Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemmy
And finally, a conventional diesel car or small bore petrol car will beat it for economy, so what's the point? We were running a Peugeot 3008 HDI diesel and a Peugeot 107 three jug petrol along side the Pious, and both kicked the Pious in the balls and stole its lunch money when it came to economy. So why bother building a petrol powered car, then saddling it with the weight, complication and manufacturing pollution of motors and batteries if that's the best they could do.
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Because Cd lives in the US and pretty much the only option for diesel cars has been VW, which aren't exactly known for reliability (at least over here). The way I see it, the best part about a Prius is it comes with automatic hypermiling. Can a hypermiler get the same mileage in a Civic? Probably. However, the Prius will get over 40MPG in almost an situation with any driver.
Cd, like oldtamiyaphile and MetroMPG said, you're probably trying to drive it backwards of what's really good for getting the most MPGs from a Prius. I use the ICE whenever I need real power (ICE usually kicks on at 5-10MPH when I'm accelerating) and save electric for extending coasts and parking lot speeds.
Something that may have hurt you on your 6 mile trip is the different "stages" of hybrid use the Prius goes through as it warms up.
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/five-stages.txt Basically, the engine will run until it hits a certain temp before it'll turn off, however, it'll only turn off at a complete stop. No engine off coasting at this point. When it gets up to full operating temperature, the ICE will shut off when you start coasting/braking above 35MPH and stay off all the way to 0. You can even accelerate or maintain speed in EV at this point. But if you coast from 35 to 25, then pulse, kicking the ICE on, back up to 30, the ICE will stay on. You don't get full hybrid mode enabled until you come to a complete stop with the ICE running and at operating temp. The ICE will stay on for ~5 seconds before turning off. Now you're in full hybrid mode and the ICE is able to turn off at any speed under ~40MPH. Climate controls can mess with this a bit, like if you're demanding a lot of heat or using the AC when the battery is low.
I bought my '05 in June 2013 with 85k miles. It now has 130k miles. I've done oil changes, replaced tires, replaced the 12v battery, and replaced the coolant pump for the inverter (instrument cluster was replaced for free because of an extended warranty put out by Toyota). I've gotten 60MPG tanks and 30MPG tanks (bikes on the back and j80MPH will do that).