realistic mileage for my commute

Hey Draheim! Since you asked me what I do to get 55-60 MPG (displayed) in the other thread, I can try to offer a couple tips. First, since temps still range from 40F to 65F where I live, I do a full block. Actually, since there are gaps at the edges let's call it 90 percent. Also, I live in a condo complex, I take the long way around (about one minute) to let the ICE finish the first warmup stage. I might have to wait another 30 seconds or so till traffic allows me to pull out onto the main road and I try to keep in Eco range when accelerating here. I might pull into the corner store here, and by the time I park the ICE has already shut down... About three minutes after leaving the house. I do NOT shut off the car... Just leave the key fob in the cup holder (depends on the neighborhood if you can do this). If I don't have any errands I have a light to wait at, so the ICE shuts down anyway. The next portion I always have traffic behind me so I just drive normally, trying to keep the HSI in the Eco range when possible. Then comes the sweet part, a side street I can mostly go stealth for a couple of minutes, followed by a steep decline to ride the brakes and nearly top off the battery! Another pulse and glide at the bottom and I've reached work, about 4 miles.

 

I might be missing a few lines in the long post. Did you really ask about gas milaege and fuel cost when you drive less than 10 miles a day? I mean, seriously?

 

Sunrise to Seattle will do even better. Even from a reset and cold start (after a chilly all day hike), 3000 vertical feet of wasteful compression braking, and a dinner stop in Enumclaw, you should be able to get to Renton before the display drops below 99.9.



Even the very best DQ'd VW TDI Tank Wars entries couldn't touch that distance/MPG combination. (Its rules had no elevation change restriction.)

(I didn't bother recording the trip up, but the fuel log shows 56.1 (at the pump, not the display) for that tank.) A further check of my notes shows 47.2 for the climb, for a round trip of 60.6.

OK, back to topic.

 

I reset the trip meter at startup, so the mpg reflects cold engine conditions. And I get the same, maybe even a little better on the return trip. The Prius isn't about being the most cost effective transportation for me. It's about giving as little money as possible to the oil powers and their terrorist offshoots, and hurting the environment a little less. I also think it's a cool car with lots of room to haul stuff!

 

My displayed MPG's for my last two tanks have been over 60 mpg (currently reading 61.0 mpg after 400 miles on this tank). I've got a 70 mile per day commute (35 miles to work, 35 miles to home). There is one long grade (Dublin grade) on the first third of my commute to work and in the last third of my commute home. The commute is roughly 85% freeway, 15% city/stop and go.

I keep my freeway speeds to 55 mph (cruise control) which goes a LONG way to my great gas mileage. (Only a dry day, I'll get nearly 63 - 64 mpg to and from work....it is the quick little 5 minute trips to baseball games and such that "kill" my mileage on the weekends).

My first 5 minutes, I'll travel about 3 miles and will average about 35 mpg (due to warming up). I make up the mileage due to the fact that my commute is long enough to really take advantage of the great highway MPG's this car can attain.

 

Driving style is also important. My wife drives our Prius 90% of the time.

She does not drive at all for fuel economy. A lot of her trips are under two miles from a cold start.

He current tank indicated guage is 46 MPG for 213 miles for a true 43 MPG.

When I drive I can usually get at least 50 MPG indicated. Last weekend from a cold start my wife, me, nephew, and his girlfriend, all adults, went for a trip from Seaside Oregon to the east side of Portland Oregon.

When we arrived home with over 200 miles the trip guage, which I had reset at the start of the trip, read 56.7 MPG for a true 53 MPG.


This is driving at or slightly above speed limit.

Alfon

 

Don't forget the car and tires need a few thousand miles to get broken in! A year from now you might be seeing milage in the 50's! And an EBH is a good investment for short trippers like us... as soon as it's warm and I can borrow a ramp I'm gonna install mine. As far as what the future holds, I can't wait!:rockon: