Super-Commuter & high mile thread

I was thinking...it might make sense to have a super-commuter / high mileage thread. A lot of people use these cars for commuting, and I'm surprised at how many people I've run across have long-distance commutes. Before I bought my Prius, knowing I had a long commute, I was all over these forums looking for info about potential problem areas as the miles rack up. So, I figured I'd start a thread where anyone who is racking up lots of miles can post, or anyone who has questions about racking up lots of miles can post. Might make for a decent repository of information for people who rack up high miles.

So I'll start. I'm a super-commuter. There's no agreed-upon definition of super-commuter, but I'm pretty sure I fall into that category. Five days per week, I drive to and from work, just like most people do. But I happen to have to drive 220-230 miles round-trip every day to get to and from work. The range of 220-230...that depends on whether it is a gas day (gotta fill up every other day), where I fill up, whether or not I stop to run errands on the way home, which route I take at the tail end of my drive home (depends on traffic).

I bought my Prius Two Eco on Sunday, 1 May 2016, and started driving it to and from work the next day. As of yesterday (30 Sep 2017), I've got right about 77,100 miles on it, for a monthly average of 4535 miles, and a daily average of 208 miles...a little less than my stated commute distance, but I do take days off from work now and then, which knocks my daily average down a bit from what I actually drive. The commute is all highway, except for the first few and last few miles. My house is at about 150 ft elevation, and my work is around 1500 feet, and there are no major hills in between. I typically get on the highway and set the cruise control for somewhere between 68 and 75 mph, depending on time of day, weather, traffic, etc. I typically don't run into much traffic, but I do have the occasional moments of having to stab the brakes then nail the gas, usually in response to farm trucks. The prevailing weather patterns hurt my highway fuel economy...I can run to the bay area and get mid to upper 50's running the same speeds I do on my commute, but I'm currently averaging a little below 50 mpg, with a lifetime average of 50. Every day, I have no wind or a minor headwind going to work (usually no more than 5 mph), and a strong headwind (15-30 mph) going home. That headwind definitely hurts my fuel economy. Temperatures...I get some wild daily swings. It's pretty mild where I live, but where I work often sees a 50+ degree daily temperature swing. Typical summer day: 50-55 degrees when I leave for work in the morning, 105+ in the afternoon when I leave work, 65 degrees when I get home. Winter: 48 degrees when I leave for work in the morning, 30 degrees when I arrive at work, 60 when I leave for home, and 60 when I get home.

Fuel economy: I've already talked about it, but for the thread skimmers, it's sitting at 50 lifetime, with the recent average being a little lower due to the tires I put on 32,000 miles ago.

What's gone wrong with the car? Nothing. No check engine lights, no unexpected stops at the dealership, no burned out lights, nothing at all. I've replaced the wiper blades once, and I'm on my second set of tires (which reduced my fuel economy, but also reduced noise). I've not had to add any oil, although I go through a lot of windshield washer fluid. Seats are still in good condition...no tears, no fading, no strange wear on them. No new rattles...any rattles arrived before I hit 5000 miles, and no new ones have appeared.

Impressions of using the car as a long-distance commuter:
- Seats are comfortable (for me), and if you're tall, they go back farther than on many other cars.
- Wind noise is reasonable, as is road noise, and road noise is better since replacing the stock tires.
- I despise the climate controls....WAY too fussy. It takes far too many buttons / switches to push to get the system to do what I want, and causes me to look away from the road FAR too much because sometimes the system decides to do something different than what I'm telling it to do. Three knobs and a two or three buttons could do a much better job than the 8 buttons and 3 switches of the ergonomic mess Toyota vomited onto the dash of the Prius. If I trade it in unexpectedly, I'd bet a paycheck that it'll be because I despise the climate controls. It really is that bad, because it takes my eyes off the road for way too much time. It irks me so much that if Toyota still has this needlessly complex hot mess on the dashboard when I'm ready to get another car, I'll pass on getting another Prius.
- I'm not a fan of touch screen infotainment systems. Toyota needs to ditch their proprietary system and start offering Apple Car Play / Android Auto. They need to do this yesterday.

So other than the climate controls and the infotainment, I like the Prius, and it works well as a super-commuter. If anything goes wrong with the car, I'll be sure to post about it, but so far, it just keeps going...

 

Congrats on your retirement! I'm retired from the Army, but now work for them as a civilian...less hassle and more money!

I can't leave the climate control alone. My days usually start with the defroster, then I switch to slightly warmed air aimed at me, or I shut it off entirely. Then the ride home starts with AC, but by the time I get close to home and pull off the highway, I like to shut the AC off, let outside air flow through the system on a low fan setting (helps avoid a moldy / smelly AC system), and ride with the windows down.

@Raytheeagle, I live on the Monterey Peninsula, and work near Paso Robles...I drive up and down the Salinas Valley every day.

 

Funny you should mention the location of the EGR return pipe...I was kinda wondering whether it was pre- or post- cat. That has more of an impact on diesels and direct-injected engines, because the exhaust particles for both end up being larger than port-injected engines. I'd heard of Hyundai having an issue with EGR and intake pipes getting gummed up on their direct-injected engines. But it's good to know that it's post-cat...with any luck, the cat will clean up most everything, so less of a chance for things getting gummed up.