1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Not a hypermiler yet, but gosh darn happy with the MPG

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by JeffHart, Aug 11, 2005.

  1. JeffHart

    JeffHart New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    83
    0
    0
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Have had the Prius for a few weeks and now have over 900 miles on it. Filled up Tuesday morning near the end of my a.m. commute, got 99.9 MPG on my last mile to work :)

    Drove home Tuesday night and then a full commute on Wednesday with a short lunch stop on both Tuesday and Wednesday ( < 1mi. )

    So far I'm showing 49.5 MPG at 139 miles on the MFD and the first fuel bar is still solid. Suprised that it was still full so when I stopped for groceries on the way home (MFD around 125 miles) I checked to make sure I had the gas cap on correctly.

    My commute is about 41 miles - on the home side I travel through a park that allows me to pulse & glide and stealth for most of it. Somewhat hilly and sharing the road with bicyclists means that I can't always drive at optimal speeds. Generally pulse to 35-39 MPH and glide to 24 MPH. I'm learning what areas I can glide for extended differences. My 10-15 minute trip through the park can yield two perfect MPG bars in the MFD if all is well.

    Then on to the DC Beltway, generally on ICE mostly at around 54 MPG for a couple of miles, then on the highway against traffic. Average speed is about 65 MPH for 20 miles then 77 MPH for the next 15, followed by a 1 mile drive on surface streets.

    Since I'm driving faster than the EPA tests I am not expecting to get EPA beating results, but was hoping to beat the Consumer Reports 44 MPG overall. If I get an additional boost within the next 1500 miles as it breaks in even more, I'll be one happy camper.

    Cheers,
    Jeff
     
    #1 JeffHart, Aug 11, 2005
  2. mikepaul

    mikepaul Senior Member

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2003
    1,763
    6
    0
    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    You are benefitting from warm weather to start. Mine wasn't good until Spring last year, along with typical engine break-in you already expect will help.

    It appears to take work to be a 'hypermiler', and I gave up on standard transmissions when I decided that was a lot of work. I'm happy enough...
     
    #2 mikepaul, Aug 11, 2005
  3. IsrAmeriPrius

    IsrAmeriPrius Progressive Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2004
    4,333
    7
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    I have gone anywhere from 70 to 170 miles before the first bar dropped.

    You are not going to get high MPG figures at speeds of 65 MPH and higher.
     
    #3 IsrAmeriPrius, Aug 11, 2005
  4. JeffHart

    JeffHart New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    83
    0
    0
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Got stuck in dead stop traffic immediately after my lunch meeting - outside temp showing 97F and A/C on max, killed the first bar at 152, then the next two bars went by 192.

    It's all relative - the 45.6 MPG showing currently is still much, much better than the lifetime 19.8 MPG from my Chrysler 300M over 60K miles driven under similar conditions. Definitely agree that I would get better gas milage at lower speeds, but I'm taking baby steps here :)

    Cheers,
    Jeff
     
    #4 JeffHart, Aug 12, 2005
  5. IsrAmeriPrius

    IsrAmeriPrius Progressive Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2004
    4,333
    7
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    My air conditioning is generally set at 76 in the automatic mode. Day time temperatures here were mostly in the high nineties for the past few of weeks, 97-99 when I leave work. On my way to work it is still in the sixties (and I lower the a/c setting to 72 for that portion of my daily commute).

    I try to keep my speed constant and avoid accelerating and slowing down while driving on the freeway. That generally keeps me at about 60 MPH.

    After the first bar drops, it is more or less thirty miles for each of the next five bars and then approximately 50 miles for each of the next three bars. Once I am down to one bar, I have driven anywhere from ten to thirty some miles before it started flashing. It has been a few months since I averaged less than 50 MPG on a tank.
     
    #5 IsrAmeriPrius, Aug 12, 2005
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)