1st Tank Mileage

Just put gas in the car for the second time - the first time didn't entirely count since I put gas in early (wanted to take advantage of a Costco that sells gas cheaper than the gas stations I normally frequent). While this tank isn't totally reflective of my normal commute, it's not all that far off.

Total miles was 368.2, I put 7.7 gallons in. The trip computer on the car showed an average of 50.2, the actual (miles divided by gallons) was 47.5, for a difference of 5%. I'm going to keep an eye on the differences for a while, to see if that 5% stays constant or varies as time goes on.

Thanks to all of you for the information about how to drive economically, its helped quite a bit. And watching the figures is fascinating - I would be higher than this except for the last 10 miles (freeway to the house) is a killer as far as mileage goes - there's no way to keep the car from going into the power area for most of the time. On the other hand, I have a fully charged battery when I drive from the house to the freeway!

For anyone who thinks my mileage isn't something to be proud of - I live in the mountains of Southern California and the route includes the Neuhall Pass, Sepulveda Pass and half the Grapevine, along with an additional 1600 feet elevation gain (sea level to above 5700 feet). That means that I can't practice all of the suggestions, but by adapting them to the terrain, I've increased my mileage from when I drove it home Saturday.

I figured that as long as I could average 45-46 mpg things would be good. It looks like I should be able to do that without problem. Am I a happy camper (and heated seats are heavenly!).

 

Hmmm - wonder which would hurt more, an elk or a bear? One of the reasons I was perfectly happy to trade in the Fit was that selling it outright would have involved explaining about it's too close encounter with a bear, which came close to totalling the car but didn't seem to kill the bear (at least the CHP didn't find the carcass by the side of the road).

A couple of weeks later someone I know out-did me. She hit TWO antelope in her Prius, which also was repaired and is still on the road today. So while I think the display is fascinating and do pay more attention to it than any other car's display that I've had, it's always for a quick glance and then up.

The discrepancy between the car and the actual mpg isn't quite static, but it seems to be staying around 5%. My cumulative calculated mpg average is now just over 51 - had a great return trip from Vegas Sunday (57.2 calculated), while the trip to Vegas was somewhat disappointing (just over 51.6). With all my other vehicles I would get great mileage going to Vegas and lousy mileage coming home.

Still a very happy camper.

 

Sure wish I didn't have to drive the bear road in the dark, but I have no real choice in the matter. It seems to be a common bear-crossing area, several times a year there will be articles in the local paper about a bear being hit and killed.

Range to fill-up isn't normally a big deal with me - when I'm at home I don't like to park with less than a quarter tank of gas in a car. Living in what can be called a high hazard relatively remote area means that in an emergency it might be 50 plus miles between home and the closest gas station. Granted, that wouldn't require much gas in the Prius, but it still makes sense to stay on the conservative side.

One interesting thing I just noticed - I've filled up 6 times since I bought the car two weeks ago. One time it was a top-off - I wanted a full tank of gas to start the drive to Vegas and put less than 4 gallons in. One tank was in Nevada (Vegas) while all others were in California at several different stations. The tank with the gas from Nevada was less than 2% more than the actual computed mpg, while all the tanks with gas from California (one tank I didn't write down what the car said) were just over 5%. That will be interesting to track as time goes on, will the car be more accurate with Nevada gas? Its certainly a lot cheaper!