My son borrowed my 2010 Prius and put 480 miles on it ... some highway, some city streets including some stop-and-go rush hour traffic. He has driven the car for a short distance before, but has never learned any "hyper-miling" techniques. So, he drove it just as he would drive his car -- standard Detroit metal ( for example, not coasting up to stopped traffic vs keeping the speed up and then having to use the brakes more). And, of course, he put it in "power" mode. He started on a full tank, and filled it back up afterwards. The calculations based on actual miles driven and fill-up gallons say he got 51.2 mpg overall during his drive (which could in reality vary somewhat by the inevitable differences in how full one gets the gas tank). To me, this emphasized that a buyer can get outstanding mileage out of the Prius even when not schooled in the mpg-extending measures.
Great input. We've found this to be true too. My wife drives the Prius as a regular car too and gets over 50mpg average. Even so, my hypermiling techniques get about 10% better gas mileage. So, when I loan her my Prius, I know full well that she'll be pulling the mpg numbers down. Alas, love trumps mpg.
