Guilty Prius Pleasures

I admit to 2 more often than I like. I absolutely love the semis in the right lane doing 55 mph. Slow speeds and a bit of drafting. I don't agree with 1 though. EV mode decreases my fuel economy. I'd rather traffic move at 45 mph or so where I get the best fuel economy.

 

well said! you might get pushback from some here, but i love it.

 

Since I drive a PIP, all four apply particularly to me although trucks tend to drive 70 mph on the freeways in my neck of the woods. I would like to add one more for PIP drivers:
5. Trips to the local Home Depot, grocery store, post office, etc., totally on EV!

 

I'm bad for #3, but I often go to and from when there's little traffic. Since I'm not in a rush....

 

So you don't agree with the well known graph of mpg vs speed. You would like only the ICE to move the car at 10 to 20 mph.

 

Nice thread. Agree with 2 and 3 on highways. I'm not keen on jams (#1) and would rather keep moving on secondary roads.
On back roads an empty rearview is great, but it's often better to have a slow car behind me.
That way I can pulse and glide when and where I want while the slow-poke collects the speeders so I don't have to pull over to let 'em by.
Following a slow-poke is good on a highway but seldom optimizes MPG on back roads.

 

1) Not so frustrating to get in traffic jam
2) Not so excited about it, although took that advantage a few times.

When stay on red light, love engine shut off. Love the car after all. Not obsessed about mpg, may be because have good one. Without ECO it's just a normal car, but better and smarter.

 

My first hybrid was the Highlander. I felt exactly the same as you and looked for slow drivers to tail. Ended up selling it and bought a Prius. The thing is, the Highlander's MPG wasn't that great. It took a lot of slow drivers and no hills for me to hit 31MPG. But I avg'd 25-26 MPG....crap for a hybrid, but good for a powerful SUV. Now with my Prius, I avg 39-40 while driving like a madman (I'm from LA) and have taken for granted the MPG and have lost the desire to achieve a higher MPG...I need to change that attitude.

 

Nowhere in my statement says I disagree with the chart or that I want the ICE to move the car between 10-20 mph.

 

How do you get such poor mpg in traffic (ie less than you do at 45) when the graph says the opposite?

 

I enjoy being at a red light , when the 45 grand pickup truck , or that 50 grand SUV pulls
Up next to me , I reach over push PWR and wait for light to change off we go ,,
They then get so upset as now they are behind me ,,,,,,

 

I'll take the push back position. Most of us just drive our Prius like any other car...and still buy less gas.

 

I do get a unique satisfaction when the last mile plus of my drive home is traffic free and winds up being 95% gasoline free. Also the drive from the gas station to the Sprint store that showed 77.1mpg on the optimismeter, especially since the car has a couple hundred miles so it isn't broken in.

 

I'd not consider the Highlander a "powerful SUV." At best, it's a "crossover."

Frankly, the Synergy hybrid system has questionable benefit on most everything but the Prius. It was designed for the Prius (or vice versa) and just dropping it into another platform doesn't produce the same results.

People would argue that you don't make back what you spend on a hybrid, and with the Prius, that is so if gas prices stay low. For other platforms with less impressive MPG improvements, it's all the more so.

 

An SUV is a station wagon on tiptoes!

 

... and I thought it's an obese ugly hatchback in combat boots.

 

Well, there are a few factors that can make you get worse mpg in slower traffic with a Prius. Or any car really, but it's more noticeable in the Prius because dropping from 50 mpg to 45 mpg seems worse than 22 mpg to 20, even though both are about 10% decreases.

One is temperature. If it's really hot, most people will probably turn the A/C on. If it's really cold, the engine continually runs to keep itself warm, and probably you unless you don't mind the cold. But most ordinary folks will have the heat on.

Two is the speed. If you're constantly doing an accordion effect, where you and the cars speed up, only to then slow down to a crawl or even a stop because of merging cars, that can drain your battery pretty quickly.

I've noticed "city driving" means more like "everyone moving around 25-35 mph without stopping at lights. In those situations I often hit 65-75 mpg easily when I drove a prius around, especially if there were a lot of downhill sections. That chart is pretty accurate so long as you can continually move and not have to stop too much with cars behind you.

But in stop and go situations, where everyone races to the next stoplight a block away, only to then come to a screeching halt, the Prius doesn't seem to like being forced to provide a ton of power, only to then stop almost as suddenly. You'll still get better mpg vs almost everyone else not driving a Prius or plug-in vehicle, but the Prius likes to keep moving if you want to keep that mpg high. Now combine this with the first issue, and you can see how quickly the mpg can drop.

Sure, some people will drive however fast or slow they want, other drivers be darned. But most will probably try to keep up with the flow to be courteous to drivers behind them.

 

The I10 here in California is posted at 65 mph and the average speed is about 80mph with about two or three car lengths between cars. Trucks are going 70+ mph (posted 55mph)! I'm not going to keep up with the flow of traffic when it is not safe, courtesy to other drivers be darned! The drivers behind me should have the courtesy to drive the speed limit! I stay way over in the right lane and try to stay out of the way.

BTW, my average mpg over the last 4000 miles, many of those freeway miles at 65mph, is 73.

 

WoW! ......when I grow/up I wanna be just like you! ...........I agree the only people who obey speed limits are the ones who don't need a limit......