine is always off during stop-and-go situations.

This is the info from my last 4 tanks of gas. I used to get around 570 miles on a tank of gas. The cold weather is bringing it down. The best I have done is 600 miles on a tank. I have over 11,000 miles on it now.

Yes indeed, I posted this message on the generation three forum to mainly see what people are getting on the third generation vehicle. I only mentioned the second-generation Prius because that is the only example that I have. The second-generation Toyota Prius results are also welcome as they were extremely indicative of what the third-generation is going to be like. For all the hype in the marketing of the third-generation, the reality is the generation three vehicle is just a slight improvement over the second-generation Prius on a lot of items. What Toyota may claim 90% of all new parts and vehicle, the reality is it's the same parts and really the same vehicle as the previous generation and of course slightly enhanced, ironed out some of the wrinkles of the previous generation. With more actual data and newer technology Toyota has tried to improve the third-generation. From what I've read on the Internet they have achieved that goal on most things. Toyota has learned from the mistakes made in the second-generation, and pushed the technology further.

I am asking the question to generation three people.

That's very interesting that your second generation Toyota Prius actually has better fuel economy than the third-generation. Guessing from what I have read, many people claim the third-generation Toyota Prius has better fuel economy than the second-generation. From what I've read below your average fuel economy might be better so far on the third-generation vehicle, but I'm guessing that is mostly because it hasn't gone through winter yet. I'm sure when you average winter fuel economy with the summer the third-generation Toyota Prius would probably have slightly worse fuel economy than your second-generation did.

Thank you for the information, it's very interesting that you first-generation Toyota Prius actually gets about the same fuel economy as your third generation vehicle. From what I can see, the Toyota Prius has definitely improved in terms of styling, performance, comfort and handling. But it seems the fuel economy of the vehicle is probably more determined by how you drive the Toyota Prius. It seems to be the general impression I'm getting. Do you alternate between driving the two cars or is one of the vehicles driven by one person and the other vehicle driven by the other person constantly. All I'm trying to find out, if the fuel economy of the two cars is influenced by a different driving style.

Totally off-topic, how have you found the reliability of the first-generation Prius to be so far. Have you had any major repairs, or even minor ones that were very expensive? What is your general opinion on how the car is holding up. Does it squeak and rattle and has minor issues with buttons or something not working?

Interesting fuel economy figures on the website my hybrid car.com. Interesting that you have two entries with extremely high fuel economy.

Extremely interesting results, you're probably getting one of the better results that I have seen on this website. Ironically however, most of my commute is going to be 55 km one way on mostly highway and at a speed of probably around 105 km an hour. It's going to be 80% on the highway and then about 20% of the road going through a town with stop lights and speed restriction at 70 km an hour. At 70 km an hour the Toyota Prius will not be able to achieve great fuel economy as it is far too fast for the vehicle to be going on electric battery. Unfortunately at that speed, I'm probably going to end up consuming as much fuel as if I were to go 100 km an hour due to the fact that the internal combustion engine is going to be doing all the work. What I really find interesting however, is that Consumer Reports website clearly points the Toyota Prius as having a much better fuel economy on the highway than in the city. Which is the total opposite of what you are experiencing with your car. It's also interesting that your worst range of the tank of fuel is actually better than most people on this forum have reported as their best mileage from a tank of fuel

Interesting note about the Toyota Prius driving much better in stop and go traffic from a purely comfort point of view.

This is absolutely fascinating picture of fuel economy. I was not aware that the Toyota Prius can keep track of mileages for individual tanks of fuel. From what I know about the second-generation Toyota Prius, the fuel indicator resets every time the Prius is filled up with fuel. To be more precise, the fuel mileage indicator resets and the fuel gauge goes to full. Did you have to do anything special to get the graph that you have taken a picture of?

From what I have been able to deduce, by looking at the data that is generated by John 1701a. It's very fortunate that he keeps a very good record of fuel economy on his car and at the same time posts the most current results on the web. This is extremely good data in terms of both fuel economy and from what kind of range one can expect from the car. It also gives me an idea of how much he fills up his car every time. Some people like to fill it often and always like to have at least a quarter tank of gas, while some people like to drive it till the needle shows empty. I see that his average range seems to be about 850 km with an average fillip of about 32 L.

Hi,

I've had the NHW11 since October 2005 and learned what to avoid. It is my commuting car since I have that route down cold. In contrast, the ZVW30 gets similar mileage without having to worry about the NHW11 special rules: (1) warm-up, (2) avoidance of speeds above 65 mph, (3) minimal use of A/C and heating unless necessary, (4) perfect, 4-wheel alignment, and (5) attention to maintenance and lubrication.

It works fine but I ordered the maintenance manuals the same time I bought the car. I also studied every fleet and lab report on the Prius I could lay my hands on including nearly $100 in SAE papers. I've also made a few studies about the Prius and enjoy the company of brilliant people in the Prius technical areas. Best of all, I've had the pleasure of reading the works of many of the Prius pioneers and take pride in giving them credit for their accomplishments.

If you would like to learn about the Prius from the earliest days, head over to the YahooGroup, "Prius Technical Stuff" and start reading the messages that date back to 2000. <grins>

Bob Wilson

I do not know how previous Prius models keep track of mileage.

The Gen III has two trip counters A and B. I use A for a tracking a tank of gas and B for a current trip. The display will chart the last 4 times you reset the trip counter and the last bar is the current trip.

To get that info to display you press then DISP until it cycles to that screen.

Here in Oregon where the winter fuel is like water we can only go between 350-400 miles comfortably.

In Oregon you can not fill up your car to the top of the tank and if you do it yourself you are liable for a fine, yes in Oregon it is illegal to pump your own gasoline into your car. It is also illegal to top off.

By topping off you can get another 2 gallons of gas into the tank.

Now in the summer 400 miles per tank is the norm.

alfon

Why is it illegal to top-off? how do they check that? who is fining you and how does he/she check? is there a lobby of gas station owners to make sure they fuel your car each time?
If the above is all true, weird place Oregon.....
(sorry, but it is really weird what you report, and I have been around in many countries...)

BTW: my kms per tank can be found here: http://www.spritmonitor.de/en/detail/364028.html
It is a pretty cool site with also english user interface, with a huge library of other cars as well. This is also where I get the average written in my signature from.

Since the gas station is required to fuel your car for you I think they would be the ones to get in trouble rather than the car owner. I am not sure how the no-top-off law got passed other than to say we have a Governor and a legislature that decided we just had to have it to "save the planet" they may well have been bought by outside interests, they usually are.

Amazingly the law that prohibits people from pumping their own gas was voted on by the people. It was passed by a small majority because the people in the Portland, Salem, and Eugene areas wanted it, the rest of the state didn't but they have us outnumbered and they got their way as usual.

If I say any more my post would be eligible for the Political Forum.

i do 650 miles in summer... about 550 in winter