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something's not right

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by mfarmer1, Aug 14, 2008.

  1. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    Birdums,

    If you have scripting off in IE7 then your posts end up as a single chunk. That is what I learned from the recent adyieldmanager feed problem on Priuschat, my posts all looked like that until I could re-enable scripting. It was embarrassing.
     
  2. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Do you? I bet you let the driver infront of you dictate how you drive.
     
  3. KAR IDEA

    KAR IDEA Member

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    Three words: "Waste Of Time"

    More Words: Last weekend, drive from Yonkers NY to West Barnstable MA on I-95 to 195 to Mid-Cape etecetera (it's about a 4 1/2 hour trip, never really flat terrain). Cruise set at 71, AC set at 78, Outside temp was about 80F, made a stop or two at rest areas, 53 miles per gallon.

    And everytime I add a tank on greenhybrid, my lifetime MPG keeps increasing...it's a nice reward for remaining a patient student.

    I really like our Prius, and if it were possible, I'd marry it.

    Dave :kiss:
     
  4. bbald123

    bbald123 Thermodynamics Law Enforcement

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    Looks like a troll, talks like a troll, acts like a troll.
     
  5. dwreed3rd

    dwreed3rd New Member

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    At the risk of displaying my ignorance to all, what is the definition, meaning, use of the word "troll" in the context of PC? Evey time I think I've got it, I seem to see it used with a different meaning implied. I do crosswords and like to increase my vocabulary, but would want to use it in a wrong manner. Thanks to anyone in advance that can help carify it's meaning, as used here on PC.
     
  6. Old Bald Guy

    Old Bald Guy Old Bald Guy

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    My son-in-law was raised in southern California and drives like your description of driving. His driving scares the h*** out of me. He bought a Camry Hybrid ... and said that in the first week of driving it ... he averaged about 35 mpg ... in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro 40 miles each way to work ... half I-30 and half in town.

    He controls his speed with the brake pedal ... not the gas. I have tried a few times to keep up with him in traffic and on the highway ... and usually have trouble doing it ... even with a similar vehicle. He ran a Ford diesel Excursion with a 32' trailer at 80 plus and runs a 300 hp diesel 37 ft motor home at 80-85. And his Camry mileage STARTED at 35 mpg.

    I have a 2008 Prius and am averaging 50 mpg overall ... the present tank is over 56 mpg. This is in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro. I took a freeway run down I-35 south of Dallas for about 200 miles on one trip ... running at the speed limit and above ... running up to 80mph for a few miles ... and the mileage indicator never dropped under 51 mpg on that trip.

    The tone of your post is that you want to have your cake and eat it too. Instead of the Prius, you probably should have bought the Camry Hybrid. It has a lot more power and still could give even you some good mileage numbers.

    Different drivers will get different mileage. The way you talk about yourself, you are at one end of the bell curve. I am probably in the middle. And, those "hypermiler" types ... doing some illegal stulll ... are at the OTHER end of the curve.

    If you are getting the mileage you claim ... on a new engine not broken in ... and driving the way you claim ... sounds like you are tell us how good the Prius is even under the foot of a bad attitude driver.
     
  7. a priori

    a priori Canonus Curiosus

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    Whoa, there.

    What is that "illegal" stuff the hypermilers are doing? Speeding? No. Tailgating? No. Improper Lane Usage? No.

    I'm not a hypermiler (look at my signature!), but I try to follow some of their advice. I do not speed, tailgate or play Formula 1 racer on the freeway. I also do not think the folks at the upper end of the bell curve are undertaking illegal practices. I could be wrong, of course, because not many folks are fessing up to being lawbreakers.
     
  8. Walker1

    Walker1 Empire

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    My 2006 Prius was averaging 54 MPG before ethanol got into it. Now if it touches 50 MPG that's good.

    My 2008 Prius gets around 47-48 MPG with 3300 miles on it.

    Both cars log about 95% city miles and I set the A/C on 68 degrees usually. Right now it's very hot/humid here in S. FL & I know the A/C is working harder.

    Last point: If you expect to get real good MPG with a Prius you have to DRIVE the Prius the right way to get it. These cars are sensitive in many ways. You need more patience and drive the speed limit with the cruise on.

    Here when I drive the interstate I set the cruise on 70 MPH and both cars get around 50 MPG. I doubt you got a lemon. It's real easy to force a Prius to get poor milege. Hope this helps.
     
