Owners increase Gen 3 MPG by 4.3 on EPA Website

you might want to rename this post subject, it's kind of misleading (i though the official EPA numbers were increased)

 

Excellent change, thanks!

The problem is it will take a while before we see a large enough population of Prius reports to see what is going on. A few early posters can shift the numbers until we see a larger population of reports:

• 53.2 MPG - averaging all reported values (we don't have raw numbers)
• 54.1 MPG - averaging all but the lowest and highest

We have three 2010 Prius records over in MyHybridCar.com and they are also in the middle, 53 MPG range:

• 53.1, 53.3 and 53.8

Bob Wilson

 

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I tend to believe that the hypermilers who are already more enthusiastic about their prius are more likely to post on sites online. Still, my driving reflects the new numbers.

 

In January 2006, a group of self-selected hypermilers left GreenHybrid to form CleanMPG. Once they had their own web milage recording system, many of them replaced their signatures and stopped updating their GreenHybrid records. From what I can tell at MyHybridCar and Ecomodder, the hypermiler crowd tends not to maintain parallel mileage records at least with tank-to-tank detail.

Bob Wilson

 

These numbers could actually be more encouraging that first thought because we are comparing the older "broke in" prius's with the new "tight" prius's that will not achieve their maximum mileage for some time yet!.....

Plus, it may be possible that people are comparing their "best" mileage from old charts when the weather was more mild verses the present hot temperatures that require frequent and intense use of the air conditioner!

In other words, its hard to compare unless the variables of temperature, same driver styles, and break in condition of the engine are also equal with both cars.

The gap between the two based on the logic I just presented should only get better and farther apart as time goes on and the fall milder temps come into play.

 

I would agree that those more likely to post FE data on the web are the ones who are achieving better numbers. That is a major reason why they join or visit in the first place. Another reason that this data may be skewed is because the Gen III was released in the spring/summer. Remember all of the complaints about bad FE during the winter of 2003/2004 when the Gen II started hitting the road in large numbers? I expect the reported numbers to drop back down to 50 when winter 2009/2010 rolls around.

 

More likely it is because the sample size isn't large enough to be a fair comparison. If you look at how many people have reported, you'll see that the sample size is nearly an order of magnitude larger for each of the other years.

 

I keep parallel mileage records on ecomodder.com and myhybridcar.com but only do it because the ecomodder sig is a 90 day sig and the myhybridcar sig is a lifetime sig. Thought it would be good to see both represented as their differences could be big during lower mileage winters. If it didn't take so much time to input my tank stats (on 2 websites and in 2 excel sheets I keep) I would probably do it on a few other sites too!

I also recorded my mpg on the fueleconomy.gov site for my 2009 model. I certainly qualify for the "hypermiling crowd" and otherwise would not have done it if I had no interest in max mpg.

 

Perhaps, but my average for the last 500 miles has been 52.7 per gallon with mostly city drive(60%-40%) but then my 2008 Prius has 35287 miles.

Steve

 

<AHEM>The price of gasoline doubled so efficient driving might have become more attractive ... even for Prius owners. The earlier years had ordinary gas prices so efficient driving was not so important.

Bob Wilson

 

Seems a rather large factor may be as to whether they have the package with the 17" wheels or not..... seems those folks should not enter their input unless that is stated.

Gen II prius's were pretty much all on the same standard, but its common knowledge the 17" wheels steal approx 3 mpg at least.

Of course, another factor is tire choice... some tires... especially the low profile choices or those that are wider don't care too much about rolling resistance.