Motor Trend One-Year Test Update 2004 Prius

article doesnt say much, but i will say that bit about the Prius not being a ecoweenie mobile is very true. i cant understand anyone complaining about the acceleration off the line for the Prius because i am constantly surprised at the ample acceleration when needed in all situations but especially if a burst is needed at 20-40 mph.

 

Heh, I was going to say the same thing as DaveinOlyWA. The only person I know that thinks it's rather slow and gutless, is someone that drives a rice-mobile and thinks anything with less than 200hp is a dog. He'd rather pay through the nose with gas bills than to loose horse-power. His loss... (not that I can't/don't appreciate mega-horsepower, mind you)

On a broken-in Prius, I don't understand how one can get under 55mpg (unless terribly lead-footed). The one I rented over the weekend got 60+ at all times! Media people are weird...

 

I do not know, I drive "easy" (never speed, coast to stops, use cruise, try to go electric in town) and I can't do better than 47-49 over a full tank, and that's with 3000 miles on the car.

I make a lot of short trips because I work within 10 mles of home, but even when I go one a longer one, where I am driving in ideal conditions (around 50 mph with slight up and down grades and few stops) I haven't gone over 50 yet.

If someone can tell me why, I'd love to hear it. Whenever I look at the display it seems to be hovering between 50 and 60, even at highway speeds, but the overall mpg is still around 48 (not that I'm unhappy with that).

 

i'm in similar mileage range. i don't live in hilly country but i am using the a/c and i do a lot of short runs, 2-3 miles.

 

Did Motor Trend really only drive the Prius 3500 miles in the last year? Lead footed drivers and they haven't gotten to the 8K miles (approx) break-in point wher mpg starts improving yet. They probably won't drive it long enough to get to the cars potential.

 

well i only commute a total of 11 miles to work with 7 miles being freeway. but, i must admit to doing a lot of joyriding when i first got my car.

in fact i have done a lot of it in the name of research. frequently i have planned trips specifically to test my Prius and chart its performance.

another thing that we might not think of initially is that this real time feedback not only tells us when we are doign good or bad as far as economical driving, it also warns us when something is not working up to snuff on the car.

the screen that breaks down the mileage in 5 minute blocks i couldnt help but notice, doesnt seem to always reflect the changes in overall tank mileage. i also noticed that the first block is nearly always much lower than any other one telling me that the most damaging thing to your mileage will be short trips.

i have charts of a some drives ive taken over the past week or so, now realize some of this driving was very specific for different aspects but you will notice the first set of numbers are in a different class.

numbers are recorded 5 min blocks and are estimated according to the bar graph

17-45-68-52-50-48-70-80
37-55-65-90-95-45-55-60-55-50-75
25-45-75-50-45-60-55-70
35-70-55-50-50-48-55-55-60-55-50-60-48-50-55

also i want to mention that i have a friend who delivers the local morning paper. for 4 days, i drove him on his route. that was about 264 deliveries with only a handful that could be delivered in one stop. although it amounted to less than half a tank, i still averaged about 45 mpg and my overall tank mileage for that tank although one of my lowest by far (45 mpg) it still wasnt that bad.

i will admit that i tried to be economical as much as possible but keep in mind that he receives a bonus if he can deliver all his papers by 6:30 AM so we could not lollygag by any stretch and i wasnt going to be responsible for his not getting the bonus. we did make it with it with time to spare. unfortunately, my work hours changed so my experiment of doing two consecutive tankfuls could not be done. (he was really disappointed too. he loved the car)

 

With tire pressures 38/36 and minimal use of the air conditioner I consistently get 50-51 mpgs. With the recommended tire pressures (35/33) and frequent use of the air conditioner I get 48-49 mpgs.

 

About half of my 2000 miles so far are in my commute: 5.2 miles one way with 5 mandatory stops (counting the reversal out of my garage) and an average of two more stops at the four traffic lights, taking on average 15 minutes, with A/C running almost full time. I struggle to keep the MPGs over 44.

But I have no complaints. On longer trips it easily gets well over 50.

 

my car came from the dealer at 38.5/36.5 (i use a very accurate digital gauge)

so is this the new official tire pressure?

 

Probably not. More likely is his gauge is not as accurate as yours. His gauge is probably dropped on a concrete floor dozens of times a day.

I have a 45 mile commute and consistently get about 54 - 55 MPG. Around town, I drop to 52 - 53 MPG. AC is on Auto nearly all the time except for the first few minutes when letting the heat out of the open windows.

 

mpg

just saw that note about 3000 miles and still only getting 47-49 mpg. now bad same thing happened to me. when i got to about 4500 miles i increased to 52mpg my best yet. i guess peter ( my prius) has taught me how to drive him! :lol: hang in there... i am now getting 48-52 depending on how many turnpike miles i have. i do about 450 every 10 days or so......in florida and always and i mean always with the a\c! :lol:

 

Re: mpg

Yeah, but NO hills so you should be doing better, on average, that other people in hot climates

 

yep ive begun to realize that for good gas mileage you need.

1)flat terrain
2)minimal short trips
3)tire pressure at 38/36 (keep in mind that my car came from the dealer this way. it was not my idea!!)
4) using cruise control whenever possible seems to also help a lot. (although its a lot of flipping on and off, i use it for all occasions where speed is at least 25 mph. cruise control doesnt work at lower speeds.) it was a real help when i first got my car because the acceleration was so smooth i frequently found myself doing 10-20 mph over the speed limit on some city streets!!

what i found out is that air conditioning does not seem to have a noticeable effect on my mileage. we just went through 3 days of near 100º weather. and my mileage went up. so i attribute this to easier than normal driving conditions.

also speed does affect my mileage but not nearly as much as i thought it would. i get about 53.5 mpg at 55-65 (traffic around here frequently does not allow anything faster in fact, slower is very common) but i get around 51.3 mpg at 70-75.

i want to test the "open window" effect on mileage but am waiting for the weather to cool off a bit first. the weather this year in Western WA has been setting records weekly since Feb and it doesnt look like there is any letup in site. but i will let you all know when i know.

 

I've been surprised (as have my friends) at the pickup you get with this car when needed. What I didn't expect (nice surprise) is the passing ability at freeway speeds. It's really very good, even up here at 5,000 to 7,000 foot elevation.

I've stopped tracking mileage but I still seem to be averaging around 48 mpg (excellent from my perspective). Lately I've pretty much returned to my driving old habits formed over the years driving Audis and Saabs. The car's still hanging in there mileage wise though.

My experience is that weather (wind and rain) seems to affect mileage the most at freeway speeds. The battery gets used up and the gasoline engine ends up doing most of the work.

The MPG is not so great climbing mountains either but I seem to get most of it back when returning so it doesn't matter much from an overall mileage perspective.