  9. Old Bald Guy

    Old Bald Guy Old Bald Guy

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    Perhaps I should have said "some" in reference to the hypermilers.

    Some of the "extreme" hypermilers ... as seen on TV here in the Dallas metro ... have talked about drafting semi trucks on the freeway (that means seriously bad tailgating at freeway speed ... 10 feet distance),

    putting their cars into neutral and turning off their motors when coasting downhill ... definately illegal in the USA (some hypermilers drive cars with transmissions),

    driving at 45 mph on the freeway ... when everyone else is doing 70 (where I grew up in northern California, you could get a ticket for that ... it's called obstructing traffic),

    getting out of your car to push it into or out of a parking place/garage ... instead of using the motor ... ??

    there were other comments about technique but this should get the point across.

    I don't consider myself a hypermiler because I don't do some of the things they have preached locally on TV ... but I still am getting 56+ mpg (on the present tank) and still have a lifetime average of 50 mpg over about 7000 miles on my 2008 Prius.
     
  10. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    What a great thread! The title is perfect - I think I know what the something is in "something's not right". :D

    To the OP (original poster): Sell the car. Sell it now while the demand is still high. In a month or less when the 09's come in, you won't be able to get as much, but right now you should be able to get most or all of your money.

    I just saw a classified ad for an 07 Prius with virtually the same mileage and options as my car and the asking price was $2k more than I paid for my car new. Plus I got a $1575 tax credit. But the demand will drop when more cars are available, so again, sell it now.
     
  11. donee

    donee New Member

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    Hi OBD,

    Please do not spread that AAA FUD about hypermiling. Besides being mostly untruthful, it does a diservice to the country.

    Extreme hypermilers NEVER draft in a NASCAR fashion. They can get better mileage in other ways. Besides, truckes do 65 mph and are constantly up and down in speed. Very poor for mileage. When extreme hypermilers use the word draft, they are using it as a technical term, not the familiar term construed to mean following 10 feet behind a semi. There are all sorts of drafting situations. Driving 55 mph, next to a lane of cars doing 65 mph will give a draft coupled boost to the motivation of your car. The word draft is also used to describe what is going on , but again IT DOES NOT MEAN FOLLOWING A SEMI AT 10 FEET. This is one lie that the AAA has fostered and has been reiterated by national media. In metropolitan area driving its impossible to not get a draft assist from the other cars around you on the highway. SO , everybody is drafting at one time or another. Again the AAA is not clear on this. Many of us believe this is a deliberate lie of omission for the pure FUD reasons. Some have even cancled their AAA memberships over this. Although, I never had one.

    Extreme hypermilers do not drive 45 mph on the highway. Specifically, in the Prius, the sweet spot is about 53 mph, and 1280 rpm (above 70 F, flat, no wind, SOC above 60 %). The car will do 70 mpg there, all day long. Wayne Gerdes did a trip from Chicago to NYC and got 71 mpg, on I80, using this technique most of the way. Indeed, the Prius gets allot worse mileage between 42 and 48 mph steady speed because the engine not efficient down below 1184 RPM.

    Manual transmission cars do work with push starts. If you live on a hill, with little to no traffic, you can save gas pushing out of the garage, coasting down the driveway, then down the hill, with a quick clutching start the car at the bottom of the hill. Wayne demonstrated this with his manual transmission Accord. Media made a big deal out of it, but its nothing special. Who has not done similar with a dead battery and a MT car ?

    Yes, coasting with your transmission gears configured to be in neutral (disengaged from each other) is illegal in many, but NOT ALL states in the US. Of course putting a Prius in "Neutral" has no mechanical effect on the transmission gears - so this law appears to not to apply to a Prius, or other HSD vehicle (Camry Hybrid, Hylander Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid, Lexus RX, GS and LS Hybrids).

    While you did not say it, it appears to be hypocritical that driving 70 mph, which is 15 mph over the speed limit in many metropolitan areas is an OK thing to do. But saving gas by coasting is not an OK thing to do. Most people who need to save gas are going to say F-It, if they can cheat and do 70 mph, I can cheat and coast down a hill on the highway at 55 mph. If people are going to ignore the letter of the law, we must judge by the intent of the law - which is safety first, and maximum utilisation of the comonwealth second. We all know which of these actions is more dangerous, and its not coasting along with the speed of a slow lane of traffic. BTW, you cannot do this highway speed neutral selected coasting in a Prius (for any mileage improvement), Its purely a manual transmision car thing.
     
