How Florence's (Italy) traffic has beaten the Prius...

Yes, the US has different test procedures, and a smaller gallon.

Under excellent conditions, I have exceeded 70 mpg, even on our smaller gallon and at higher speeds than you mention. But these conditions were far from typical.

 

maybe it's because it's 12:15am, but did i just read that a UK gallon is bigger than a US gallon? and here i thought a gallon was a gallon

 

Yes, British gallon is bigger. Many people died because of this simple fact, when pilots thought their planes were tanked in British gallons, while the mechanics put into equivalent amount of fuel in U.S. gallons.

 

U.S. gallon is a bit smaller, only 3.8l

 

I stand corrected

I was going off memory and have now searched the internet and the exact amounts are as follows;

1 US Gallon = 3.7854 litres
1 UK Gallon = 4.5460 litres

Quite a difference.

 

I believe the US gallon was invented by snake oil salesmen and the same breed of people who ruled a foot long hotdog only has to be 10 inches long. Just ignore any explanation you see on Wikipedia, my reason is the right one because I said it is.

 

A Christmas week or so was awful in Prague as well. One day my average speed was 21km/h including 15km highway at 140 km/h, about -15°C air temperature, car accupied by two adult persons. The average consumtion was 6.5 l/100km (36MPG US). I just fuel up the car earlier to reset Trip A data. .
But this high is not too bad. My son drove the very fuel saver 1.4 D4D Corrola in similar conditions with 8.5 l/100Km on the same trajectory.

 

Probably a relative of Milo Minderbender, the confectionary king.

Bob Wilson

 

But then why did they make all our words smaller by dropping the U's?

Perhaps if our founding fathers hadn't made so many things smaller we wouldn't have overcompensated by then making so many of the "newer" things so much bigger.

 

Yep!! It was all their fault!

 

Welcome to italy!

 

Well whos fault was it to put your steering wheel on the wrong side of the car? Lord knows what problems and accidents such a decision causes

And before you remind me that this is a thread about Italy, they don't escape either - Which country allowed driving on the left in cities but on the right in the countryside

Now that would have been interesting at the city border!

 

Take it from someone who only drives in stop and go traffic in Los Angeles for a super short commute for entire tanks of fuel.... Regular cars suffer much more than the Prius in traffic jams. The engine just idles away fuel....

My Prius can do 40-42 on my commute though I'm under 40 on this tank (according to the SGII) but a lot of that was due to having the car turned on while working on new XGAUGEs..... and the cooler temps and rain here in LA hasn't helped. When I run the heater, the engine runs for a good part of my commute, especially in the morning. I never get over 35mph and my engine temp doesn't even hit 160F these days!

On my motorcycle, I usually only get 29-30mpg on my commute.... can easily do 55mpg on leisure trips like up the Pacific Coast Highway -- and and that includes some "spirited driving" as well.

My 2001 Mazda Protege 5-sp manual (EPA 26mpg city) only managed 19mpg on my commute -- sometimes less. I drove a bit faster with it, but I did an experiment and drove very slow and calmly for an entire tank of fuel (slower than I do in the Prius) and I only managed 22mpg. Forget that! I'll just drive faster and get slightly worse mpg.

My 1989 Toyota Corolla GT-S (AE92 w/4A-GE engine and manual) only got about 19-20 as well on my commute. This car had a little 1.6l motor in it ... the Prius is faster.... and gets far better mileage in all situations.

My 1990 Honda CRX and 1984 Civic Wagon (we are going way back) never got better than 19-20 in exclusive city LA driving either. (I had different commutes with these cars.) I could run in the high 30's in the CRX on the highway, but the wagon aka brick with a horrid 3-sp auto only managed maybe 30 or 31 on the highway.

 

I've gotten so used to ECO I always drive in it. (In fact, when in rental cars it takes some getting used to the hyper-sensitive throttle pedal, LOL.)

Since it's never really that cold here in LA the interior of the car is probably in the low 60's anyway -- so I could suck it up.... but alas, I like being comfortable and I find 72F the perfect setting for me.

 

btw.. a prius sitting in Ready mode drains a gallon of fuel in 8 to 12 hours. if the car is supplying a load it's a gallon every 2+ hours (supplying 600 to 900 watts of power through the 12v leads)

 

Two hours to go 12.5 miles so I would think it is a safe assumption that there was no gliding or any significant regenerative braking.