Our first little road trip w/ our '05

So, we went to Ramona to watch one of my youngest cousins get married this weekend (got back today) and took the Prius along with us (yay! I get to drive it again!)

We left at 5am on Friday, and after reading waaaay too much on that block heater thread I got up early to turn the car on and warm it up (also warming the cabin up for my wife) as it is parked outside and we are into the low-to-mid 40's at night here. The reason I bring this up is that the ICE was on sooooo much for this period that I don't think the car ever caught back up with the mpg averages we usually get. This is quite odd to me.

Normally we get 44-45mpg on a tank (will start participating fully this month on the monthly averages forum) so when I do a full tank and get 40 mpg I'm kind of bummed. This is why I say what I did about the ICE being on so much. Maybe if I install a block heater and run a cord our from the garage . . .. . .

So the first fill-up took us down to the south side of the grapevine (Gorman?) and filled up our bellies ,the Prius, and stretched our legs a little. Like I said, that stint was 40 mpg at 75 mph. I didn't go as fast as stint #3 because there was some fog in the valley for the "fast" section with the 70mph zone.

So Ramona is in behind some smaller foothills (say, a thousand foot gain in elevation from the flatlands) and we to this next fill up to Ramona and then round tripped from Ramona to Encinitas (to help with the wedding) 3 times (if you including getting to ramona and coming out this morning as a round trip). That "stint" we got 50 mpg over 286 miles! Woo-hoo! AND that stint ended on the northern side of Los Angeles (4th street exit for gas for you locals). So now I'm thinking that first stint was just a bad batch of gas. Heck, at this point I'm thinking of finding that 100+mpg loop back east and taking my turn on that thing.

Final stint, getting home. I do "10 over" in daylight so I was able to eventually ratchet up to 80 mph (70-zone) on I-5. I know, I know, not the best for mpg. Uncle. Got us home at 40.6mpg for that stint (vs 40.3 for stint #1)

In short, it looks to me like this car rock in foothills and LA style traffic. Absolutely no question in my mind. We are definitely enjoying the car (or at least I do when I get to drive it, my wife calls me almost every day to inform me how much she loves it. Of course, I think she is just taunting me :lol: ) So, some observations about the car:

The seat height didn't bug me nearly as much as my first day trip in the car. Have no idea what that is about, but it is now a lower priority to me.

44psi front and 42psi rear works out just fine on the road trips.

Wouldn't be cool to set up different user profiles tied to which key was in the driver's seat? OK, on most cars this means power seats and side windows. Let's just say the side windows, AND:

1. radio presets. Wouldn't it be cool if it put the driver's presets on FM1 and AM and moved profile two's preset to FM2 and AM2?

2. Navigation preferences. You know how you tell it how fast you drive on the freeway, in town, and in neighborhoods when you are dodging kids? Wouldn't it be cool if it automatically went to your profile so your ETA is corrected for the driver at the time?

3. More navigation preferences. What about each person choosing different volumes for their guide? Their male/female preferences for the guide? Actually, wouldn't it be cool to download voices/scripts like we download ringtones on our phones? I mean some people may want the full on NY telling you where to go . . . Or soothing guides, british guides, etc. You can see where this can go (and I'm not writing it here ) but that seems pretty plug-n-play to me and someone could make some fat cash.

4. It would pair to the driver's phone and use their phonebook if installed (umm, that last bit needs to be made a lot easier, how many threads are there now on how to get your phonebook into your Prius?)

Just things that would appeal to me. I mean wouldn't it be cool if it kept "score" on mpg for each user? I know my wife and I like to compete on this and I've read others too. It would be cool to set it up with a "trip" score and a "lifetime" score, then keep a total "car life" mpg stat as well. I mean really, how many kb's would this really consume? Heck, just add an SD ram card slot

 

Oh, final observation: waaaaay fewer Prius sightings in SoCal vs. NorCal. I don't think Winters in any danger of losing their per capita title to any city in the LA Basin.