I-95 and I-85 D.C. to Burlington, NC

mpg on the way down on Saturday is 60.3 and returning on Sunday 61.7 in both cases from filling the tank (first took six gallons, next took over five gallons).
Brother-in-law interested in buying new from dealer in area of Burlington, Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh (commutes between RDU and Haw River).

 

Thank you.
I am sending him the link to PriusChat. I was thinking of you when I wrote and knew that you, too, are very happy with yours. He was very impressed when he drove our silver package to and from the church on Sunday. I impressed myself by going above 61 mpg on the return trip. When I hit traffice at Fredericksburg, VA, it actually _improved_ my fuel effeciency. Driving the trip down (alone) did help me understand better how the computer drives the car and I am even more pleased than before.

 

My understanding is that cruise control is not activated until first oil change, which we have not yet done. My driving was manual with lots of attention to the effeciency vertical bar(s). The main thing I learned from driving the trip down is how to anticipate a long way in advance how fast I need to be going downhill by the time I begin a long, long incline or flat area, such as along a lake before reaching the Virginia line again.
Did I mention that from leaving Haw River where I bought gasoline at the Hess at $2.11 9/10 by the time the trip odometer rolled from 60 to 61 miles I had already attained 60 mpg and kept pushing upward from there for the whole remainder of the trip. Total miles for the trip up is under 300 miles.
I was thinking that the Prius perhaps could benefit from a different kind of cruise control. In fact, one game I played as I drove is that I am allowed to go the speed (number of miles per hour) that is the number of miles per gallon so far. I do not ordinarily drive above the speed limit any way. Since a lot of I-95 has a limit of 65 mph, this means that usually (but not always) I would be driving slightly below that limit but sometimes (ramping up on the way down inclines) I would certainly go above the 65 and sometimes I got much slower than I would like to have been in traffice but was concentrating on the effeciency vertical bar to maximize the mpg performance. Yesterday I drove the 1984 Toyota Corolla with 107,000 miles to and from work about 35 miles round trip but today I will drive the Prius again so shall see how what I learned on the road trip will pertain to Braddock Road, I-495 East (outer) and I-395 and Seminary Road, Alexandria.

 

The trip to work is 17 - 18 miles, at the end of which the current computer average mpg is 62, up from 61.7 at the end of Sunday return trip. We have not yet had the first oil change since purchase at end of March, 2005. I drove local streets via Edsall Road due to Braddock Road slowdown on lanes turning onto I-495 so only drove the I-395 for two exits. This was about 6:30am (no writer's almanac on NPR "due to technical difficulties") and the stretch of I-395 from approach to Duke Street was more "stop" than "go" but was downhill so my meter was showing immediate "100 mpg" until near the bottom of the slope when traffic speed began to pick up again.

 

Drive back from work was 2:15pm and I made a stop at the dentist, then finished the drive. Return to work this morning began 6:00am and cumulative average this tank of fuel is now 61.8 mpg