Why I love summer weather!

I did not fill to the neck. Actually, on this last tank I let it click off and called it full. As far as fear/tolerance of running out of gas, I'm not fearful that I will run it dry. I pulled into work today at ~650 miles and a displayed value of 70.0 on the MPG meter. 70.0 = 66 mpg (roughly), which means I've used a little less than 10 gallons. By the time I drive to my parents and then turn around and come home, I will be at 700 miles and my display will likely be 69.8 mpg (assume calculated to be 66 mpg). Filling up should take about 10.7 gallons.

 

Filled it up tonight. I was a little disappointed in the amount of gasoline I put in (11.1 gallons = 64+ mpg, I was expecting closer to 66 mpg). But still, HSI - 69.7 mpg and 700+ miles on this tank. I won't be needing to do this (700 mile tanks) again.

 

Thanks guys! I was (actually) a bit embarrassed about the photo because the bars weren't at 6. When I was cruising home (to get the camera before I filled up) I was too gentle on the pedal and lost a bar. I couldn't get it back to 6 bars by the time I hit the gas station.

I was surprised to see that it took 11.1 gallons (I was estimating 10.8 gallons). On a previous tank, I had put in about 0.2 gallons past the first click. On the last tank, I undid that and just let it shut off after the initial click. When it hit 10.8 and went to 10.9-11, I was getting worried I was going to overfill the tank. In the end, 64.3 mpg and if it did get overfilled on this fillup (I was pumping very slow for the last 2 gallons) it will show up on the next fill up.

Current tank is ~ 35 miles and reading 71.2 mpg (downhill.....lol).

Markabele, the only mods I have on the car are 2 pieces of pipe insulation that I've been using to block the lower half of the lower grill. I have a scangauge to monitor the engine temps and one of the good fellows at the Prius Norcal meetup programmed it to show the inverter temperature. I don't really want to burn out my inverter in my quest for extra MPG's, but it looks like my inverter is cooling as expected (about 10 - 20 F warmer than ambient air temp). Tires are inflated to Max PSI in the front (44 PSI) and 42 PSI in the rears.

Oh and Markabele, I guess I should have been a little more fearful of running out of gasoline than I was. I was about 0.3 - 0.4 gallons off of where I expected to be. Cutting it a bit too close.

 

The battery bar on the display has 8 bars shown (This represents the State of Charge or SOC of the traction battery). Often times, when people show their "high" tank average, you will see the traction battery down to two or three bars. This means that they've been driving on EV mode for a mile or so to increase their displayed fuel mileage. The normal battery state of charge would be 6 bars. The car may cycle down to five or up to seven if you are climbing or descending hills (with the brakes), but the car tries to keep the battery at 6 bars.

It makes it look like I was fudging and trying to get a higher value (69.7 mpg) instead of 69.6 mpg.

 

I hear ya! I was at 69.4 mpg yesterday morning. But had a 250 mile road trip with the whole family. Pulled in last night sitting at 65 mpg. Not as bad as it could have been, since I was heading west, which would have been the prevailing headwinds, but it wasn't windy, (so I got lucky).

Can you imagine what I could do with the Michelin Energy saver tires AND 100% gasoline (rather than the 10% ethanol blend we have here?). I could hit 80 mpg! LOL