First commute to work, 61.0 MPG!

I picked up my 2010 Prius III on Friday evening. The weekend was really a typical family blur, lots of short drives, learning the feel of the car (some driving in ECO, some driving in POWER, etc.) I didn't really pay much attention to fuel mileage while I got used to the car.

This morning I did my first commute to work. A 20.5 mile trip that is roughly 50% city and 50% highway. Traffic was medium as usual, but moving. Previously in my 2008 Smart ForTwo the best fuel mileage I had achieved on this route was 48 MPG (ScanGuage II measured). Typical highway cruising speed is usually around 60-65 MPH.

With the 2010 Prius I first reset the trip meter and took off for work. Kept highway speeds around 60-65 MPH as I usually do. When I arrived and parked in the garage, the readout said 61 MPG for the trip!

Wow, I didn't even use any serious hypermilling tricks (like pulse and glide or pressing EV as you slow down into a light to shut engine down early), just used the ECO meter to minimize POWER use. I love this car, can't wait to see what I can do once it breaks in and all the parts run smoother with less friction (my Smart gained 4-5 MPG by the time it reached 10,000 miles).

I did use a GPS to see how accurate the speedometer is. I find the Prius reads about 1.5 MPH faster than the GPS when driving at 60. Haven't calculated yet how that affects MPG, though it won't be much since it is so close.

Rick

 

Well, drove home and guess what? It only got better... SWEET! :whoo:



I should qualify that my average highway speed was 55-60, never passing 61. No serious hypermilling, but used cruise a lot, and when accellerating tried to not use POWER.