Driving for Economy Tips, Please!!!

My first two tanks were around 50 mpg. My third tank is currently at 56 mpg with about 400 miles on it. I live in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, where the weather has never gotten very cold by east coast standards and not hot enough yet for the AC. So. Cal has some interesting aspects, i.e. it's freeways. They seem to either be going 70 mph or 30 mph.

When the traffic is at 70, I stay in the slow lane and range between 60 and 65, taking the small rises and falls into account. My mpg will range from 40-90, with an average around 57.

When traffic is heavy, I leave the slow lane for a more consistent speed. Even then the speed will range from 5 to 40 mph as the drivers hit their brakes and gas pedals like pinball flippers This is where looking and anticipating are key. If done well, my mpg will vary between 40-99, averaging around 80.

So why is my tank average around 50 with such good mpg on the freeways? The city streets. From home to the freeway and freeway to work, and then back again in the evening. Speed limits on the streets in my area range for the most part from 45-50. These are the hardest parts for me to get good mileage. I accelerate as best I can to get good mpg, but I don't want to hold up traffic, so I give up mpg to be a better citizen. Of course I anticipate stops, so my SOC is almost always green.

Anyway, that's my story for mpg. I think the variations we see in the MPGs reported are largely environmental, i.e. where we live and the local culture of drivers. I think I'm doing about as good as I can for my conditions, but will always look to improve.

The reason why my current tank's mpg is so high is because it includes a freeway ride to San Diego for the Prius meet last weekend and a freeway drive to Los Angeles for the AB2628 press conference. Very few surface streets.

I wish I didn't live in an area with 45-50 mph streets

Later,
Tom

 

Something else I've seen on other similar threads, but not this one, is the average trip time. Most of my driving is simple daily commute to work, 15-20 minutes each way, with mild stop-n-go driving with top speeds between 30-45mph.

Generally speaking, those first 2 "five minute" bars are always the shortest of the commute, with the first always shorter than the second. With the same style driving, the first minutes are typically around 25mpg, the second around 35-40mpg, then averaging around 50 for the last 10 minutes of the trip.

This indicates to me there is still a 5-10 minutes warm-up period, even with the "thermos".

 

I'm currently at 384 miles on my current tank of fuel. I'm sitting at 57.5 mpg according to the computer, and I still have one segment over the 1/2 tank mark. This is with an 03.

 

For those who've had the car for around 6 months, was there really a noticable improvement in mpg over those break-in months? i've driven mine 1100miles, and have yet to break the 50mpg barrier. averaging about 40-44 mpg so far, mostly city driving. i'm not complaining, those are great figures, but i guess the EPA estimates just make me expect more, like the rest of us do. :|

 

I notice an improvement after 3,000 miles ( 4,800 total now). I was getting about 48 MPG before and now am getting about 55 MPG. Could also have something to do with the slightly high temps here in central NJ.

 

I think the type of driving you do has more to do with the milage you get than the style of driving. My commute is a 5 mile 15 minute trip on local streets. I get around 48MPG when driving carefully (cruise control, stealth mode when possible, AC off, etc) and about 45MPG when not paying attention to driving style. I think the ICE stays on pretty much all the time for the first 5 minutes to heat up the engine to keep emissions low, and I only see about 30MPG during that period, then 50-55 in each graph bar after that. It all averages to around 45 (30+50+55/3). The freeway entrance is right next to my office though and if I take the freeway home late at night, that warm up period is spent using the energy to run at freeway speed so my first bar is around 45-50 along with the rest I see at 65MPH. If I had to make 5 minute trips all day, I would probably see an MPG value of around 30MPG. If I had a half hour freeway commute in congested traffic moving 30-45MPH, I'd probably see MPG values around 65. This is definitely the best car for anyone who has a long, slow, freeway commute.

 

Neither. I apply ~ 1/2 throttle and accelerate quickly to the posted speed limit.

 

You want to accel. "briskly" once the ICE kicks in - if you can start off slow, and get up to say 8-12+mph before the ICE kicks in, that's all the better - but then once it kicks in, the faster you get up to speed, the less the ICE will be in use, hence the less gas that'll be needed.

-m.

 

Japanese folks found that it is better not to use battery power when you accelerate.
So, please watch the energy monitor screen for the optimum acceleration indicator and accelerate not to use the battery power which means no yellow arrow from the battery.

Regards,

Ken@Japan

 

how can we define "brisk" acceleration? while using cruise control, lets say at 60mph, then cancel and let the car decel to 30 or 40 mph (i forget what the cutoff speed is for the cruise). when the cruise is reset by tapping the stalk upward, the car accelerates to the original speed.

to me, this level of acceleration used by the cruised control could easily be considered "brisk" - so that's what i use as my guide. [/quote]

 

Hi Everybody....Now have 5400 miles on a 2004 PKG#6 Green Rocket. I
live in Kerrville, TX and most driving is on Interstate 10 between San Antonio and Kerrville a 55-60 mile trip via Interstate. I am using maximum recommended tire pressures and drive using cruise control set
at 68-70 MPH.....65 MPH during night driving. My fuel average for the 5400 miles driven is right around 45 MPG. That is pretty much what the
trip computer has calculated as well..........the only time I find a large increase in my miles per gallon is with a nice TAILWIND helping push me
down the road (it's always nice to have the wind at your back pushing).
I just did my first oil change at 5000 miles and used pure synthetic 5-30W
and plan on using pure synthetic for the entire time I am driving the Prius.
I am a firm believer that the Prius II should run on electric-only from zero
up to 40 MPH using average acceleration in city traffic.....however it does
not seem to work out that way for some reason. The control unit or some
other component in the computer set-up should be rethought and adjusted
so this new automobile could make the most out of this technology.........
As it now stands the Prius II in a LOW SPEED, LOW DEMAND setup is not using its electric-only capability as it should be (40 MPH and under). I hope to hear of some change and or adjustment forthcoming.....This is what I was expecting when I signed the check and strapped in.
Let me hear from you guys/gals.......GREEN IS GOOD FOR SAVING $$$$
AND ALL OF NATURE..................................

 

I had a thought about this, this morning; maybe this could be a gadget to improve our guess work on the acceleration...

In the 80s I was driving in Germany, and had such cars like the Audi 80, and smaller. They had a little gauge on dash that revealed the "under pressure" in the crank shaft. This was equal (or almost) to the amount of acceleration you were telling the engine to do by depressing the accelerator.

If we had such an electronic indicator then we could judge easier how much energy force we are asking of the motor/ICE for acceleration.

The less you pressed the pedal the less the gauge would be moved, it would help improve the mileage (KM/Liter) quite a bit already then.

This would be a gadget for CostelDave...

Thanks Ralph
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