2009 Prius Base - $19k

[PA Prius]

Originally Posted by Matt Herring

I've been doing alot of reading about the gas tank "bladder" in the Prius. It seems it is difficult to get 100% accurate fill numbers (especially in the winter) because the bladder shrinks in size due to the environment it is in (cold or hot). I'll keep an eye on this as I compare in-car mpg vs. SGII mpg vs. actual fill mpg.

Right. Calculating the mileage the manual way after each fill-up is not accurate. I've found the MFD runs consistently 1 mpg high--- calculated by averaging the total miles driven and gallons used after many tanks.

PA Prius

[Matt Herring]

I'll be adding in-car mpg and SGII mpg to my notes section in the fuel log from here on out so I can narrow the margin error on my numbers.

[Matt Herring]

Just filled up and clearly the actual fill totals from the tank are not going to be anywhere near accurate. Despite my in-car mpg reading 4.1 mpg higher than my last tank and my SGII mpg reading 4.1 mph higher than my last tank...my actual fill mpg dropped 1.05 mpg from my last tank. No question I was over 60 mpg on this tank.

Over time I'll have to find an accurate indicator of mpg. PA Prius seems to think MFD runs about 1 mpg higher than actual which on this tank would make sense to me (and make me feel an awful lot better about my efforts on my most recent tank). Some more veteran Prius drivers at priuschat.com have told me to use -2% from the in-car MFD mpg to get a more accurate mpg tank to tank picutre...which I think I'll go with for now while compiling tanks.

After I get a decent amount of tanks under my belt and narrow in on actual mpg I may adjust my fuel logs...but I need more info. I have a good 800-900 miles coming up over the next week so I'll get 2-3 more tanks worth of info. and see what it bears.

Still...filling up my tank for $15.77 was a blast today...16 days worth of driving for under $16...I'll take it!

[Matt Herring]

Hitting the pavement for a 375 mile trip to PA tonight. Leaving the house at midnight...arrive at 7am...hopefully will have the highway to myself for the most part.

Plan to use Wayne's "Prius Super Highway Mode" techniques to maximize mpg (pulse to 65 mph...lightly release go pedal until IGN on SGII settles at 14 IGN...coast it down to 55 mph...repeat process). I toyed with this a little last night and found it to work pretty well. After settling IGN at 14 for about 5 secs the mpg jumped from 60 to 90 and stayed above 75 mpg until I began my pulse section again.

Also, will have passenger side mirror folded in to reduce drag...if I find there to be very little traffic outside of Boston might fold the driver's side in too.

[PA Prius]

Add a few psi to your tires and give us the full report when you get home. And, welcome to PA!

PA Prius

[PaleMelanesian]

Good luck on the drive!

[Matt Herring]

Originally Posted by PA Prius

Add a few psi to your tires and give us the full report when you get home. And, welcome to PA!

PA Prius

I filled up this morning to prepare for the trip and doublechecked/confirmed the psi at 44 front and 42 back...didn't want to go any higher than that.

Link of trip is below...about 380 miles...two nice long highway stretches of 120+ miles each on I-90 in MA and I-88 in NY. Love using the "estimated fuel cost" feature on mapquest...estimates about $14 to drive there for me...(insert evil laugh here)!

Driving Directions from North Andover, MA to Towanda, PA

FYI - For those of you that have never been to Fenway Park...had a good time there last night and took 2 vids...simply for your entertainment...singing "Sweet Caroline" in the 8th inning (a Fenway tradition like no other in baseball) and the drummer outside the park after the game (talked my gf into dancing in front of the drummer...and then 2 guys did some crazy drunk dance shortly after)...enjoy!

YouTube - Fenway Park Sweet Caroline

YouTube - Fenway Park Drummer

[Matt Herring]

800 mile round trip roadie completed this weekend...WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! My mpg was miserable (51 mpg)...not sure if this is what to expect in the Prius but it's what happened.

My drive from Boston, MA to Towanda, PA was late at night (midnight to 8am) and I used P&G every chance I could get. Very little traffic on the road. My in-car mpg (which I am using to compare tanks) was 52.0 mpg. Weather conditions were favorable for this run. My normal city driving in-car mpg is around 60-62 mpg (hard to swallow the massive gap).

My drive home from Towanda, PA to Boston, MA I left alot later than I had planned so I didn't really P&G or try very hard to save time. My mpg was slightly better but nothing to be happy with (52.2 mpg). This run was from 2-9pm with favorable weather and moderate traffic.

Not sure what to think about my return trip being better than my trip there...since I didn't even hypermile on the way home (maybe the trip home is a little more downhill than the trip there). The good news was the whole trip cost me about $40 round-trip for gas. In my 4runner it would have cost approx. $90. I didn't even have to stop for gas on the way home and I already had 80 miles on the tank when I left.

I don't get alot of chances to drive highway and based on these results I'm glad. Will be putt-putt-putting my way around town and trying to get back to 60+ mpg. My commute to work today registered 68 mpg in-car so I'm off to a good start!

Forgot to mention, one cool thing happened on the way home though. About 20 miles from my house I pulled up behind a "very old" Prius on the highway. Looked nothing like the current Prius line but was a Toyota Prius (Gen 1). He was snuggled up behind a semi putting along. I pulled up next to him and gave him the thumps up and he responded with a fist pump. I watched him in my rear view as I accelerated past and I could see him telling his wife in the passenger seat "how cool he was."

[PaleMelanesian]

Old epa rating for the Prius-II was 51 highway, 60 city.

[Matt Herring]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Old epa rating for the Prius-II was 51 highway, 60 city.

New highway EPA is 45 mpg and my trip was about 12% over that number. New city EPA is 48 mpg and my average so far has been about 18% over that number. Guess I should expect highway trips to be more difficult to get over EPA (by about 6-10%).

Ironically, my avg. highway is 51 and my avg. city is 60 right now after about 6 weeks in the car...shenanigans!