Prius MPG

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

I find hypermiling in a Prius frustrating. The car makes too many decisions for me. I struggle to get more than ~55 MPG trip mileage in a fancy, high-tech 2nd gen Prius, but can get 70+ MPG tanks in an old Civic Wagon all summer without even thinking about it.

I find the same. I'd rather EOC and know that the engine will stay off and the trans will stay in neutral.

I'd love to see what the aerodynamic Prius shell would do with decent 2.0 and six speed though, and a RWD chassis designed for handling

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

What kind of driving are you doing? A Prius can be tricky above 40mph, outside of just keeping average speeds down while using cruise control/driving with load, but below there, P&G is easy and gets really good mileage.

Mostly rural roads at 45-50 MPH. I've gotten over 70 MPG in a Prius, but I can't seem to do it consistently.

[Magician]

I drove 77mpg on the interstate on a 55-mile trip and averaged 50mpg. Absoluntely no Mods to it. My wife who doesn't hypemile is averaging 52-54mpg and she doesn't drive slow in her routine driving. I'm positive if I drove it 45-50 mph that I'd likely be over 70mpg in it... and possibly higher... with Zero mods. I know I'd make some gains with a warm air intake, grill block and a few other mods.

Also, I met a guy who I bought one of my solar panels from that easily gets over 70mpg in his 3rd Gen Prius. He does hypermile it, but he's not one of those slow people that has a bunch of angry drivers behind him. He just drives it intelligently. A skillful foot in a Prius can blow away almost any other car on the road in MPG.

[Gasoline Fumes]

I'll get to drive a 2008 Prius this week. I'll try harder.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

I find hypermiling in a Prius frustrating. The car makes too many decisions for me.

It takes practice to be mindful of what the car wants to do and be able to make it bend to your will within those constraints. Little things like coming to a complete stop for a few seconds with a warmed up ICE running to allow it to enter the full hybrid stage can make all the difference. To be honest, you're probably almost better off driving it like a normal automatic and not trying to force the car to do something if you don't have the time to become familiar with how the car behaves. It was designed to get good mileage when driven like a normal car, trying to hypermile it the wrong way can clash with that programming.

I usually just set the cruise if I'm going over ~40MPH with no stops coming up. Like roflwaffle said, below ~40MPH (where the ICE can turn off) is where you can really play.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

I'll get to drive a 2008 Prius this week. I'll try harder.

Indicated 61.5 MPG on a 42 mile round trip. Rural roads and small towns, no city or highway. I think I could do better with a manual transaxle in place of the hybrid stuff.

[Magician]

61.5 mpg seems like a good run assuming no mods on that Prius.

[broski499]

Originally Posted by S Keith

Most people just drive them comfortable in the knowledge that their lack of effort will still be rewarded with 40+mpg combined.

If you're using your mpg readout, it could be inaccurate. If you're doing per tank fill-ups, you need to record distance and fuel over 5 fill-ups. The bladder in the pre-2010 Prius makes them notoriously inaccurate when trying to do a per tank mpg calculation.

Out of about 100 Gen 2 Prius drivers I have encountered, most get low to mid-40s.

Watch for oil consumption. Check it frequently until you get a handle on how much you're burning. If the warning light ever flickers on and off, add oil immediately. Do NOT overfill.

What kills me is short commutes and I live in a hilly area. My lifetime average is 45mpg. I really have had to work for this. I havn't done any mods yet. I use a ultraguage and I find that is is pretty close to being accurate once I calibrated it.

The fuel tank bladder makes for very interesting tank to tank fill ups. I find that it will ding me with a low mpg one week then my next fill up I'll get way better than expected. Basically evening itself out. Kind of annoying.

[jcp123]

My last encounter with a Prius owner in the wild was someone who came to my auto parts store for...something. Probably to read OBDII codes, since I had to get in the car and power it up...mpg read 35.xx. I kind of wondered how...

[Xist]

I remember someone on here recounting how he was at a gas station and a girl was bragging about her Prius' fuel economy, then asked the member what his "piece of junk" got. He had her look at his MPGuino or whatever and felt rather satisfied.