First 500 miles tank

Congrats! You get bonus, brownie points for having 7 bars on your battery....

 

Congrats. now you can learn to drive it a little better and make a 600 mile tank.

 

Agreed!

In my first years of Prius ownership, I studied the high and low mileage Prius owners and learned their results were more driven by accident of home and work than anything else. Learning how the car works, we can mitigate some of the mileage effects but I've grown skeptical about driving style claims . . . especially with the current generation of Prius. So I agree with John1701a, 'just drive the car' and have a happy.

Bob Wilson

 

drive as like to drive, it's already saving you a lot

 

It's partially you, it's partially the nicer weather, and partially the car/tires/etc breaking in.

 

Bob hit on it. I've lucked into a pretty ideal commute. Actually, it is a bit lower this year because I'm leaving for work too early and I'm missing out on the slow and go on 880 and the San Mateo Bridge.

 

Actually, that is almost correct. I'm usually between 58- 60 mph on the speedometer, in the right lane. Typically, on my drive home, traffic is so heavy, that people can't go much faster than 60 mph, so I'm not too slow for too many people. In the morning, I'm definitely too slow, but I'm in the right lane, and they have 2 left lanes with which to zoom by. The extra bonus is that the winds are sometimes very calm in the morning, and whip up in the afternoon, thus I don't get much of a headwind coming into work, but do get a tail wind coming home. Sometimes the tailwind is a cross/tail wind, but it isn't a headwind.

 

Not quite true . . . we look for the opportunity to use slower traffic as the pacing vehicle:

• semi-trailer truck
• pickup truck with a trailer full of landscaping equipment
• the SUV with the handicap tags
• the big *ss Lincoln that appears to be self-driving by the 'little old' person

Been there; done that; . . . followed at a cop-safe distance.

Bob Wilson

 

I pretty much do what Bob had in his post. Often times, I do find that person or vehicle driving slower than me or slow enough to follow behind and life is good. I can't get close to 60 on my trips into the City, way too many hills. You're doing well to get 45 lifetime if a bunch of your driving is in SF. I estimate that I'd get low to mid 50's if I drove 65 mph, but I got this vehicle for the awesome gas mileage and I exploit its strengths as best I can.

 

Sounds like Hwy 280 to me, the terrain and speed matches it.

 

Congrats! Not an easy thing to do with hills. I find I get my best mileage when I dont look at it and just drive. Also when 880 is just a smooth 35-40 mph then its cake. I think if I didnt live in the east bay hills, I would see 60mpg sometimes.