Prius Chicago to New York CBS news

Here are the numbers that seem to be in question.

 

That is a much better report than the CBS video and write-up. However, I just reviewed the video and CBS still shows "8.9 gallons" or "800 miles on 9 gallons" under the video. Regardless, the numbers from this CleanMPG report, especially with the details of the "off the clock" warm-up, vehicle preparation and force charging are as expected.

When you get a chance, check out the follow-up postings to the CBS article. I don't have a dog in that fight but others may. Perhaps some of the CleanMPG advocates might see if they can somehow craft a URL pointer to the CleanMPG report in one of the follow-up messages. Some of the posters to the CBS report are a little off in their facts and data.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

ps. Memo to Wayne: lose the cap when on camera and remember to talk to the camera as if say 2-3 million people are there. The interviewer will speak for them but they need to see your face.

 

Bob,

thanks for the post. I now have 225 miles on my tank, with an average (MFD) of 59.8. It looks like this tank will be over 60MPG.

Maybe my new goal will be 70mpg!! Anyway, I'll keep reading yours and others posts and see what happens.

 

This past weekend I did some test runs to see if I could replicate some of the results, after reading the full write-up my setup is very similar to the car Wayne drove, except I think he might have used 0w-20 on the oil change (I had 5-30 with 4000 miles on it) I have one sg without the xgauge features and started the drive with 9 PIPs of E10 gas and last check of tire pressure was 51/49 a couple of weeks ago.

On a smooth road without traffic, driving a similar method, I was able to put up 65-70 mpg segments over 2 hours when I had good light timing and smooth roads. From Lafayette in I got back on I-65 and did the drive 1800 rpm method and was getting 52-54 mpg bars.

On the drive back I did the drive 1800 rpm method again until the last place to buy E0 gas. Filled up, reset the MFD, drove 10 miles at 1800 then 46 miles driving 100% holding the low ign/tps values and one mile on surface streets. MFD read 65.0 when I pulled in the garage. The 5 minute bars during the shm period were in the 70-74 range and 55-57 range for the drive 1800 portion. I had a couple of slow downs to sub 40 at merge points, so it wasn't a perfect run with a few cross over 41 mphs.

If you have the patience to drive in the 47-53 mph range anyone can learn and apply this method. 45 mph roads or 55 mph 4 lane roads without traffic are the best places to try out the "drive 100% super highway mode" method.

E0 gas seems to make a big difference in my setup, I've noticed similar bumps when driving down on e10 and back on e0 compared to all e10 round trips.

It looks like diamondlarry is putting up 75+ segments with his standard model, perhaps he could give some target segment 5 minute bar estimates for those with the standard model and tire pressure at 44 psi (I think he is at a higher pressure) if they are applying the method correctly?