I couldn't believe it - 56MPG!

Before the cold weather set in, I was averaging between 55 and 56 mpg on every tank of gas. I'm running between 50 and 51 mpg. What a great car.

 

I have lots of experience wringing good mileage out of my '06 Prius, and I can tell you that undulating hills are a great place to do that. The technique is to hold the throttle reasonably constant, letting the car slow down on the up hills and gain speed on the downs (within reason). This only works if there is no one behind you getting annoyed! On Rt.17 between Augusta and Rockland in Maine, which is quite hilly, I can normally get 55-58 mpg in temperatures over 40 degrees, at least on the display.

It also helps (a lot) to inflate your tires above the Toyota recommendations. On my '06, I keep the fronts at around 41 psi and the rears at 39. My guess is that it would be about the same on the '10. I've been doing that for many miles, and it does not affect the wear pattern, despite what I thought at first.

By the way, I'm thinking pretty seriously about getting a new Prius over the summer, but NOT to replace the '06 (which my 17 year old son is now driving, with 93,500 miles on it). That car has NEVER had anything go wrong with it. It goes in about every 5K miles for an oil change and routine maintenance at the Toyota dealer; that's it. I use synthetic oil in all of my vehicles (which at the moment number five).

Cheers --

 

I get 66 MPG (66.4 MPG to be exact) driving in California on my way to office (30 miles one way).

This is from 101 and 405 junction towards 405 south. Initially there is steep uphill journey for @ 2-3 miles then downhill and then flat.

Also, just last week I took a trip to San Diego from LA and I got 56 MPG on 110 miles one way trip.

 

How fast/slow are you driving to get 70mpg? Just wondering how people are getting that high mpg.

 

Are you driving on the HWY or city roads? See any difference especially on snowy roads?

 

So far first tank out of the showroom averaging 57 mpg! Unreal, hilly highway at 63 mph and some city. Fantastic!

Charlie C

 

My personal experience is that rain but especially snow covered roads take a big toll on my MPG. I have an option of taking the HWY to work, but take the city roads for an opportunity of higher MPG. I found one exception and that is snow covered roads I can do better on the HWY as they are usually less covered and there are less stops to make. Snow covered city roads are usually in worse shape and there are more stops and congestion which makes things worse as it runs your battery down (can't avoid it due to bumper to bumper crawling speeds traffic with frequent stops).

 

I average 54+ in my daily commute from Columba, MD to Washington, D.C. On the way in, I get over 60 mpg, but the way out hurts. There is a 400 foot elevation change from Columbia to Washington (which is at sea level). I haven't done anything special (techniques or mods), just driven as normal. Normal is sometimes 70+ mph on the highway. I will be taking a road trip in July. I am looking forward to the high mpg.

 

During the worse of winter's snowy and cold weather, I was getting 36-38 mpg on the hilly terrain of WV. Now that the snow has melted and the temps have risen significantly, I'm back t0 42-44 mpg per tank.