It is possible for 60 in the City, don't give up!

I finally got to fill-up the Prius and drive it the next day on my commute to my practicum site. So what did I do? Naturally, I took my digital camera to take pictures of the screen for proof of what is possible city mileage under good conditions.

Commute: 12-13 miles one way, 25-30 minutes

Conditions: 55-65 degrees from MFD,
10.5 miles of 35-45 mph with stoplights
2.5 miles of 65 mph highway.
Ah natural (no a/c)
Very little elevation change
Gusty crosswinds (not sure how much 20-30 mph I think)
5W-30 Oil
42 front/40 rear (last I checked)


Just a note: No special techniques were employed, only anticipating stoplights and driving the speed limit. Acceralation is generally pretty brisk (I don't floor it, but I try to get up to speed quickly--faster than the 30-40mpg pulse). I had actually filled up the night before, so there is an extra mile in there.


P.S. The bar in the middle right at 50 was when I accerelated to try and make a stop light, but didn't. I normally coast to it as I rarely ever make it, and would of had 4 bars at 75 mpgish. :angry:

EDIT: Placed emphasize on under good conditions.

 

There are some tricks you can try and do to minimize the impact of hills, but hard to do with much traffic or with many stoplights.


The winter here is pretty temperate, but even at 20-30 degrees, I still get 55-60 on the commute.

P.S. I posted that this was under good conditions twice in the post times to make sure that people didn't misunderstand that I thought this could happen everywhere. If you missed that then you missed the whole point of the thread.

 

Actually, I have averaged close to this for over 500 miles. Last Christmas break, when I drove it exclusively for several weeks, my average was 61.3 at 552 miles (this was before we had the digital camera though). Even better, that tank was mostly 10-15 minute trips as I hadn't started the longer commute to this practicum site. Would you have preferred me to post that without any screenshot of proof?

However, my tanks are always in the 50-55 range in the city, since my wife drives it 3 out of the 5 work days and almost all of her trips are about a mile and less than 5 minutes.

I could post a picture of a tank from NM to Lubbock that we got 69 mpg for 350 miles or so at 70mph most of the time. That's not really fair though, it was a decrease in elevation the whole way. I felt this screenshot was fair, as this would be pretty close to my actual tank mileage under my normal driving conditions if I drove it every day to that work site.

 

Just in case it wasn't clear, this was round trip. One mile from the station to my house, 13 miles there, and 13 miles back.

After just one segment, going there, the mpg was actually worse (61.0 mpg).

I completely agree EricGo! That's why I didn't think it was fair to post about the 69mpg trip going down the mountain.

 

With rolling hills, I try to gain speed on the downslope and coast on the upslope. This probaby gives me 4-5 mpg better than just cruise. It is difficult to do though with traffic or if you are worried about getting a speeding ticket. Or if the hills are too far apart.

 

Thanks! It can be frustrutating with those short trips. Each time I get the car back from my wife, I inwardly cringe when I see how it has dropped. It is so hard t keep it up high with short trips.

I felt like it was important to let people know what is possible, because it seems like many newcomers think it is impossible to get the EPA without special any special techniques like pulse and glide.


An Update on the Tank. After several trips around town (including one less than ten minute trip early in the morning--40 degrees) 62 miles at 61.8.

 

Double Post

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusham @ Jan 27 2006, 03:20 PM) [snapback]198732[/snapback]</div>

Thought I would respond to this once more once I had a chance to get a digital picture of a tank that I had driven most of it instead of only driving it a couple of days a week. (It's a bitch to have it driven in multiple trips that are less than 5 minutes 3 or 4 times a week).


65.0 Mpg at 554 Impressive?


BTW, the first 100 miles when I drove it four days in a row was above 68.X. The tank does include at least a dozen short trips (1-2 miles).