Frustrated in Seattle

wait, there can't be two grandma's here.

 

My wife is the leadfoot in the family...

 

how many miles on her?

 

Who we talking about?

 

If her car had the same problem on your route, but gets decent MPG on her route, then the problem is almost certainly the route, not the car.

Your car is burning nearly as much fuel simply to warm up the engine to operating conditions, as it does to move the car a very short distance. A good solution is to get a car that doesn't need to warm its engine at all -- an electric plug-in model.

 

I'll ignore the fact that there is no legal 65 mph anywhere on that route.

 

Around the metro Seattle area, they are mostly absent. I normally see people getting busted elsewhere on my common travel routes. I'm away assisting dad right now. The guy pulled over just behind me yesterday by an Idaho state or county trooper, wasn't creeping up very fast and couldn't have been doing more than 5 over the limit. It was the same area my brother-in-law most frequently gets caught.

As a reminder, my crude rule of thumb is that each cold start (with the ensuing warmup) consumes as much fuel as 2 miles of fully-warmed-up driving. My Prius can do this with half the total fuel that my old Subaru needed. The only way to improve on the Prius for this short a trip is to use a plug-in car that needs no engine warmup at all -- Hello PiP, Leaf, Volt, Tesla, Bolt, etc.

 

...each cold start (with the ensuing warmup) consumes as much fuel as 2 miles of fully-warmed-up driving.

That explains a lot. And I think the 12V battery has something to do with this as well. Before I changed out the battery, the lowest displayed mileage I got on my 2.8 mile morning commute (when the temp was below 30) was 17 mpg! Now, at the same temps, it's consistently closer to 36-38 mpg on the display. (Local roads, in traffic, 11 mph average speed)

To test that it's the short drive and slow speed, I took a 100 mile drive on the highway this weekend, starting at the same time as I usually commute to work. Cruise control set at 60 mph for 90% of the trip. 52 mpg on the display, 50 calculated after I filled the tank back up.

 

Tell me there was a reason for this drive, lol.

A block heater will help, shorten the warm up.

 

It was actually a pleasant Sunday morning drive with my wife, driving up into the hills north of Atlanta.

 

Sounds like our drive to Harrison Hot Springs, from north Coquitlam, nice fall drive. There's a hot spring heated pool at the destination too.

 

Agree. You should walk.

No one in Seattle needs a block heater. Umbrellas? Yes.

 

You're talking to a guy that uses blockheater year 'round, incorrigible.

 

OP is disabled, so won't be walking.

Ordinary drivers don't need them here. But competitive hypermilers can benefit from block heaters in any climate.

 

Regular use of block heater is beneficial for engine too I think: cold starts are tough on them.