My first tank (so far) MPG & ramblings.

Sorry if this post is long. Cliffs Notes: (For those who like instant gratification.) I love my car, I'm averaging 10mpg over what it is even rated to get under the driving conditions I experience and I wish I had purchased this car sooner.

For those bored enough to read:

I'm still working on my first tank of gas in my 11' Prius, but I'm close enough that I thought I might share some things I observed, and perhaps ask some things as well on driving techniques. I probably wont need gas for another week or more still and I'll be driving even less now that my current GF decided it's a good time to cheat. OH well, anyway.

Most of this tank so far my avg has been about 57.5-58.0 but after today I went for a drive down a stretch of road that didn't require me to use the ICE but for only a few hill climbs as to not lose all my inertia.

First thing I wanna say is that when I bought the Prius, I anticipating getting around 48 mpg as I do not drive in city condition ever really. Where I live is all hills and 40-50 mph zones. Racking up this kinda mileage on the same tank of gas I bought the car with, and seeing the instant mpg figure steady 10mpg above what the car is rated to get in these conditions has me glad I traded already.

There was a poster hanging behind the salesman for my very car, blue Prius and behind it in large characters it said "50" for mpg. I asked if the car could really get 50mpg, and the salesman said "It's possible, depends how you drive." I was also told that the car may get slightly better mileage after it's broken in for 10k miles or so. I don't know if there is any truth to the second part or not?

Last but not least I have been accelerating to the highest speed I can without the ICE (when nobody is behind me) and I've been utilizing the glide technique for what it's worth on this car, not so much the pulse though. I just keep looking at the HSI display and backing off the accelerator pedal until I maintain speed with as little input as possible.

I did wonder, is it more efficient to accelerate down hills to climb the next grade, or is it just as well to glide down picking up a little speed and using as little ICE as possible to climb the next?

Tha'ts all for now, thanks for reading if you aren't asleep yet!

 

I'll go look.....

(time lapse)

As a side note, my car was already filled once and driven a few hundred miles before I owned it, it was a leftover 2011 so people test drove it no doubt.

(time lapse)

Yokohama Avid S33 tires

Once I fill the tank, I'll do a manual calculation of the mileage and report back in this thread. The guy I met with a Prius II locally said he gets 44mpg, and he didn't believe me that I was getting any more than 50, I'm anxious to find out how many gallons it takes to fill it.

How big is our tank? 10.9 or 11.9?

 

It's kinda misleading that the HSI gauge reads so high because that's a rather large error, I am (dare i say) anxiously awaiting my trip to the gas station.. I just noticed the price of fuel has gone up like 20 cents since last time I filled up! I'm more glad I bought this car every day.

 

Your low fuel light came on with more than a gallon and a half left? That's good to know

 

Ok, well I just went out for a night drive and remembered reading somebody say "Don't find out how far the Prius will go, just fill it up when it's getting low."

So, with 2 bars left on the gauge, and the "how far I can go" estimate reading 69 miles, I filled the tank and this is what I got for my first tank:



I went 507.3 miles, and the car took 8.93 gallons of fuel.

HSI = 58.8
Actual = 56.8

HSI was reading 2mpg higher.

I'm sure the next tank will be a bit less since the body shop will have my car for a few days and then I'll only have short trips to work these days. I'll have to compare it next time. All in all, I'm happy with the results. Makes me want more.