A Prius cross country trip report

glenk · Jun 2, 2006

My friend. John, is a fellow Prius owner that talked me into buying mine at the same time as he. I thought some new or prospective Prius owners might like to read his comments he sent to me after his cross country trip.

We both have a 2006 Pkg #3. He left for Florida after an oil change at ~2500 miles on the odometer and just returned thee weeks later. The trip started in N. Calif and he took the northern route through Nev and Wyoming, coming back through LA, TX, and Az.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(John G.)</div>

My Prius cross-country measurements are listed below. In general, the car
drives quite well for long distances and easily holds any legal speed in the
country. I would expect for most cross-country driving, it will get between
45 and 55 mpg, depending on speed, headwind, and air conditioning load.

Prius Trip Summary

Trip covered from California to Missouri to Florida and return. Speed of
vehicle was generally at the speed limit to 5 mph above the speed limit.

Miles Covered: 6946

Gallons of Gas Used: 141.6

Cost of Gas Used: $408.57

Cheapest Price for gas: $2.52 in Oklahoma from a station with a several
nearby oil wells and a refinery.

Average MPG: 49.1

Best Measured Gas Mileage: 60.5 mpg for 278 miles on two lane 55 mph roads
in Alabama

Worst Measured Gas Mileage: 42.0 mpg for 90 miles across I-40 in Texas
driven at 75 mph with a stiff headwind and an outside air temperature of 100
F.

Gas Mileage Reduction with A/C: 3 to 5 mpg measured in Arkansas on a flat
road with the temperature in the mid-90's at high humidity.

Maximum Vehicle Speed: 108 mph measured on a flat stretch of I-80 at 7,000'.

Sustained Speed: Tested at 80 mph for 1 hour on I-40 in New Mexico into a
headwind of at least 25 knots (implies an airspeed of at least 110 mph).
Car had no problem maintaining this speed including hill climbs. Battery
charge indicator often went down to 1 bar.

Miscellaneous Notes:

Car quite stable in gusty crosswinds; never had it move much even when we
felt a sudden sideways acceleration from a sudden gust.

Car engine seems to run cooler than any other vehicle I have driven at
freeway speeds in hot temperatures. The engine compartment is relatively
cool when checking the oil level even after running on an interstate for
hours.

The engine used no oil during the entire 7K trip.

One item that would be nice to have is a coolant temperature guage. This is
useful when climbing up long steep hills to see if the engine coolant is
getting near its maximum temperature.

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I'd like some reader comments on his experience with the gas mileage cost of running A/C.

Regards, glenk

A Prius cross country trip report

glenk Member

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A Prius cross country trip report

glenk Member