  12. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    Thanks for that. I had noticed the low efficiency at low rpm's and had suspected something in that speed range, but without a gauge I'm guessing--going mostly off the instantaneous MPG feedback.

    I used to get to work this way a long time ago on an isolated military base. The fellow I was car pooling with had a dead starter so I pushed his little truck to get it going (no hill unfortunately) then hopped in.

    Had to do a similar thing with an automatic transmission in an old Chrysler. The pick up coil was going haywire (I learned later) and it was dying while moving down the road. If I had enough speed I could sometimes nurse it into a restart. Otherwise I had to pull over and wait for it to "heal itself" then restart. Took quite a few tries to get it fixed (Chrysler dealer shop played musical parts for a week until I made them refund my money and put the parts back in. I took it to a Chevy dealer and they knew right what it was when I described the symptoms, go figure.)
     
  13. Birdums

    Birdums You, me, and da Pri

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    Thanks, Shawn, but I use Firefox. I'll check into it, anyway... if I can figure out how. I can use a computer, but I'm not a guru by any stretch of the imagination. I'll investigate matters at Firefox's site. I don't recall changing anything in Firefox, but I may have done something inadvertently.
     
  14. orracle

    orracle Whaddaya mean "senior" member?

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    Agreed 100% Sell it. There are dozens who will line up to buy it and will drive it like it should be and be thrilled at the chance.

    Sell it. Sell it Sell it!
     
  15. a priori

    a priori Canonus Curiosus

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    Hey Folks!

    I love this thread as much as anyone -- I've probably had a dozen posts in it -- but I think our OP has had enough. I hope he is still reading this thread and others in PC, but he isn't participating in this one anymore. We've had nearly 40 posts in the past two weeks since his last participation.

    But . . . If you still want to go on, I'll be reading!:rolleyes:
     
  16. PaulHS

    PaulHS Member

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    So, doesn't that classify him as a troll? Or is he exempted because he generated so much response?
     
  17. Dave_PH

    Dave_PH New Member

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    So now AAA is full of liars.Are they taking money from Big Oil to attack the Prius like the evil National Federation for the Blind.
     
  18. Codyroo

    Codyroo Senior Member

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    Mitch,

    Did you ask your employee about their driving style (the one that got 32 mpg with the Corolla) and compare it to yours?

    Maybe you should make a deal with that person, switch cars with them for a week or two and compare your mileage. If they get 45+ mpg with the Prius, it is your driving style that is causing the low numbers. If they get something similar to yours, maybe there is something wrong with the car.

    Honestly though, the EPA numbers on the car are not based on how you describe your driving style, they are based on a less aggressive driving style. You did state that you tried to adjust your expectations, taking your driving style into account, but I'm guessing you didn't adjust your expectations aggressively enough. From what you've described, sub 40 mpg is what you should have expected.

    Others posting on this thread have mentioned you should sell the car. I agree with them. You should recoup most if not all your purchase price. I'd recommend you go after that tasty Lexus and be happy. But that's just me....
     
  19. donee

    donee New Member

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    Hi Dave...,

    The AAA has done a nationwide media blitz, with their local people all over the country, going to local media outlets and getting pieces done with the same half-truths, and incomplete information. Some people might call this a campaign of lies-of-omission. If you wish to see the evidence of this campaign, go to cleanmpg.com, and read every story in the "in the News" forum, with a picture of the robot from "Lost in Space".

    I have no idea if they are taking money from Big Oil or not.

    That National Federation of the Blind is letting themselves be used by self-serving politians, in my opinion. There is no evidence of a hazard, yet there is a headlong rush to modify hybrids, a modification which in itself may be hazardous to the blind. And the politicians point to protecting a disadvantaged minority. Which if the facts be known, needs no protection (no hazard), and many would start a fight with you if you called them disadvantaged.
     
  20. a priori

    a priori Canonus Curiosus

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    I would guess that if he were a troll then the level of response generated simply would confirm that status. Instead, I think the OP posted a real question and tried, at some level, to deal with the responses. Just because he can't or won't come to grips with the reality of his situation (at least the way some of us see it:D) doesn't mean he is a troll.

    My post was simply to point out that we were getting rather tied up in our own conversations (valid, humorous, whatever), and that the OP has decided there is nothing more to be gained from the conversation. (Yes, I know this makes him seem that much more like a troll, but I'm just not ready to go there!)