74mpg really is anyone really getting this? wats your best?

Someone should ping GrumpyCabbie to get him in on this thread.

 

Easier to get 74 MPG (imp) or 62 MPG (US) with a Prius than 47 MPG with C-MAX.

 

Th

That is part of your problem. The 17" wheels hurt fuel economy. They are even wore once you wear out the factory tires and have to use aftermarket tires. You will lose on average 3-4mpg (U.S.) or even more vs. 15" tires. Compared to very efficient 15" tires I lost as much as 6-8mpg when I would switch to 17s.

 

View attachment 45826

A big fat YES!

I do it almost every day and virtually every day in summer on the route I now travel. Sure it'll be impossible if driving up hills with a full car, but a steady right foot on a flat steady road at 50/55 mph will achieve 75 mpg with ease.

Couple of points for you. Our American friends on this forum use a smaller gallon (3.7 litres compared to our 4.5 litres), so when you see them quoting 50 or 60 mpg, it's the same as 60 to 70 mpg for us. The Prius takes a good few thousand miles to bed in for best economy. My experience was around 10,000 miles before economy was the best! So be patient. Also, tyre pressures are absolutely, massively important to maintain correctly. Toyota quote 35/36 psi and I run mine at 36/37 psi. Any less (even one tyre at 33 psi) and the top end economy drops. Don't be tempted to over inflate your tyres as some on here do as the laws in the US and the UK about correct tyre inflation are different and over inflated tyres here in the UK will upset Plod if he ever stops and checks. Also, correct oil is again important in the gen3 Prius (2009-). Use of anything other than 0w20 will destroy your top end economy and you'll be lucky to get anything over 55 mpg UK. Finally, heating means the engine has to run longer and thus use more fuel. Contrary to most cars out there, the Prius uses less fuel with the a/c on in summer, than the heater in winter.



I can't post pictures in here any more since the forum update (don't know why ) but in my album you'll see a couple screen shots of some economy runs where I have achieved over 75 mpg over 30 minutes of driving and one where I got over 90 mpg UK driving from Leeds to Harrogate - and no, it's not all down hill.

Hope this answers your query about fuel economy. Ask away if you have any questions or concerns and we'll all try and answer them for you.

 

^ If he's got the 17" tires the Toyota recommendation is lower for those. Also, the 15" tire pressures in the Canadian/US Owners Manual are generally lower:

15": 35/33 psi (f/r)
17": 33/32 psi

That said, I run our 17" at 38/36 psi.

BTW, regarding picture posting, have you tried the "Upload a File" button? Gives you a file navigation window. Select a jpg on your computer. Then you're given option to have it as an attachment, or placed directly in the message. The latter is simplest. Like this:

 

About 2 years or 64,000 miles. The a**e has fallen out of the cab world, so after 12 months winding things down I have moved into something more office based. There's a lot to be said for regular, reliable wages and paid holidays

 

70,600 and just recovered from an inverter failure. (see post on here where I thought it was the transaxle)

Was in the taxi game for 10 years but it just got worse and worse. The Prius was a hope to save on fuel, which it did. I bought it when petrol hit £1.02 a litre and thought that I'd still make ends meet with the Prius unless petrol hit £1.35. A year later and it was there

The recession killed the trade in my town. Less business, more competition from people who had been made redundant and turned to taxi-ing. Then there was a race to the bottom on fares, but these new, inexperienced drivers were not allowing for running costs. Things got tighter and tighter and in the end I was earning about £150 pw take home for a 60-70 hour week!?!?

It was a case of leave or it'll run me into an early grave. I chose to leave. Not easy but glad I did. Lost 2 stone in weight (28 lbs) since leaving! Feel much healthier, happier and not constantly tired all the time. Girlfriend says she's got her bloke back.

I have had some issues with the Prius. That other thread has a list of them.

 

Unfortunately true.

Just recently, Cleanmpg.com Wayne Gerdes was participating in a non-hypermiling +300 mile 100% highway test of the C-Max, the Prius Liftback and the Prius v. The C-max only got 37 mpg, the Prius liftback got 43 mpg and the Prius v got 40 mpg. All three car were driven normally at the same time on the same road at +65 mph. [1]

When limited to low speeds and gentle accelerations, the C-max's more powerful Li-ion battery pack can reportedly produce very good MPG numbers (+47 mpg) ; however, the C-Max's heavier curb weight combined with its larger frontal area (which increases its aerodynamic drag at high speeds) lowers the real world MPG results when the C-Max is driven normally - hence, most C-Max drivers are seeing MPG results much less than the C-Max's EPA rating ( i.e. somewhere around 38 mpg) [2].

[1]
CleanMPG Forums - View Single Post - C-MAX and Fusion Hybrid starting to get bad press
[2]
2013 Ford C-Max MPG Reports | Fuelly

 

Thanks Walter. I wish he had not tested the Prius with 17s but it's better than nothing.

 

Prius liftback at 65 mph can easily get 50+ MPG.

 

Some of My best MPGs to date





You'll notice a difference between the two. I finally learned how to program in the Price Per Gallon! LOL The next two didn't have that.


Back when my baby was so YOUNG! This is my normal MPG for my commute from work. To work the most I've gotten was 61MPG but that's because it's been cool out in the mornings.


I have a crappy commute!

 

lol if it's a competition you're after

Between 6 and 7 miles is a sweet spot for great mpg's.

 

Here are a couple of shot from my first Prius



and on a somewhat longer journey across Europe

 

Yeah, You're not going to get 70+mpg at an average speed of 50+mph over the course of a tank. The short trip high mpg high speed shots are taken with resets already moving or during downhill trips.

 

If the terrain is right one only needs a slight elevation advantage to pull it off.
There's a trick to getting 70 mpg at 55 mph for a +50 mile trip is to eliminate the warmup cost in fuel and the acceleration phase of the trip from the Odometer reading ...

1. Up your tire pressure to max sidewall pressure to reduce rolling resistance of the tires . Pick a nice warm sunny day to do your Hi efficiency drive so the ICE is running as efficiently as possible.
2. warm up your engine to Stage 3 or above (+160F) before you start your trip
3. Start your engine and get the Prius moving to 55 mph along the highway (with the windows rolled up).
4. With the Prius now running at 55 mph - Zero out the trip odometer The hsi display will read 55 mph and the Prius trip odometer is now only accounting for the fuel used at a fully warmed up state while running at 55 mph. Now the driver has to keep the avg speed at 55 mph while getting +70 mpg.
5. Select a +50 mile trip where you have atleast 300 feet drop in elevation for every 15 miles, e.g. for a 50 miles trip there would be a drop of 1000 feet in elevation. Pick a superhighway route with multiple lanes with a speed limit of 50 to 55 mph and ride the right (slow exit) lane to go 52 to 58 mph - try to keep the average speed at 55 mph. The elevation drop will help make the Prius ICE more efficient so +70 mpg is still possible when fighting the aerodynamic drag from driving 55 mph. The best route will be more or less straight with no curve or steep uphill climbs. The route must have a smooth road surface too.
6. Drive with Load (speedup on the downhills/ slow down on the uphills), avoid brake regeneration and instead allow the Prius to gain speed.
7. After you reach your target distance and target avg speed- pull over to the shoulder of the road and stop immediately (hard braking)
8. take your photo of the HSI display.