2009 Prius Base - $19k

[Matt Herring]

Stats from my last fillup...

MFD showed 63.8 mpg...an all-time high for me by .6 mpg! Weather was favorable over the 10 day tank but not staggeringly hot (average high temp was 74 degrees over the 10 days). I removed my grill block when I filled up last time so I have been seeing slightly lower first 5 minute mpg results...time to install the EBH!

Near the end of the tank I had an oil change done at my Toyota dealership...no change in mpg has been noted after the oil change...whew!

Alot of good things happened over this tank and knowing the way I'm wired I will forever remember my all-time high mpg tank along with them (got engaged, installed SGII GPS Xgauge feature, my first oil change...lol)!

New GPS XGuage feature for SGII will be tested over next tank. I don't anticipate any big highway miles on the next tank but do have a couple 15-20 mile runs due early next week so I will get a chance to keep testing the GPS feature.

[Matt Herring]

During the course of my tank I like to keep "mpg checkpoints" to see how I'm performing against my past tanks as a little motivation for the next 100 miles I drive. To do this I record my MFD mpg every 100 miles and compare my current tank against my best-ever MFD mpg at those checkpoints.

After toying with my new GPS Xgauage setting and a good run of 70 highway miles my first 100 miles on my current tank are a record for me at 66.0 mpg (and I'm sitting at 66.3 mpg right now after 105 miles). Hopefully, this translates into record 200, 300, 400 and 500 segments as well as an all-time high tank.

Here's my all-time best mpg at each 100 mile interval:

100 - 66.0 mpg (current tank)...previous high was 64.1
200 - 64.0
300 - 63.9
400 - 63.3
500 - 63.7
At fillup - 63.8 (last tank)

Next week I have some unavoidable highway traveling (about 200 miles) and hope my new GPS Xguage feature keeps me in the game and headed towards an all-time high tank!

[Matt Herring]

Got a chance to experiment a little more with the gps xguage feature on my sg2 today over 70 highway miles. Was able to get 62 mpg and got a little more comfortable with using the gps feature.

I still prefer dropping ign to 5 and staying with that until I need more speed but the 16 to 17 gps figure is ideal for driving on the highway.

Also installed the GAS xguage feature to my sg2 to see how accurately it estimates the remaining fuel in my tank. At 1 pip over halfway it is reporting 55 percent remaining. Will keep an eye on it to see how it looks down the road.

[Matt Herring]

Home now and put a total of 80 highway miles on the buggy today while experimenting with the GPS Xguage SGII feature. Total mpg for the route was 62+. Not the best I've ever done on the highway but not bad considering it's an improvement from the 58-60 I've seen prior to using the GPS XGuage.

After having some time with the GPS feature I would say the following about driving a Prius on the highway in terms of SGII instrumentation:

1. IGN 5 produces the best mpg but acceleration is nearly non existent and it's only slightly above an ICE coast. But, on some nice downhills you can pick up more speed than in an ICE coast and max out mpg. I'd liken it most closely to neutral coast in an ICE-only vehicle (which is not recommended in a Prius in the 60+ mph range).

2. Xguage GPS 16.0 to 16.5 seems to be ideal for mpg at speeds between 50-60 mph. Alot of times I have been running 17.0 to 17.5 to get a little more accel than in the 16-16.5 range (to limit the time I need full ICE to accel the car before repeating GPS 16-17). Although it's not max mpg when running above 16.5 GPS it seems to work better in the flow of traffic (especially on 65 mph marked roads where I'm struggling to stay at/around 55 mph due to hypermiling techniques and terrain).

3. If you're running GPS 10-11 (at 50+ mph) you're better off releasing the GO pedal and dropping down to IGN 5/GPS 0.0 before reapplying the GO pedal ever so lightly to stay in IGN 5. This way you are maxing out mpg since GPS 10 accel is only slightly better than IGN 5 and GPS 10 mpg is much lower than IGN 5 mpg.

[Matt Herring]

I've had 4-5 good highway runs using GPS and have found my trip mpg ranges from 61-72 mpg on the highway depending on terrain, traffic, weather, etc.

I've been using GPS in combination with IGN. While I am still trying to hold IGN 14 on the highway the GPS feature helps me fine tune the IGN 14. While the SGII stays at 14 IGN the GPS ticks down from 18 to 17 to 16/16.5 and eventually reads 100+ mpg for as long as I can hold it.

I also installed the GAS (tank % left) Xguage feature and it seems to be consistent with the pips on the gas guage. At 3 pips it ticked down from 30 to 27.5 and when I hit 25 another pip came off to leave me with 2 on the gas guage. While I don't make a regular practice of running below 2 pips I'm going to run this one down to 1 pip to see what the GAS Xguage tells me.

