MPG results for Southern California drivers

I live in Newport Beach ,and commute to Lake Forest. Then from Lake Forest I usually have to drive to Anaheim. I only use the freeway, drive around 70 mph on it, and my last tank was 56 mpg.

On the freeway I follow big rigs (its fun and exciting for me for some reason).
Keep my tire pressure at 44/42
Do not use the air condition as much as possible (adds a couple mpg seriously)
And thats it.

Otherwise I drive relatively normally, with the occasional stealth mode.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(VanMelum @ Oct 16 2007, 06:10 AM) [snapback]526280[/snapback]</div>

How much space do you guys leave been you and trucks. I'm guess less than the suggested 2 seconds?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ari @ Oct 5 2007, 01:28 PM) [snapback]521867[/snapback]</div>

I live in AZ and spent most of the summer trying to figure out why my once stellar mileage had taken a nose dive. I bought my car in January, was getting 50-54 routinely. Then I started getting 49-50 ish, then pretty soon 47-7-48 became the norm. I questioned this when I went in for my routine maintaince and was told "well, a Prius should never get below 46 MPG. " Sure enough, a few weeks later I was getting 45-46. No technique change, I was sorely dissapointed and not nearly as enamoured with my new car as I'd been. But now the cooler weather is here, we had two days in the 70's a few weeks ago and my mileage popped right back up to 54 for those two days. So what I've found is.....in the hot hot part of the summer, my mileage is awful. The hotter it is, the worse the mileage. My car gets the best mileage when we're in the mid to high 70's, second best in the 80's. Mileage in the 90's is not too impressive, no matter how good your technique. Mileage when it 100 and over, just plain sucks. But at least the mystery is solved and I understand that my poor mileage is related to the weather. I kept thinking there had to be something wrong with the car when the milage kept going down. Now its going back up, which is much better.

 

AC is a real mileage killer and i suspect your mileage dropped about the same distance down as the amount the mecury rose

 

your driving route has much more impact than the AC. A friend of mine, living in phoenix, was getting crazy mileage down there, year round. The trick? He found an ideal route to work that avoided the freeway and he had tanks averages as high as 73 mpg. He wasn't frugal with his AC either.

 

i guessing Atwork did not vary his route greatly from spring to summer so AC is the obvious conclusion.

sure route is a much greater factor, but i doubt that it plays a role for him

 

I commute 45 miles each way, Chatsworth to Azusa over the 118 and 210. Without trying very hard, I had it right around 52 all summer, and now that its cooler, about 51.5. 45,000 miles since Jan 06, not one problem or dealer visit, (original OEM tires still look great, too). I was using about 40/38 TP, and just boosted it to 42/40 to see if I get any more mpgs, so far, no. Overall, I'm a guy!

 

Since I last posted to this thread I have improved from 49 MPG to 53.5 MPG. The biggest thing that caused this (I believe) is I passed 5000 miles. Other than that, I am getting better at predicting what's going to happen ahead, and I also use P+G whenever I can. My goal is to reach 55 MPG but I don't know if that will happen as long as my commute stays at 7 miles each way. Best of luck to you all.........

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cheminee @ Nov 14 2007, 10:09 PM) [snapback]539845[/snapback]</div>

what you mentioned all contributes. also, now that its cooler, no A/C also contributes a little bit as well. will say it although i think its not needed... but

DONT rest on your laurels... shoot for 55..58...60...