Xringer's Prius C

[Daox]

I do remember when the 2010 Prius came out there was a big hubbub about how the MFD was overly optimistic about the fuel economy. I'm not sure if that factor was ever resolved.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Xringer

Did a fill-up to and got Fuelly..

At 318 miles, it needed 5.5 gallons, giving 57.8 MPG (if the dealer gave us a good fill-up).
The odometer display shows 64.3 MPG. Close to an 11% error..?.
We'll see how close it is, after the 400+ road trip this weekend.
That's going to be 97% highway at 65 ish.. I hope, since I'm not going..

My experience is the smaller the fuel tank the more tank to tank variation you get, the only exception is the subaru 360 I have as you can clearly visually see the fuel in the 6.6 gallon tank and top off to the same spot most every time.

[Xringer]

Yeah, I kinda figured the dealer fill up would be hit or miss.

After reading some of this, I think it's actually going to read about 2 MPG higher than Fuelly.
Calculated MPG vs. Indicated MPG of the c - Please post your results | PriusChat

[danwat1234]

Originally Posted by Daox

If you charge above 80% the car will spin the engine using the electric motors to burn off the excess energy. You really only have 45% to 80% to work with unless you disable the Prius BMS...............................

That is AWESOME! Wow just think of how that relates to GE's Ecomagination hybrid locomotive. Dynamic braking to slow down the train recharges the battery pack, if the battery pack becomes fully charged and the locomotive is still braking with it's electric motors, the power starts going through resistors (energy in the form of heat).
In the case of the Prius C, it turns the heat engine to use up the energy!

It isn't 'engine braking' (ICE connected to wheels), it is still regen braking but using up the power by turning the ICE? That's the cool part.

[Xringer]

My wife just got back from her 437 mile road trip.. (To Burlington, Vermont).



18.5 miles of EV while in Vermont plus, to and from the highway.?.

50.8 MPG for the trip, isn't too bad, with a non-hypermiler driver.
My daughter, who normally zooms around in a BMW SUV did most of the miles.

So, now the odometer is up to 783 miles showing 61.4 mpg.
Since they didn't write down any details about their fill-up,
I'll have to wait until the next fillup to get more Fuelly data..

[F8L]

Originally Posted by Daox

I do remember when the 2010 Prius came out there was a big hubbub about how the MFD was overly optimistic about the fuel economy. I'm not sure if that factor was ever resolved.

It is off by about 5% give or take. That is what most people seem to see. The "error" is the same on my 2012.

The c seems to be a bit more accurate which makes this little car that much more incredible.

[Xringer]

I'm starting to see reports that it's pretty close. One guy had a tank that was dead-on, to the nearest 0.1 anyways..

Here's the last pic of our odometer.


Today, I have to check out an 'odd' story my wife gave me yesterday.
She said the speedometer must be reading high, because she "felt" like
the car (and the traffic) were only going 30-35 mph, not the 50 mph displayed.

It happened while going slightly downhill, (0.6 miles with a 60 foot drop), where I normally get some good EV.
So I'm thinking she just wasn't paying attention and went with the-flow.
Maybe today, we can take a GPS and use it's speedometer mode.

She did use her GPS to see if Lil' Red's Speedometer was accurate during the big road trip. So, she was "surprised" at this apparent speed error..

~~~
I remember when I had my mid-life car. (Red Rocket).
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...ger/RedDSM.jpg
I recall some 2AM highway rides (2nd shift) and there was no other cars
on the road (Rt-495), it was hard to tell the difference between 55 and 75 mph.
Only when I got up around 80 did I notice that I was speeding.
It's those downhill segments that lets the speed build up.

That was back 1991-97, before I smashed up my right ankle and started using cruise control so much..

[MetroMPG]

I saw my first Prius C in the wild at this weekend's SMCC Montreal Economy Run road rally.



It did reasonably well: 5th overall in "uncorrected" fuel economy out of 15 cars.

1. Gas - Darin Cosgrove, 2000 Insight: 76.12 mpg.
2. Diesel - Frederic Bedard, 2005 Smart ForTwo: 73.50 mpg.
3. Gas - Mike Kamm, 1997 Geo Metro: 63.23 mpg.
4. Diesel - Marc-Andre' Lajeunesse, 2006 Smart ForTwo: 62.22 mpg.
5. Hybrid gas/electric - Mathieu Laframboise, 2012 Toypta Prius C: 58.07 mpg.

This is an event which required fairly aggressive driving to avoid being late at the checkpoints. The Prius C team had a fairly high number of penalties for being slow though.

[F8L]

Xringer, the speedo should be off by approx. 2mph (too fast) like all of the other Prii models. This is a "built in" error but it can be corrected with larger tires (lower revs/mile). Make sure that when you perform the GPS test that you have the best satellite coverage possible and accuracy to within 15' or so.

[Xringer]

I'm not going to attempt a calibration run in the city. That's something I always do on Rt-3, where it's wide open and the signals aren't blocked by overhanging trees etc.

The error I'm looking for is massive.. I don't think that I'm going to to see it,
unless a part has failed, causing erratic speed displays..
I'm charging up the old DIY-rebuilt Nuvi 350.
It's flip-up antenna and sensitive radio makes it my device of choice for this kind of stuff..