"Gas?!!!...I don't have to buy no stinkin' gas!!!"

My subject title is of course a salute to the great actor Alfonso Bedoya in the 1948 classic film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre". My reference applies well to the subject of my wife's experience with her new Prius C. We purchased two 2013 Prius Cs on 1/12/2014. My wife wanted the Absolute Red (despite it being a package one) while I got a Moonglow (white) package two. I have driven more miles and have learned more about hypermiling so I have had one fill up with an average MPG of 56.28. My wife's car "Big Red" has yet to have it's first fill up. The dealership filled the tanks when we bought the cars and I am the only one that needed to fill up so far. Today marks one month since we got the cars. My wife drives almost exclusively in the city with an average of 17 miles per day and zero on the weekends. Tonight I checked her odometer and the car has a total of 304 miles on it with 4 gas gauge bars showing. It is important to note that she drove the car for two weeks like it was a regular car and averaged 45 MPG. The next two weeks she drove with the knowledge of how to maximize MPGs. However the climate here was sunny and in the 60s temperature wise for the first two weeks. It has been rainy and around the mid 40s to 50s ever since. I look forward to seeing how she does on her first fill up. It may well be that she will only have to fill up every 5 weeks! Gas this week cost 3.199 per gallon.

 

They gave us about as much of a discount as possible. There is not as much mark up on the little car as there is on the upper priced Toyotas (or so they say). We were looking for 2013s and had only a handful from which to choose.

 

Well, my wife finally decided to refuel after 5 weeks of driving. The fill up only took a fraction over 7 gallons. We decided to stop the pump when it first clicked off and not try to "top it off". So the end result after 5 weeks of driving only on week days was an average of 51.3 MPG with 369 miles driven. This first tank of gas was from the dealer so we have no idea how full it really was. Also note that half of this time involved starting in cold weather with the ICE charging the traction battery. Factor in the fact that she had no clue how to drive a hybrid for the first 13 days and I would say the results are great!