FYI - At 450 miles sitting at 63.4 mpg. Had some inefficient driving in the 100-300 mile range on this tank (dropped from 66.0 to 62.8 mpg over 200 miles). Working back towards my all-time high of 63.8 mpg but not sure I can eclipse it on this tank.

[Matt Herring]

I pushed my tank as far as I was comfortable with to test the GAS XGuage feature on my SGII. About 20 miles into my last pip GAS was showing 12.5 remaining in the tank. Guestimating I had about 8 gallons in the tank when I was "full" that would mean I had about 1 gallon left in the tank when I filled up. I doubt this is exactly accurate as that would mean I would have been able to drive about 80 miles on my last pip (generally I can drive about 50-60 miles on my second to last pip).

For reference, I won't be pushing my tank limits past 15.0 in terms of GAS on my SGII...pretty sure I was getting close to a blinking pip.

FYI - After filling up I had a good 30~ mile run out of the box. Took the girl out for a Saturday picnic and had a chance to drive on some nice 25-40 mph rural roads with very little traffic and 84 degree temps. Check out the pic on my MFD (showing 81.7 mpg after 28 miles driven)! Would love to see a similar route and temps at the Economy run in August!!!

Still .6 mpg behind 1st place out of 32 Prius' at myhybridcar.com. The guy in first place is putting up some 65+ mpg tanks right now...tough to catch! Also rank 14th on ecomodder.com for 90 day for gasoline cars...the "Red Jelly Bean" Metro is in my crosshairs at #13! Closing in on 30% over EPA as well (currently 28.3% over EPA).

[Matt Herring]

Monster commute to work today and subsequent brief drive after...

My 11 mile commute to work was ideal. 72 degrees at 6am with no traffic on the road. Somewhere in the 75+ mpg range on the way to work (SGII reported 66 mpg...running about 9 mpg pessimistic on this tank).

While leaving the car running for a brief stop at work (to keep the engine warm and avoid the start up cycle) I had 5 miles to get to my offsite work location and I don't think I used the brakes once...no traffic...lights worked out perfectly. SGII reported 102 mpg at the end of the drive for the total 16 miles. Since I knew I was only going 5 miles and didn't have to worry about SOC I used heavy EV and just went for broke.

After 140 miles I'm sitting at 69.1 mpg on my mfd. Since my first 30 miles of 80+ mpg I've been trying so hard to save mpg but I've dropped 11 mpg over the last 100+ miles. I don't expect to keep it at 69 mpg for the tank but I did top my previous first 100 mile high by 3 mpg. Now it's on to preserving mpg 100 miles at a time to try and pull an all-time high tank!

[Daox]

I just got my first crack at driving with the GPS xgauge. I gotta say, it seems to really help out a lot. I only had one bar (besides the first 5 minute bar) that was even close to 50 mpg. The rest were 60+ with two pegged at 100 mpg. It takes about 35 minutes to get to work, so 7 bars total.

[Matt Herring]

Originally Posted by Daox

I just got my first crack at driving with the GPS xgauge. I gotta say, it seems to really help out a lot. I only had one bar (besides the first 5 minute bar) that was even close to 50 mpg. The rest were 60+ with two pegged at 100 mpg. It takes about 35 minutes to get to work, so 7 bars total.

Nice work Daox...great numbers! GPS coupled with IGN really starts to refine the way we drive on the highway. Plus with the regen you get while using GPS on the highway you really don't mind stop and go traffic using EV mode because you get enough regen to keep SOC at an efficient level.

Great to hear you're seeing nice numbers with GPS!

[Matt Herring]

Good news! Wayne from priuschat is going be in my area around August 14/15 and offered to install my EBH! He's well known on the site for installing EBH's all over the country...some of you may have seen him at Hybridfest or another meet recently (goes by the handle FireEngineeer).

And as for my mpg news...I've had three all-time high 100 mile segments on my current tank and hoping to hold on to it to post an all-time high tank. The first 100 mile segment was helped by a nice 30 mile rural run of 80+ mpg. Since then I've been doing everything to stay away from mpg hazards and have managed to hold my current mpg at 65.6 at 340 miles. It's incredible how quickly mpg drops for just the smallest efficient driving errors or difficult terrain, traffic, etc. Even after 300 miles driven my mpg can swing as much as 1 mpg overall on my commute to and from work.

Will be filling up this weekend as I have a trip to Watkins Glen, NY for a Nascar race (no, I'm not in the race with my Prius...just a spectator) so I have 5-6 days to hang onto my mpg and try to beat my all-time MFD mpg high of 63.8.

Here's my all-time best mpg at each 100 mile interval:

100 - 69.8 mpg (current tank)...previous high was 66.0
200 - 66.8 (current tank)...previous high was 64.0
300 - 65.2 (current tank)...previous high was 63.9
400 - 63.4
500 - 63.7
At fillup - 63.8 (last tank)