This is fascinating reading but boy, I will just have to experience it through reading these posts. You guys must have extreme patience. I am happy when I can keep it around 50 mpg. Hardly in the Hyper-miler club. But I so Love my Prius. It is a great car, but then I am preaching to the choir am I not?
6yrs ago I thought people were lying about averaging over 50mpg. Eventually I figured out how commute conditions affect mpg and I stopped worrying about my mileage. I learned how to drive better and use various hypermiling techniques and bam! 55mpg was easy to achieve. I swapped cars and learned how to drive this one and now 65mpg is easy to achieve. It just takes time, patience and a decent commute. I bet even on your commute we could get you up to at least 55mpg if you were willing.
F8L, Terrific handle btw, Thanks for the suggestion but I do not have the gene. I have a tendency to zoom from time to time. My display indicates 51 point something mpg right now but when I get close to empty my inner child likes to blow leaves off the road. I would like to add though that I enjoy Prius Chat and I have learned much about the car since joining. To all you knowledgeable people who do not mind sharing, Thank You.
Took me a few months to adjust my attitude towards how I drive, and using some hypermile techniques. Coasting to a stop light or sign, as opposed to keeping acceleration up. Moderate acceleration to keep Prius haters happy, but backing off at the speed limit to keep the mpg readout as high as possible during the drive. Avoiding short trips when possible. All things that you and others on here have taught me. One only has to look at my Fuelly account to see the improvement in my mpg's. What isn't shown is just how much calmer I am after a drive. No longer do I feel a need to keep up with the Jones which adds to ones stress levels.
isn't that the truth. I was trying to explain that to some guy asking what kind of mileage I got. I said some days 50 some days 70 and he just looked at me dumbly. lol you know you got it bad when you are driving the speed you want and someone either comes right behind you trying to push you faster or the light ahead turns yellow sigh.
Hypermiling Techniques are advance driving skills that go beyond parallel parking. When I time shifted my hypermiling commute - I actually beat my non-hypermiling normal rush hour commuting time (45minutes) by 5 minutes! When I dont time shift my hypermiling commute it takes about 60 minutes to get to work (an additional 15 minutes) but with time shifting - I reduced my hypermiling commute to 40 minutes! Which is more or less defines how much time I'm sitting in traffic.. The Prius family of vehicles is unusal in that its fuel efficiency benefits significantly more that most other vehicles when it is hypermiled and that it is easier to achieve very good FE than many othe non-plug in hybrids and convention gas vehicles. The 1st gen Honda Insight with a manual transmission (not the CVT version) can beat a non-plug in Prius hands down in FE but it is much harder to drive because getting those high MPGs to beat a non-plug in Prius depends on the Honda Insight driver having mastered two expert level hypermiling skill sets - NICE and manually induced FASing (which are illegal in some states). NiCE is basically illegal in my area. The Prius automatically does FaSing (which makes it legal). Outside of EVs, Plug-ins, and hybrids, there are only a few very expensive conventional gas cars that have stop-start idle technology/systems that automatically do FASing.
Walter, What do the anacronyms NICE and FASing stand for? I think one is shutting down the engine while coasting.
NICE aka NICE-on coasting = coasting with the car in neutral. Acronym wise N=neutral and ICE=internal combusion engine This keeps the engine running but allows for longer coasts because the internal resistance from the gasoline engine is eliminated. NICE going downhill is illegal in most states. For example, NICE going downhill is illegal in Maryland and Virginia. Fas aks Forced Auto Stop = under special conditions a honda hybrid allows you to turn off the car (engine) while it is coasting in neutral and then restart/ reboot the electronic and restart the the engine while the car is still in motion by matching up the engine RPM and the manual transmission speed ratio to the proper speed that the car is going at. During the neutral coast, the honda hybrid MPGs goes way up , the downside is that during a Fas cycle only hydraulic/manual brakes work. Essentially, FaSing turns a car into a soapbox derby racer. Fas will not work at high speeds . Precise Timing is essential in a FaSing cycle and it can be danger or harmful to the car if not done correctly. It is also illegal in certain states as well. . Vehicle that can FaS are also called flat towable - cars that can be towed in neutral with all four wheels rolling on the road. Cars that are flat towable (flat towed) are good candidates for Fas; one of the scenarios for this feature is so a Recreational Vehicle (RV, e.g. Winnebago) can tow a car in the rear.
Here's my new top MPG tank ( and also my 800 mile tank as well) Tire make model: Yokohama Avid S33D 15 inch tire Pressure: 48 psi front/46 psi rear Driving Techniques: DWB, DWL, P&G, SHM, SWM, rabbit timing, smart braking, Potential Parking, time shifting, ridge riding, no AC/defroster, no grill blocking date driven: July 30th to August 28th 2012 gallons at fill up: 11.252 U.S. gallons, 10% ethanol/Gasohol ... MFD average speed estimate = 19 mph MFD Fuel efficiency estimate = 73.4 mpg <-- only slightly better, but's it enough to get me off the bottom of the list! Calculated MPG at the pump = 71.15 mpg
F8L, Call me dumb, but when I first saw this thread title, my thought was " How do you punish a Prius hard enough to get only 20 miles per gallon, must be some serious diving". I am in awe of all of you that can get 60 and 7o mpg, I am still in the 50's.
or maybe it should be ... The Top +100 mph+20 mpg holders? If one drove a Prius at +110 mph on the autobahn for an hour , the Prius would be getting about 20 mpg? no?
As i posted on the 800 mile club here is my best tank that i just finished today!, oh and yes I'm driving a package Five with oem 17" wheels!! Summer, End of august, beginning of september I drive a 2011 Toyota Prius Five, Black Im running factory 17" wheels with oem Toyo Proxes Tire Pressures: 40 psi front 40psi rear I have a scanguage 2 which i monitor battery SOC, Engine RPM, Coolant Temp, and fuel cost per trip. I drive on the Freeway, and on the street, mostly freeways and i hit some spots of traffic on my way to work and on my way home I always have the car in eco mode.
