Are people really getting 40+ MPG in Gen 2?

This was just before my last fill up. I’d arrived at work with fuel running low with 569 miles (from a full tank) on the odometer.

I made it back to my neck of the woods and a subsequent refill at 585 miles and 65.3 mpg on the MFD.

It was originally much higher due to the seasonally warm weather in London, at 67.1 mpg - till I ran into a heavy traffic jam caused by an accident - took 3.0 hours to travel 4 miles!
Mpg dropped to 62.0 mpg by the time I got home.

Still managed to get it back up to 65.5 mpg as seen in the photo at the top.

The photo below shows the highest I ever got it, approaching half tank - all via daily London commuting.



The last photo below shows my MPG from the petrol station in the morning, straight to work - I’d just filled up (it took 45.2 litres of fuel).




iPhone 6s +

 

Lucky you on MFD accuracy. My Gen2's MFD mileage calls are 6% to 8% under actual mpg.

 

I think I just shattered my own record. I wonder if the non-OEM CAT had anything to do with it?
The weather in the UK (London) is hot, hot, hot!




iPhone 6s +

 

And this was when I got to work earlier this morning




iPhone 6s +

 

So, this morning, cruised down to the local ESSO Refuelling Station and filled the tank with a forced 42.13 litres.
It is worth noting that I could have possibly made the 15 miles to work (and a Petrol Station nearby), but I decided NOT to risk it.
The last bar wasn’t flashing yet - I’m sure I could have made 650 miles - but my fuelling station of choice is ESSO with their 5% added Ethanol mix.

This was my final MPG tally on the MFD .



To say I’m very impressed with my 2nd Gen Prius (a.k.a. The Spaceship) is an understatement!


iPhone 6s +

 

That's 56.7 US mpg. Very impressive. My wife gets about 50 mpg US give or take a mpg with her 2006. She makes quite a few short trips and that pulls it down a bit.

 

Original owner of an '08....

Hmm, getting better than 40 mph with a Prius is a given. Why the doubt (?) -- admit I did not read the whole thread.

I get a solid 43 mpg, winter, spring summer and fall and always have. The few times I attempted to verify that via my own bonehead calculations, still worked out to about 43 mpg.

Did not matter WHAT LRR or non-LRR tire I was rolling. Did not matter what brand of gasoline (I buy what is cheap) and did not matter what oil or oil filter I used (mostly use Denso from RockAuto).

I do drive a lot of gravel/dirt/mud backroads. Still love the Prius. No repair costs to speak of and a very comfortable car to drive.
kris

 

exactly

 

I have an 05 with 137k with a 3 year old traction battery getting 48 avg
i also have a 07 prius with 165k with original battery getting 46 avg.
just got a 05 with a newish (19k miles) traction battery and can't seem to avg over 45. I will be cking at the gas pump next as the combo meter was replaced with a used one. Sorry your down so low, but that's what we shoot for and love about the prius. One thing i cant understand that driving 20 miles on curves up and down small hills on my way to town they track 50-55 but once i get to town {where it suppose to be higher} they all seem to drop the 40-45 in stop and go. Makes no sense as the original stickers what the car was new give the higher numbers in town. my total elevation changes are 300 feet and town is a sea level.

 

The overall drop in elevation is what gets you the better milage to town and especially if you make good use of the up/down terrain. Usually, if you get poor milage in town it can be attributed to the battery being older and therefore has a lower capacity than when new. On the highway, the weak battery is not used in the same way and so it has less of an impact. Having said that, 40-45 MPG is not too shabby, certainly not worth investing too much time into.

 

A couple comments --

(*) that original MPG sticker (since marked down after later EPA revisions) was based on an artificial set of tests that don't match much of how anyone actually drives, especially today. That is why "Your Mileage May Vary". It was way off kilter for hybrids back then, and still isn't particularly good for them today after modern revisions.

In the real world, very many people get better Highway than City mpg in their Prii. Don't worry about the difference, because it really isn't applicable to your particular driving conditions and patterns.

(*) Doesn't Hawaii generally have lower highway (not city) speed limits than the mainland, due to geographic constraints? I.e. when the National 55 Mph speed limit was abolished and the rest of the nation drove faster, didn't Hawaii mostly keep it? Lower speeds produce higher MPG, so your slower highway speed limits should produce better MPGs than faster mainland drivers are getting.

Depending on just how you drive them, the curves and small hills won't necessarily hurt anything. If they make you slow down, they might even help. (Though because of different driving styles, numerous drivers will do worse.)

(*) a 300 foot drop in 20 miles is significant. For a rule of thumb I use for my Gen3, for roads and speeds where I'd get 50 mpg on level ground, that much descent would boost segment MPG to about 54. The return trip uphill makes up by dropping to about 46.5.

 

On top of the elevation drop and the battery age & condition that @fuzzy1 @dolj described, there is the possible factor of braking practices. Braking late will cost a lot of gas in the city. It's often hard to allow even the following distance mandated by law and safety, much less enough for gliding and regenerating. Usually, in the city I get WAY better mileage than on the highway, but sometimes, it seems like I'm forced into one hard stop after another and that really brings down the MPG.

 

My best 5.0 l/100 at the gas station, 4.9 on MFD. Weather around 32 Celsius. Fill-up around 41 lt.

 

My old 2004 with 225k, 250k on the battery (long story) gets 46-50 in mixed driving. Pretty impressive after all these years.

still fairly comfortable and quiet to drive around, especially considering it’s such a old car now. It was built in late 2003.

 

Although it isn’t a full tank, I know...

 

06 / 183K miles


iPhone ?

 

Check out ChuggyPyg's Fuelly record, average 43.5, 95k+ miles tracked, 411 fuel-ups, nearly 180k miles, I bought it used in 2014 with 83k on clock.

 

Took my old 2004 to Atlanta from Nashville last weekend and got 49.6! I was very impressed.

 

I just finally noticed your location. We visited friends just outside of Franklin a few weeks ago on our way back from Ohio and Iowa. Very pleasant countryside on the back roads.