Winter to Summer Gas

This must be a joke, right?

"Winter gas" should hit both of your cars the same. In other words, the Corolla's ICE should take the same hit as the Prius' ICE. In fact, since the Corolla's ICE is running more (i.e. the Prius ICE can shut down while driving), it should hit the Corolla harder. And I really don't understand how you're getting the low-mid 30s for the Pri with a ~50 mile drive. My fiancee does the worst possible type of commute for the Prius. It's about 1 mile in moderately cold temperatures (teens-30s). Never-the-less, she gets in the upper 30s in MPG on those trips.

 

That seems odd that you get that. Mine fuel economy dropped arbou 4-6 MPG but still get about 51 MPG. It all depends on your driving behavior.

The winter gas depends on where you live. In Texas it is law to use it between Oct to Mar.

 

there is absolutely no way your corolla will come anywhere near your Prius for mileage at any time of the year. you need to have your figures and your Prius checked out.

parking it for 4-5 months is ridiculous

 

How much of ur 51.8 mile commute is highway?

I used to have the same distance commute as you are with about 80% highway. The mileage didn't drop much between summer (high 50's to low 60's) and winter (low to mid 50's). If your commute is mainly local streets (which I doubt), that's another story.

Are you sure you are getting better mileage with ur Corolla in the winter? How do you calculate the mileage? That's a little hard to believe.

One more thing. If you are not driving ur Prius for the whole winter, you might want to put a battery tender on your 12V battery. You might not able to start your car if you don't.

 

I don't doubt that your gas mileage plummeted. I just seriously doubt that it didn't plummet by an equal or greater amount on the Corolla. Basically, all of the power in either car is going to come from a gasoline engine. Some of the power is recovered and/or used more efficiently in the Prius, but it all comes from the engine.

At the very least, it seems like the larger Toyota engine in the car with higher wind resistance (Corolla) should get worse mileage than the smaller Toyota engine in the car with lower wind resistance (Prius). You won't get EPA numbers for either car in the winter.

 

If your Corolla is getting better gas mileage than your Prius, then there is something seriously wrong with your Prius. I had a 40 MPG tank this winter when the temperature outside was near or below zero for like a week. But that's still better fuel economy than I would obtain driving a Corolla in the month of May.

 

Yes. And even if it was worse than what you would get from driving the Corolla in May, there's no way it's worse than what you'd get if you drove the Corolla in the same manner in the winter.

 

1. Are you quoting MPG figures from the Prius' own display, or did you calculate MPG manually using the odometer and the gas pump?

2. What are the tire pressures in the Prius?

3. Are you sure that the parking brake is completely released (no, I'm not joking)?

 

That can't be right. Even last winter with that long stretch of -40, running that crappy dealer motor oil, no winter front, heat on Max, etc, my worst tank average was 9.8 l/100km. About 28 MPG Imperial gallon.

FWIW my former vehicle, a 2000 GMC Sierra pickup, would use around 49 l/100km under similar driving conditions. About 6 MPG Imperial gallon.

Folks at the office report around half my MPG in cars like a Chevy Corsica, Dodge Neon, Ford Focus, yes even a 2002 Corolla. The only person who can consistently get close to my fuel economy is the guy with the VW Golf tdi, and I wouldn't want to put up with a diesel motor in this climate.

My fuel economy was much better this winter, especially during the cold stretch. I'm trying Mobil 1 0W-20 as a "winter" oil, and I also made a winter front. With temps of -35 C, my fuel economy was still around 6.4 l/100km in slow city driving. About 44 MPG Imperial gallon.

 

For those not so familiar with the metric system, -35C is -31F - that's pretty darn good Jayman!

BTW, I'm an anglo expat from Montreal - not generally as cold as Winnipeg, but I sure don't miss those cold temps!

Dave