Crazy Good Mileage Lately in Town

I have yet to get a 500+ mile tank of gas, I think 440 has been my highest but granted I've got some minor hills and my morning commute of 45 minutes is half country hilly backroads and half highway driving. With this kind of commute (and going 70-75mph on the highway) I manage to get 48-52mpg on my way to work which isn't bad. I know that if I ever get a 500 mile or higher tank, I'll be soo excited! Some guy on fuelly gets 500-600 on a tank which is just nuts!

 

Well, I happen to agree.

The c does have a smallish tank, but that helps with fuel economy due to less weight. I have gotten over 100 MPG for extended distances and am mulling taking on Bob Wilson's challenge to see if I can squeeze over 950 from a 'tank' (see the rules.) The challenge is the first pinned post in this, the fuel, forum.

All I need to do is get 4 or 5 days off in a row. I really have no doubt this amazing little car can do it! If anyone wants to send me a check for $500 bucks or so, I'll mention you as my sponsor.

 

Just to reassure myself, I just went out and did a little test. I have new Ecopia tires installed on my original steel wheels. They have about 1000 miles on them. GPS and speedometer pretty much coincide at this point mostly showing exactly the same mph.



Cost of fuel is entered as $3.20. The starting and ending points in the test are at the same spot, so no elevation deviations. Doing a little math, one can see that the calculated MPG is 112.4. This is such a small sample that it is probably inaccurate to a some degree. If one rounds down the miles to 26.6 and rounds up the fuel cost to $.77, the result is still a pretty nifty 110.5 MPG.

 

Yep, AC will kill your fuel economy for short trips. I open my driver's side window and the rear passenger side window each about 3 inches for a nice cross draft. Very little air-flow resistance that way.

 

You must be P&G'g, but > 80% EV is crazy. I'm not even sure I can manage 2:1 in my Prius v(agon).

Just curious -- can you explain why the display shows ~ 1/2 tank full but only 150 miles until empty ? I presume another 100 miles after 'empty' but that still only gives 400 miles per tank.

 

Sure. The 'cruising range' or 'miles to "empty"' is based mostly (but not wholly, I have yet to determine exactly what the figure is based on) on the previous tank's MPG prior to the fill of this tank. Vehicle is used mostly for delivery and I usually get pedestrian mileage when not 'stunt driving' as bwilson calls it. The 'predicted' cruising range for this tank was 411 miles, I think. The present mileage on trip meter 'A' is 347.3 so far for this tank, since I have been mixing in some stunt driving with the deliveries.

 

Really? Because another 10 gallons of fuel is only ~61 pounds... I'd take that .5 mpg hit to go another 500 miles.

 

I'll guess the larger hit to fuel economy is from the volume.

 

Can you re-iterate? That didn't make sense to me.

 

Re-iterate -- LOL
You have to put the stuff somewhere. Unless it goes in the back with the beer, the storage implies a larger vehicle to keep the same interior volume. THAT is going to be expensive to design and build*, and you have not yet accounted for the worse aerodynamics.

*Look at car prices as a function of interior volume. The 10 gallons of fuel is about 7.6 litres

 

I get that. I'm not that worried about the design. There is plenty of room for the spare tire to life up and get rid of some of that foam. But I get what you're saying. I was only saying that *just* adding a 20 gallon tank will be about about a 70 pound addition.

 

Really. While a small difference, it does make a difference. There are tradeoffs everywhere and in everything. You may want the extra 500 miles, someone else may want the fractional MPG gain. You pays your money and takes your chances (or choices.)

How does weight affect a vehicle's efficiency?

 

That's true. But I don't even know that 60-70 pounds would actually hurt the gas mileage any. People who have done the sound deadening haven't complained about their mpgs dropping and that can add more than 70 pounds.

 

The link in my post leads to an interesting article. As I said, people make choices - and it's good that we can. (For a while longer, I hope.) Until the utopians decree what they know is best for everyone and freedom remains, choices are good. Thank God we still have a few.

 

I like to eco mode, it makes the pedal less responsive and easier on long drives. if I ever want more power just floor it and it works for me!
My best tank 700 miles gave readout of 79.? and worked out to 77.? with calculator. Playing the hybrid game is how I did it. slow down anticipatate the lights ect...

I find it funny that prius c owners often refer to poor mpg when we are getting 50+ mpg. My old diesel rabbit could get over 50 hwy but in town the mpg fell off to 40-45mpg . The prius c is a mpg rockstar in town.

 

I recently got 61.9mpg on some driving around town (21.7 miles). I was so amazed!!!

 

it cover good mileages
Thanks