MPG with normal use?

Most Prius owners drive them like any other car and get mid 40's to low 50's MPG.

By the way, the Prius has a CVT, and it's very reliable.

 

I drive with economy in mind but don't practice true hypermiling. My wife just drives - perhaps a little less enthusiastically. She consistently achieves better mpg than I do. Between us we have 55,6 mpg (UK gallons) over three years which is not far off twice that from our previous cars (Subaru Forester - 33mpg, and Saab 900s - around 31).

Draw your own conclusions.

 

The transmission acts like a CVT, but the approach is entirely different, and better IMHO. I like to think of it as a virtual CVT.

I bought a Prius largely for the reasons you state. I love the elegance of the technology: no clutch bands, torque converters, or fussy moving parts. I tend to drive my Prius like a normal car and average 54 mpg in the summer, and somewhere around 44 mpg in the winter.

That said, let me tell you a secret about the Prius. It gets under your skin. Resistance is futile. Once you start driving one, you can't help but play the mileage game just a bit. The MFD is there in front of you, giving you all sorts of feedback, and the next thing you know you are backing off on the accelerator just a bit. It's really quite rewarding.

Tom

 

I drive my Prius like any other car I've owned. When I want to drive hard, I do. But mostly just drive and let the chips fall where they may. The first 3 years I owned it, I avg. around 43 MPG around town and higher on highway trips. After a bout with dirty fuel injectors and getting around 35 MPG, I had the dealer clean them and are now back up to 43 MPG. As long as I can get over 40 MPG, I'll be happy.

 

John has one of the longest-running logs of fuel usage. He uses the "just drive it" philosophy. Results are quite respectable, especially for Minnesota, one of the coldest states in the U.S.

Consumer Reports subjects its test vehicles to extensive "normal-driving" fuel economy tests. It rated the Prius' overall fuel economy at 44 MPG.

 

At 109,662 miles, my calculated lifetime average was 47.9 MPG.

JUST DRIVE IT!

That's been the motto for some of us, including me. Carrying bikes & kayaks during the summer tends to kill the MPG anyway. And when the temp drops to -9°F but you haven't finished gift shopping yet (last Sunday for me) that drags the MPG down too.

You'll still enjoy the hybrid features. Brisk acceleration is actually more efficient than really slow starts, that's counter-intuitive to what most people expect. And when the engine shuts off, you tend to maintain that rate (which is easy with that digital speedometer) so it will stay off for awhile.
.

 

When I first got the car, was driving normal, but easy on the throttle, all trips at least 20 minutes ... getting 55 US mpg on the MFD.

started in with some shorter trips, went closer to 53 mpg

Cold temps, more use of accessories (defogger), maybe got a batch of winter blend fuel, don't know, many trips under 10 minutes ... I'm doing about 46 mpg ... which is really good.

 

I just drive it. The only thing I have is an EBH, which I've had for 1 week shy of a year. You can see from my signature my mileage. My last tank was 62.2 - but that's VERY rare. I average around 47-50 per tank. I do nothing special.

 

I don't obsess about mileage and am not a hypermiler, but having that darned MFD in the car does mean that I pay more attention to mileage than any previous vehicle I've owned.

I'm getting 45+ MPG on a midwinter (midwest) city tank at the moment with 6/7th's grill blocking and 6 mile and shorter commutes.

 

I made this chart last year:

Over time, I've been tuning my Prius and learning how the systems work. I simply chose to drive routes that are Prius friendly at speeds that minimize avoidable fuel burn. Off hand, not too bad for 2003, NHW11 Prius and fully meets my expectations. This includes both highway and city travel.

Bob Wilson

 

No need to give it a new name, it is called Hybrid Synergy Drive.

I accelerate hard, maintain cruising speeds just at or maybe a little over the speed limit using cruise control, and anticipate traffic lights and hold-ups and around town I get 4.3L/100km (55mpg) while on the highway I get 5.2 to 6.0L/100km (45 to 39mpg) depending on road and weather. Dirt roads hurt economy like snow does.

 

Daughter came home over the holidays and Wife let her drive the Prius while she was home. Daughter is 20 and has no concern for fuel mileage whatsoever. I did the fillup afterwards.

I didn't think the Prius could get 30.5 mpg under any circumstances, but apparantly it can.

Wife just drove from Omaha to Rapid City and got about 46.x on the trip. She's got a lead foot, too.

 

30.5? Freakin' A. Pedal to the Medal, eh?

 

I have been in a car with someone who drives like your daughter Mr Incredible, it's cruel. They think they are on a race track, tucked up the rear of the car in front and right foot doing a silly dance from accelerator to brake and back. Next birthday buy her a defencive driving course.

 

Daughter has one task in life, and that's to live it to the fullest. She facilitates that by being in as many places as she can, as often as she can, as quickly as she can, with as much drama as possible. Just another young girl, I suppose. I've taught her how to save fuel in the usual hypermiler ways, but I don't think it'll really hit home until she settles down in her life. On the other hand, her mother (Wife) still drives like she's in Italy much of the time. The Prius has slowed her down some, but she misses the utility of having a powerful motor and the novelty of great gas mileage only goes so far.

My son and I went to the orchards across the river in Waverly MO one year. He was about 19 or so. We were in the truck and going the speed limit. A car comes zooming up behind us, flies around us, and pulls in to a driveway about 50 yards in front of us. We both talked bad about the driver and I suggested it was the modus aprarandi of a young female. He expressed surprise that I would suggest such a thing. Sure enough, a young female jumped out of the car and hurried into the shop. He gave me that, "Dang, Dad...you might know something." look.

 

Young females are the new teenage males. They drive like we used to when we were boys, except that they do it while texting on a cell phone.

My wife surprised me yesterday. She had driven to a neighboring village to visit an elederly friend in a nursing home. The cold weather here has been hard on our mileage. When my wife got home, she said: "I would have been home sooner, but I was pulsing and gliding to see if I could get the mileage back up. I did too. I got it back up to 41 mpg!" I didn't realize she was interested, or would even consider doing P&G. Live and learn.

Tom

 

30.5 is quite possible in cold weather with short trips thru stop and go traffic. I am actually UP to 33.5 on my current tank and I block grills and try my damnedest to get high mpgs.