Newbie ? How do you guys get your exact MPG numbers?

Trip A is what I use for current tank mpg. When I fill, I divide miles on trip A by gallons pumped to get "actual" mpg, usually about 5% below the car's reported mpg.

Trip B I use for tracking particular trips or segments separate from tanks.

 

I use a spreadsheet...

 

Yeah, me too, for cumulative and seasonal tracking.

 

If you want to track mileage on an ongoing basis, I'd suggest to determine your distance travelled by recording the odometer readings at each fill-up, as opposed to using a trip meter. Do still use the trip meter, but just for confirmation. The reason being, it is easy to inadvertantly reset the trip meter, either yourself or someone else driving the car.

Also, don't rely on the car's fuel consumption readings, they're notoriously inaccurate, typically around 6-7% optimistic, by reports here. Again, keep an eye on it, but take it with a grain of salt...

 

I calculate what our Suburban gets than multiply by four. Spot on!!!

 

Gee....
I'm not nearly Gucci enough for this car...

I use the pen and paper method at the pump...or if I want to guestimate, I'll subtract 4% from the MDF readout. Sometimes, when I want to feel somewhat high-tech, I'll use the calculator on my phone!!

IIRC, the MDF trip meter is 4-digit, and if you ever have to have your 12-V battery worked on----somewhat more likely on a G3 than other cars, this will reset your trips to date, along with your radio presets when the wrench swingers remove your 12-V battery. You can put a place a 12-V source at the battery jump terminals to prevent this if you're really into saving your presets.

Having sail alllllllll of that, I usually use Trip-A to calcuguess distance (and MPG +4%) for the current tank, and I use Trip-B for distance between oil changes.

YMMV.

Good luck with the car!!!
Any way you measure it, the G3 will get you further per gallon than most!

 

I use gas buddy online tool...

http://www.chicagogasprices.com/Logbook_Expense_Records.aspx

 

Same here: paper (small looseleaf notebook for a fuel log) and pen (or any appropriate writing utensil).

Optional enhancements: Add a calculator to simplify the long division. Or add a computer and spreadsheet for running tallies and nice seasonal graphed output. Or add one of the many online or mobile apps if you don't like building your own spreadsheet.

 

I've tracked every mile on fuely. I also use trip A for fuel mileage and B for trips or maintenance. The Fuely website also displays odometer. Sometimes I get a little off, the odometer will be a mile greater than the sum of the historical overall trip A recordings. In that case, I'll add 0.5 miles to latest trip A reading to get the two back in synch. I assume that happens because I won't always remember to reset the trip meter right away.

 

I ignor the display MPG reading (except as general guidance). I do not record it.
I do manual calcs with simple Excel spreadsheet with all gaso purchase data and lifetime MPG calcs.

Some people keep track of both display MPG and manual calc MPG data. One guy on the Gen-III thread has done a nice study showing the display MPG tends to be optimistic by 5% or so. I am confused if this applies to all Prii or just his model.

 

I reset both tripmeters after a fillup in case I reset a meter, but rarely do. After fillup, I just note the miles driven and average MPH on the receipt, and the indicated MPGs. At home, I log a fillup into

Fuelly | Share and Compare Your MPG

which gives nice statistics.

 

Road Trip LE, iPhone app.

Tom G.