What happens when your other half drives the Prius (MPG)

I feel you Gerry. My wife does the same in our Prius. I use the car
to commute to work all week and, for example and this week I pushed it up to 61.7 mpg
looking toward 62mpg and up, hopefully. She took it out today and when I
got in it tonight it was in the 59.5 range. Very dis-heartening, to say the least.
I have however resolved to accept that it's not going to get me better mileage
to fret over this circumstance. I just do the best I can when I have it and hope
for the best when she does. After all, I'm powerless over how she drives the
vehicle.

 

My girlfriend doesn't drive my car but to keep her happy i do not hypermile while she is in the car. My mpg tanks hard when she is with me. I pretty much gave up on 60+mpg tanks now and bought a set of 17s.

 

My wife does not want to drive my Prius...'its too complicated'. Each person is different and sees the value of their vehicle different. Some of us are geeky and love the gadgets and the Prius. Perhaps not all of us see the value of gaining car mileage to save money. I see that alot of females want a large dependable vehicle to truck the kids around town. Thats their main focus. Were all different.

 

Every time my wife and daughter drive the car they get exactly 40MPG. I get 60MPG, but it requites some work. If I drive "normally" (like I used to drive non-hybrid cars), I get 50MPG.

 

I experience the same issue when my wife drives my car. When she asks for my keys, I think I visibly flinch. Her issues is that she accelerates hard from stops and doesn't coast to stops. Always on a pedal, never coasting.

 

When my better half drives she drives as she usually did before she got the Prius while I enjoy attempting to get the most miles out of every drop of fuel. But since she got her own Prius it does not bother me one bit.

 

I don't mind if my wife drives my Prius, as I know that she would get 18-20MPG in her own car (obviously non-hybrid).

 

My wife is a great reality check. When we go on long road trips to visit family and friends (about 1 time per 3 weeks since July) I'll drive 54mph on the highway for about 1/10 of a mile before she is like "Wth?"

Just wrapped up a 1,000 mile trip this past weekend. The time savings between driving 55MPH and 80MPH can't be ignored, no matter how low the MPGs drop. 44MPG calculated vs. around my near-50MPG average breaks down to 2.7 gallons @ $3.98/gal = $10.75. I'll trade that for a few hours of time saved.

 

Good point. Many people treat the roadway as a racetrack. I also generally do 55, it is much more relaxing.

 

I think you've got the time savings correct, but I'd question the MPG's. The 44 mpg was what you got driving 80 mph, but I strongly suspect that if you drove 55 mph on the freeway, you'd see 60+ mpg rather than near 50 mpg. But, in the end, time is likely the more important component in a 400 - 500 mile straight trip (although, I'd try to cheat it down to 70 mph.

 

Same here. It's like the throttle and brake pedal are on-off switches. After well over 40 years together and in light of her many good qualities I try to ignore it but do the driving whenever I can.

 

My wife will drive the same round trip to Astoria which is about 35 miles total. When
I drive during the summer I usually return with an indicated 60 mpg or so.

When she drives the same trip she returns with an indicated 53 mpg or there about.

 

My wife is a very intelligent and sensible woman who freely admits that she "doesn't understand" my car. However, while she easily has the capacity to understand it, what she lacks is the desire/motivation.

 

Same here. Decided not to worry/teach/patrnise about fuel economy, choose peace at home instead of saving some bucks.

Sent ?

 

LOL my girlfriend gets about 55 MPG and I get about 50. I credit it to her natural "Pulse & glide" technique of not keeping to a steady speed. She really probably does better because she drives around town and I drive on the freeway.

 

You buy her a PiP of course!

 

My wife sometimes suprises me: hands me the car with suprisingly low numbers (liters per 100 km, where lower is better). On the whole I'm a bit more fanatical, though, and make it my mission to push the number lower. Sometimes it goes up though: the chagrin...

We discuss the tricks and strategies, and we're both trying.

 

My wife really avoided my car for 1st year. She Started using last year and now she uses my car over hers most of time... As for MPG, I used to joke that she always gave me a full battery when I got the car... 1st year she drove she would give me car back about 7 - 10 MPG less, now it's more like 4 - 6...

Much better than her car though since she would be in low 30's on her Corolla.

 

My girlfriend knows the deal when she takes my car. "Keep it above 50/gallon or youre paying for my next tank!"