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MPG drop with touring wheels without covers?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by arvind, Aug 1, 2008.

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  1. arvind

    arvind ape

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    MPG drop with touring wheels?
    I recently put some touring wheels without the covers on my 07 non touring prius. I noticed initially that my MPGs were about the same. However, recently i noticed a massive drop off. from about 48-50, im down to the 30s. i reset my miles after about 100 to retest and its still about the same. same gas, no deflated tires. the tires were put on professionally and mounted and balanced with the old TPMS monitors. Has anyone else found this to be the case? Do I need to get the wheel covers to help make up the MPGs? Any help would be great. Thanks
     
    #1 arvind, Aug 1, 2008
  2. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    How long have you been measuring this steep drop in MPG? More than 1 or 2 tanks?

    The MPG drop sounds out of line from the results most see after swapping to another set of rims and tires, esspecially a stock set of touring edition rims/tires. Maybe if you put on a set of heavy 17" or 18" rims with sticky heavy tires I could see such a drop but not with a touring edition set. :confused: I would expect to see maybe a 2mpg drop on average if all conditions were exactly the same. Can you give us a bit more info?
     
    #2 F8L, Aug 1, 2008
  3. Boo

    Boo Boola Boola Member

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    Hi Arvind,

    The Touring wheel covers will make no difference whatsoever.

    Your mileage drop is unusual.

    When Consumer Reports tested the Standard Prius, it found that it got 44 mpg average.

    When it tested the Touring Prius it found that it got 42 mpg average -- only 2 mpg less than the Standard Prius.

    Assuming you didn't change the OEM tires on either the Standard or the Touring's wheels, your mpg difference should correspond to Consumer Reports'.

    BTW, for that 2 mpg drop, you should get improved handling and about 10 feet shorter 60 - 0 mph braking distances.

    One of several interesting threads on the subject is this one: http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/46823-consumers-reports-tests-touring.html
     
    #3 Boo, Aug 2, 2008
  4. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    #4 TonyPSchaefer, Aug 2, 2008
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