Cross Country Trip in Prius...Conclusions and Observations

We just covered 9 states from Indiana to California and over 6000miles in the prius... The temperatures that the car endured were from 48 degrees f to 130 degrees f. There were absolutely no problems with the car. Altitude varied from -248ft MSL to 12000MSL...Mountain climbing seen the SOC go down to one bar only...we never lost the last bar in the SOC when we climbed the Sierras and the Rockies. Full Green was seen twice in multiple down hill runs into Death Valley. We out climbed most vehicles on steep grades and had absolutely no problems. The "B" function worked well, too.
As far as the GPS and its functions; it did rather well. It was very helpful in places like LAS and LAX with my wife putting in things while on the roll...that function is ESSENTIAL while moving, to have her put in addresses and motel info, gas info and other stuff while moving...to stop as Toyota would want you to do is not only dangerous but a waste of time when you are moving 80-90 mph on the freeway, besides there is no place to pull off in 6 lane traffic...
While we rolling through numerous states, my son, in the back, was counting how many Prii he would see...by the time we got back to Indiana, we had seen 103 prii in the wild ...most were out west in California and in Nevada with Arizona a close 3rd. This count was only 2004 or newer...there were too many classics to keep track of and a boat load of echoes too....Our car got the most attention in and close to Lake Tahoe...everybody wanted to know how it worked and "Did it Climb OK?" scenerios too numerous to mention...The question on "hows the car doing was asked so many times...i responded" how's your car doing"? Then i said it does fine just like your gas guzzler..."seeing how you were only getting 5 mpg getting up here...and i was getting 14-20 on a full forced climb...and btw i wasnt spewing black smoke out the back end ,either."
Now comes the fun part...Fuel consumption...running from Indiana to California and back...with fuel cost varying from 2.03 to 3.03 the final tally is in...TOTAL Miles Driven=6031...TOTAL fuel consumed= 117.30 US Gals. AVERAGE MPG= 51.4 ( Computer figured 49.9) TOTAL Dollars spent on gas = $322.44... AVERAGE PRICE per Gal= $2.74...This is all based on round trip... Now...this is with a fully loaded car and 3 passengers with speeds varying from highway up to 90mph due to traffic and city traffic in FWA, IND,STL, TUL, OKC, PHX, LAS, RNO, SFO,LAX, back to LAS, and back to FWA. Additionally, some of the run was on US 66 in and out of towns...(such a shame the Govt decommissioned US 66 and left people hanging high and dry.) That another story.
Comfort wise...the car was good ...we could go 10hrs and not feel wiped out... with the car being fully loaded in the back, the head light angle worked as it should...no problems there. Tire pressure ...i run with 42/40...Now a note of observation on the digital speedometer...as the speed increases...and with stationary radar guns posted...i noticed the the faster i go the further off the display gets...80mph yields 76 on the radar gun and 65mph yields 63 on the gun...i sort of suspected that, as i have had my friends on the dept run a check with it before and i have paced the car from behind and seen a bit of a difference. So therefore, the faster you go, the further off it gets...at least with mine...
So thats a quick review...and BTW for Danny, i have a lot of Prius photos that i would like to submit for any calendar run for next year...and for John1701a...Ill email you some nice photos of this trip...you'll really like the ones in Sodona, AZ. :wave: :wave: