Best MPG I’ve seen on my Prius so far
I have kept this (horrible quality) cameraphone picture for a couple of months until now hoping that I might beat the 52.4 MPG mark that you see there. Well, it was not that easy… In reality I have never surpassed that or, frankly, even gotten close to 52MPG again. It seems that the temperature outside greatly affects the mileage and the colder it gets the less MPG I get. Now that it’s 15F or colder in PA, I never do any better than 45MPG.
Anyways, the picture above represents couple of trips, mostly highways, that I recall were characterized by a rather slow if not relaxed driving. There was pretty dense fog that morning and the traffic rarely went above 60MPH which seems to be the key in fuel economy (not only hybrids, of course). I do strongly believe that if I ever had patience to go 55MPH or below, I would match the estimated 60MPG figure. As you start to speed, your engine is almost always on and so none of the recuperation energy saving tricks ever come into play and so the fuel economy goes down. Mind you, you still have a fuel economy benefit of having a small 1.5 liter engine even if it’s running full time.
I will soon post my notes about taking the Prius on a 2000 mile roundtrip we’ve just returned from.
Is this common for a Prius? My 14 year old geo metro constantly gets inbetween the 55-60mpg range…
My average is about 50.5 MPG these days. Goes up to 52MPG in summer.
Prius is much larger than Geo Metro and is loaded with features not found on a Metro or any other 14 y.o. car for that matter.
it seems stupid to go out and buy a hybrid when the knoledge we have on them today are to limited compaired to any other type of engine. I dont see why people dont just buy a small car like a yars or a2 which gets just as good gas mileage but you can be certin that it is going to be solid for more than you might estimateon the prius. if you want to be clean one might even go for one of those new clean diesels that volkswagen and mercedies benz has. also the prius is ridicilously ugly. It might have many advantages but now days it is tough to say go buy a hybrid when you can just get a fuel efficient car.
Well, the reason being that Prius is more of a car than Yaris yet it still gets a much better mileage ( how about 20 more miles per gallon?). Not sure what an a2 means.
Besides, what do you mean by no knowledge? It’s a gasoline engine paired to an electric one, both well known subjects.
My Prius is at 52,000 miles (83200 kilometers) and still “solid” using your terminology. Not a SINGLE mechanical or other issue so far.
I’ve used 1029 gallons of gas (50.5 MPG) compared to 1625 gallons(32 MPG) I would have spent in a tiny Yaris. It’s almost $2,000 less gas I’ve spent and easier on the environment. You do the math.
Well, I’ve finally taken the plunge. Just sold my 1999 Rangerover 2.5TD for a pittance (£5000) and bought a 2005 T-spirit with 40,000 on the clock for £11,500.
The Rangerover with it’s air suspension and beatiful road holding will be missed – but not the MPG it did – which was 25 on average 🙁
As a careful driver and one who understands the principles of the Prius I’m looking forward to attaining around 55 MPH – time will tell.
Mum’s Auto Yaris does 33 around town – and for such a small car nothing special.
Wish me luck!
I understand the drive and demand behind these hybrid cars, and I think it’s an excellent idea in principle, after all people are only trying to do their bit, and save some cash.
But in reality it IS just a marketing ploy.
Take a Land Rover Defender for example (The utilitarian looking one!). Simple to build and maintain, cheap to make and cheap to maintain, lasts for years, and when things do go wrong there are plentiful parts to go around because millions have been made around the world, but yes, it does only do around 25 miles per gallon (MPG). As eco conscious consumers WE have been trained to only take into consideration the (claimed! yes this is another issue but I won’t go into it) MPG of a car, all other ecological factors have been papered over by the marketing gurus.
If you will allow me to open your minds a little, you will see that when you take into consideration the ‘Start to end of life’ impact of a vehicle the Prius begins to make much less sense. The Prius uses a huge amount of precious metals such as, Nickel, Lithium, Copper, Platinum, Cerium, Palladium and Rhodium, and where do these metals come from? Obviously these have to mined at huge financial and environmental cost to the world. Norilisk in russia contains the highest concentration of nickel ore in the world. This is smelted on site to produce that metal that these overly complicated vehicles need to use in their batteries (yes, there are many in a Prius). This huge smelting operation has caused a disaster for the area, killing wildlife and leaving the majority of the landscape desolate. Acid rain here is the highest concentration recorded on earth.
Now what happens when your Prius (and every other hybrid) needs its batteries replaced, because it will, every 7 yrs at least (and what if these things actually catch on!?).
The average life expectancy of a Land Rover Defender is about 30 yrs, and again every part is available to replace right down to that rusty chassis (so it should be a life time unless you scrap it), steel and aluminim are the only metals used and these are available in abundance and also are already commonly used in all trades throughout the world in huge quantities.
Now you may still forgive it, but the prius still uses the same amount of petrol that other cars do, yet others do it without all the extra expense (an i don’t just mean money here) and complication.
If car companies wanted to do something green, they would only build only model that was extreamly simple to maintain by anyone. Imagine the Ladas of communist russia and you get the idea. Now electic only cars, don’t get me started.
Apologies, I have tried to be consise here, if you’d made it this far, I thank you.
Adam, Green campainer.