Prius gets 71 MPG???

-Some- Americans!

First, feet and inches and miles are BRITISH measurements, NOT American!
Second, until relatively recently, Canada was VERY closely tied to Britain.
So we used British Imperial units! The Gallons held 160 fl. oz. for example.
In Canada we went "world standard" metric in 1975 (though there was and is still a lot of foot dragging - lumber can STILL be had in Imperial measurements). This includes fuel, which is purchased by the litre.
Because there are still so many of us "old folks" here, the govt. lists fuel economy in metric with Imperial conversions. So MPG is for Imperial gallons.

Finally, the 70 MPG number is there because WE have not "corrected" our MPG calculations yet like the EPA has. Perhaps the govt. is waiting to see how it works in the US.

Now, -I- have gotten 70 MPG in Pearl, ON THE HIGHWAY (once )! But I agree, my average for summer is around 60 MPG, and winter is around 55 MPG IMPERIAL. But -I- prefer metric, so 4.6 l/100 km and 4.8 l/100 km.

 

40 fl oz, or 140?

Methinks the OP is painting with an awfully wide brush...

 

its much the same here in the UK, everything that is sold is in metric mesurements, including wood. Ithink its actually illegal not to use metric.


But consumption figures are given in MPG, which is inconsistent but does give a common basis for comparison over time. For example my pre metric 1975 MG Midget which was lighter than the prius, had much the same sized engine used to get 25mpg.

... and for what its worth I think70mpg or even much much better is rlatively easy to achieve in the prius as long as you pay no consideration to other drivers, accelerate slowly, keep the top speed down, coast to junctions rather than brake. But on our busy roads I just can't be that unthinking. Sorry.

 

Just as a side note... what sort of MPG do you get with normal driving on your Prius ?

 

56 to 58

 

One of the good things about the proliferation of these forums is that all of us quickly lose the rather silly habit of assuming that we are communicating with citizens of our own country. These forums do more for international relations than almost anything I can think of.

 

Really daft though isn't it ? Litres per 100 kms is by far the better measure and I have used it for many years overseas. It is strange how the UK and I suppose the US hang on to these old measures of feet and inches, pints and gallons, miles, lbs and oz.
What is not readily apparent is how EASY metric is to work with, starting at early school years. Example :
How much water in a metric tonne ? - answer is 1,000 litres (a litre of water weighs 1 kilogram, 1,000 kgs = 1 tonne)
How much water in a cubic metre ? - answer is 1,000 litres

Try that with lbs and ounces, pints and gallons - kids love metric (and older folks too once you only start to use it and not mix up with old measures.

 

Technically true, but 70mpg in a hummer is very fleeting and under extremely good conditions (coasting down a hill at highway speeds). I put a scangauge on my dad's F150 pulling a trailer and was surprised it almost never got above 50mpg under any conditions. On a Prius, I can average 70 mpg all day long if I keep it under 50 mph.

Tony takes a disciplined approach to optimizing mileage and has gotten >71 mpg over a full tank and has averaged 60 mpg over the last year.

 

*shock* you mean that it doesn't get 71mpg?

^ hypermiler talking

 

yeah.. its completely daft. And of course there are two different types of MPG, Imperial and the other, so whenever you read a contribution on here you have to look at the posters location to see which they are using.

The bit I don't understand is that when I was at school in the 60s they only taught us metric, because the assumption was that pounds furlongs chains ounces and fahrenheit belonged to the past... where did the future go wrong ?

 

The differences between the US and Canada are kind of fun, aren't they? In some respects we resemble the British, although they are much farther away and drive on the wrong side of the road. I would like to point out some other differences not mentioned:

We drink "pop", not soda.
Our milk comes to us in bags mostly, unless you buy it from a corner store.
Temperature is in degrees Celsius, not Farenheit which sucks because in the summer it seems warmer to talk of Celsius. Thank goodness the option is available in the Scanguage. By the way, minus 40 is the same in both but you don't want to experience that.
To balance the temperature thing, our speed is in km per hour, and to rocket along at a hundred just feels good. During the change from mph, some American tourists had confusion over the speed and got some big tickets.
Our gas has spiked to $5.15 per US gallon, $1.33 per liter and I will drive across to Michigan today to fill up with cheap $3.75 per US gallon gas. This difference hurts every 4 or five weeks for me.
Our politics involves a party called the Conservatives with a capital "C", and they just happen to be conservatives with a small "c". We also have an election on right now, and it will take just six weeks from beginning to end. Yours has been going on for what...20 months now?
BTW 2X4's here don't actually measure 2 by 4 inches either. I never understood that one.
When Canadian Prii use the button that converts from US to metric, our display still shows l/100k so we need to keep a little conversion table in our upper clamshell to refer to when it comes to high five over a particularly good segment of our commute.
Still getting 3.8 l/100k....61.9 US mpg....74.3 Imperial mpg.

To use an Imperial term....Cheers! (Have a nice day in American)

 

There are many Americans that do not refer to it as soda. But I think you are right on with the rest of things.

Why 2X4's are not 2X4 inches? They are unless you buy finished dimensional lumber from commercial lumber companies. If you buy rough sawn boards from a local sawyer the boards will be much closer to the 2" by 4" dimension. The reason that commercial lumber is this way is that too many people want "smooth" boards for inside the walls of their homes. Because of this, the lumber companies have to plane the boards to remove the saw marks from the rough sawing process. That along with the drying process makes the board quite a bit smaller than it's rough cut 2" X 4" dimension. If you can deal with the rough sawn marks and you are putting the boards in your walls anyway, you can get real 2X4's. Outside the U.S. though, I do not know if this is the case.

 

We solved the mystery of men and measurement.

Next challenge... MPG ratings.