How many bars does your Prius like to maintain?

My Prius has a hard time driving past a bar, especially if there is a good band playing.



~S

 

On the freeway all blue. When I am on the streets it is all over the place, depending how I am driving. If I know I am going to a 45mph+ area I will try and make it there using the ice as little as possible this means I can have 3-5 bars at any given point or only 2 red ones. If I am driving in areas <40mph for long periods I try to keep a decent charge and use the ice as little as possible but I will accept the ice running for a block or two to go from 2 or3 bars to 4 bars I typically only get to 5 if I get a good regen run. My average for 10 months owner ship is 48mpg and I keep my car 76-78 in the cabin year round; well except spring I have the windows down until it gets way to hot out for that to be effective. Now on the freeway I don’t think that it affects mpg to have the ac or heat running.

 

My overall mileage is about 40mpg according to the MFD. My Prius maintains five bars on surface streets (blue) or the freeway without traffic. It's nice and green at the end of hills. However, rush hour traffic, playing a CD or cranking the stereo sends the bars down to two or even 1 into the magenta zone! It's quite annoying since when rush hour traffic breaks I want that strong blue/green band for acceleration purposes!

 

It has been a little while after the Prius got crashed into and it seems to be maintaining 3 bars. On the trip back it averaged about 35 miles per gallon and went from a low pruple (2 bars) to a high green. And ever since It has been maintaining around 3 bars (well it seems that way it probably goes from 3-5).

 

Hitting 1000 miles on it this week, and so far the lowest mine has gone is 3 bars. That was sitting in stop light traffic when the power went out. Spent 30 minutes moving 6 feet at a time. Majority of my driving is 55+ MPH, and so far I am at ~47 MPG on the MFD. I noticed that some areas I will get solid green, but for the most part I maintain about 6 bars for the drive. It is a real challange to balance out the engine to wheels to battery, and I'm finding glide real difficult at times above 45 MPH. It is almost non existant doing 55 or more. I found manual driving over cruise control is getting me better results too since I can anticipate hills and valleys where the cruise cant, but it sure tires out the foot!

BTW when doing 55MPH or more, having the AC on should not affect MPG noticably, city driving though, probably. I havent noticed any difference between having heat on or off for my drives, the MPG is going up still, so time will tell.

 

Howdy allargon

Austin's hills are truly beautiful. They do, however, result in a bit of an MPG reduction compared to Dallas' more flatland terrain. I seem to average 10% to 15% better overall MPG than you do - either way the fuel savings are great compared to other 'ordinary' cars.. I rarely see "GREEN" or "MAGENTA" bars - that is unless I'm visiting my kin in the "Hill Country" West of Austin. I'm on my second Prius - traded my '04 for my '07 Touring to get some 'upgrades.'

I have consistently experienced somewhat better MPG freeway driving, and I usually cruise at 70-75 MPH and see 50-54 MPG. This is with the tire pressures set at the Toyota-recommended 35psi/33psi - I didn't like the feel in the Touring Edition set at 40/38 as I used to run my '04.

When you're not too busy, straighten the Texas Legislature out...

CIAO