Mileage experiment on my '86 4Runner 4x4

Wow!! Great picture! I want to get my mountain bike out there! With my mountain bike, I would get TREMENDOUS gas mileage I could pulse and glide (I go about 60% of maximum energy anyway) and coast down hills!

You are lucky to live there......

 

We share our 2006 Prius and 2004 Camry. We've had the Prius since early February. We've both caught ourselves driving the Camry as if it were the Prius on numerous occasions. I tried pushing the "button" to start it yesterday. LOL Didn't work, obviously. Anyway, we've noticed the fuel efficiency has gone up in the Camry in the last couple months. Our driving habits certainly have changed and since we both drive both cars, the effects are more noticeable than if only one of us drove the Prius all the time.

To answer your question about getting a Prius quicker, call around as far as you are willing to travel to purchase one. At the time when we were waiting for ours, we could have purchased various colors and/or packages for sticker price at several points in the process. We opted to wait for financing reasons. (We were able to put more down by waiting and thus reduced a our loan considerably.)

Good luck and have fun!!!

 

Hi Divide,

Nice driving

There is a fellow named Wayne Gerdes who hangs out at greenhybrid, and was one of the fantastic 5 marathoners. He has a conventional Honda Accord and if memory serves me, has a lifetime mpg in the high 40's. He does the sort of things you mention, and more. He says that turning the engine on & off repeatedly is ok on *his* car, but I have my doubts. Most certainly that kind of driving requires skill, and I think is dangerous in the hands of most drivers.

Actually, every HCH driver I have read about who has a lifetime MPG in the mid 50's or above plays these games.

And lastly, so long as we are talking history, the oldest reference I know of regarding P&G is from the 1970's in the old USSR. Petrol was hard to come by, even for the mafioso. So the drivers would turn on the engine, speed up to 60 kph or so with a fairly open throttle, and then kill the engine at coast down to almost walking speeds. I must have been quite a sight. Course, they tended to be the only cars on the road, so there was no road rage

So yes, the concepts work -- the Prius *is* an ICE, after all.

 

Great job! By getting 30 mpg instead of 21 mpg, you're saving 142 gallons of gas over 10,000 miles. To save this much gas just through more fuel efficient driving technique in a Prius, you'd have to go from 40 mpg to 93 mpg!

Another minor technique that I use in the warmer months in our Elantra is to use the AC a little like regenerative braking. When coasting to a stop and/or down a hill I'll often use the kinetic energy that might be wasted by braking and turn on the air conditioning. On the flip side, I'll turn off the AC when accelerating or climbing a hill.

 

I had a 1991 Toyota 4Runner (4 cylinder, 5-speed stick) that I drove for 16 years and put 200,000 mi on. I consistently earned between 23 and 30 mpg by using many of the techniques you describe (except turning the engine off when idling). Good going and enjoy!

Also using synthetic oil improves fuel economy and helps the vehicle last longer. I very much appreciated and enjoyed our 4Runner, but have almost tripled fuel economy with the Prius.

 

Mt. Antero? omigod, I've been up there!! Nice picture. I used to live in Denver and had an old '75 CJ5 (11-15 MPG, no more, no less, even downhill). Great fun.

Now the fun is topping 50 MPG. Times change.

That Jeep was a rolling project. Parts available at the hardware store to rebuild most anything on it.

I love my Prius...but the Jeep was fun while I had it.

cheers,

Curt.

 

The old 4 Runners could get good mpg;they were light-a 4x4 probably wasn't more than 3400 lbs.They were built on the little pickups chassis.I had 1976,1986,1994,1998 Toyota pickups.They stayed very light until recently.The 1986 was 2580 lbs the 1998 Ext cab was just 2800lbs.Weight kills,especially in hilly country like yours. 30 mpg is great for a 4X4 in Colo.
Is your 4 Runner FI?My 1986 was one of the last years for Carbs, but I suspect your 4 Runner is FI.If it is a carb vehicle then your mpg is spectacular instead of just outstanding!Carb vehicles were terrible at altitude, because most places at altitude actually have rapidly changing altitude(Denver to leadville is maybe 5000 ft to 10,000 ft) and the carb just can't adapt to that.Thanks,Charlie
PS Back in the mid 70's we rented a GM V-8 car to drive from Denver to Ouray-What a pitiful car.It couldn't hit 80 mph,and it got about 16 mpg hy.At 65mph is had zero acceleration.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(divide @ Jun 9 2006, 10:07 AM) [snapback]268545[/snapback]</div>

I think this has been the most important benefit for me of getting a Prius. I've always been impatient on the road, and I didn't like it, but that seemed to be just how I was. Now consciously driving more slowly has calmed me behind the wheel. The mpg is just a side benefit

 

Very interesting findings! It would be nice if car manufactors will impliment auto-stop/start on all gas cars. There's really no reason why the engine should be on at traffic lights or coasting when the A/C isn't on.

Hmmm I wonder if I can get 45 MPG out of my Jetta if I drove it like a prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(divide @ Jun 8 2006, 10:48 PM) [snapback]268414[/snapback]</div>

A few weeks ago I flew up to PA on business, and to visit some friends and family. My best friend loaned me his wife's car, an older Mazda 626. She complained that it was only getting 22-24 mpg. Well, I found myself driving it much the same as the Prius has retrained me: at the speed limit, or up to 5 mph over, slowing down and coasting early up to red lights, no jackrabbit starts, not following too close, even a liitle drafting on the turnpike. I put over 800 miles on her car in 5 days, and got 30 MPG every time I filled up!
She wasn't exactly happy. She told me I was a hazzard for driving so slow.

 

Nice truck! Here's my 86 4Runner:


Was a Colorado truck all its life, now its in Miami

 

Here is another high altitude 4-runner set of data. On a family reunion trip from Colorado to Jackson Hole/Yellowstone/Tetons Wyoming our 4-runner constantly obtained 30-33 mpg with lots of people and baggage inside. Yes used all techniques mentioned, except turning off engine. We special ordered our 4-runner with only four cylinders and smallest sized wheels. Slow up the mountains but coasting down balanced.

Congrats on new Prius order and you made an excellent color choice--driftwood. Now comes the really fun driving taking advantage of all the hypermileage techniques awailable using the Prius.


And if you want to see all four green leaf cars on the MFD during five minute intervals, just drive it down Pikes Peak and with lots of coasting and light traffic you might be able to see the entire 30 minutes at 100 mpg!

Enjoy

 

thats just a "good" way of drving althought i think turnin off the car while coasting is quiet dangerous, i remembered that sometimes the brake will go when the car is off, not just the power steering

 

Good to know you findings. We use our '97 4Runner for jaunts to our place in Lake City from Kansas City. It's seen the top of the contenental divide several times and frequent trips to Telluride. I did a test similar to yours and realized 28 mpg.
I want to know when the Hybrid 4Runner will make it here... 2008?

Anyone that knows about this, please post.

Thanks!



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skruse @ Jun 9 2006, 08:45 AM) [snapback]268544[/snapback]</div>