Prius newbie: about how many miles can I expect between fill ups?

If you plan for 400 miles, you will never be too short. And you have to pee by then anyway.

 

I usually try to find fuel at about 400 miles but my 2008 did one tank of 508 miles from Central California to Oregon over the mountains and the low fuel light had not come on yet.

 

After One pip, a bell dings once and that one pip starts blinking. At this point you have between 7 and 70 miles to get gas. Choose wisely.

If alone in the car my 'goal' is to turn into the station just before the single bell., If my wife is also in the car, my goal is to turn in just as it goes from 2 pips to 1.

 

The Gen II Prius has a rubber bladder in the gas tank. This bladder has a mind of it's own when it comes time to refuel. I don't think I have ever managed 10 gallons.

 

But you are in the Bay Area where a hot day is 75 degrees, I can get 10.5 gallons in the bladder at 100 degrees. It gets more flexible.

 

I am in Hawaii and the most I have ever gotten in was 8.4.
How fast were you driving? I routinely get over 400 on a tank.

 

First, thanks for coming back for the update.

It sounds like it had to do with the traffic and in particular the weather, especially if you encountered winds, since that is rather low, even for "normal" driving of the car. I would've expected 45 mpg in regular conditions at the least, and with a little bit of restraint, closer to 50. There are ways to get through traffic with a minimal hit, but it takes some practice and getting used to.

I'm curious...were you mostly going 70 mph or more during the times traffic was moving?

 

i fuel up between 6 and 8 gallons. that's roughly 240 to 320 miles... sometimes i'll push further. i don't push it very often because as you go long distances you get expensive followed by cheap gas... on and on.. sometimes a station is closed and it's the only one for an extra 80 miles or so (happened a few times to me... i was crunching numbers)

i only get 40mpg or so. with stock tires i not being used to the car... i would expect at least 42mpg...

btw.. don't ever top off the gas.

what kind of car do you have? (curious for mpg comparison) if you get 25mpg, it's roughly 200 dollars.. if you get 40mpg it's just over 100 dollars.. depending on prices of fuel.

you save fuel, emissions, money, and the abuse on your own car...

 

It's hard to say how close to empty it came because you don't know how full the tank got. See/listen to http://priuschat.com/forums/other-cars/94001-gas-gauge-says-full-but-thats-not-quite-true-npr.html. The most I've ever put in was 9.975 gallons. I normally get gas soon at 2 pips get gas NOW if I ever run to down to 1 pip (almost never).

Any reason why you're using an online mileage calculator and why there's a question of its believability? You can do the manual math yourself.

As for subpar, given what you describe about horrible traffic and "a idling behind thousands of stopped cars on the freeway for hours", that definitely hurt your mileage and we know nothing about the condition of the borrowed car, what tires it has, alignment, air pressure, oil level, etc.

I suspect your CR-V would've gotten far below 22 mpg. http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...eage-no-its-your-gallonage-really-counts.html might help put things in perspective.

 

I'd call that on the lower edge of "normal". If you look at the link below you'll see that the vast majority of owners get somewhere between 40 and 60 MPG. That's quite a range.

There are many factors that can affect your mileage. Maintenance issues and non LRR replacement tires are a common problems. Wind and rain are also important factors.

See: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...l-what-mpg-you-getting-in-your-gen-2-a-8.html

 

Lol @ pee by then! He is young its probably true. When you get my age its more like 200 miles then pee!

 

Fill up #1:
337.6 miles
8.805 gallons
Fuel price: $4.259/gal
38.3 MPG (online mileage calculator)
($0.11/mile)

Fill up #2:
343 miles
8.267 gallons
Fuel price: $3.799/gal
41.9 MPG (Prius Info) / 41.5 MPG (online mileage calculator)
($0.09/mile)

Fill up #3:
340.2 miles
8.493 gallons
Fuel price: $3.459
43.3 MPG (Prius Info) / 40.1 MPG (online mileage calculator)
($0.09/mile)
QUOTE]
Just wondering what thespeed limit was and if you drove it? I drove my 2005 Prius on a HWY in Michigan where the minimum was 55mph. I drove 59mph on cruise control and got 81.7mpg for the ladt 3 miles of a 20mile trip.

 

I'm not too sure how you found this old thread but you are commenting on something that was posted and subsequently died almost 8 years ago. Realizing you're new to this site, you can see the date of the post in the bottom of the box containing it. That might save you some embarassment and shaming from some of the less tolerant around here.