I told a white lie about my mpg

priustexasbob, we're from Texas. We don't tell little white lies, we lie big.

 

car don't lie.

 

That's a Blizzard Pearl lie, and it costs more than your average white lie.

 

I wouldn't sweat it. You mentioned they are "American only" owners. That probably means the best they have seen is around 20 mpg. I am not knocking American cars, by the way. I happen to be American.

 

The car says 55, then that's what it is. no one has to know that you are well-educated from years of research on priuschat.

 

You did fine. We Prii owners need to educate the public about the social and fiscal and environmental advantages of hybrids, because there is so much uncertainty and mis-information out there. Therefore, I regularly put the best possible story forward when I'm talking to people about the car. If my MFD is reading 72 mpg, I'll gladly say that the car is telling me that I'm getting 72 mpg on this tank so far. All true, and nothing wrong with that.

 

Most Prius owners don't know of any computational error from the MFD anyway. You just happen to be one of the extremely well-informed ones top 5 percenters. The MFD may be off by 5 percent. Either way, you were at least 95 percent accurate. You rounded up for a pedestrian audience because the numbers are so close. It's sort of like seeing your watch reads 5:29 and telling someone it's 5:30 when they ask.

 

The MPG lie is one of those standard lies that everyone tells, and usually it's more egregious than the one spouted by the car itself. You have to lie a bit just to offer a valid comparison.

"I average 50 MPG daily in my Prius."

"Wow, that sucks, considering I get 40 MPG* in my X!"
*On the highway, city mileage is poor. With a tailwind. Warm weather, no A/C. Just that one time, haven't managed it since. After a tuneup. Using dangerous hypermiling techniques. The pump cut off early. Rounding up.

 

You didn't lie, Toyota did.

 

Trust me, as gas prices go up, they will be very jealous of your gas sipper.

 

I live in Lexington Ky and i filled up the tank one day and drove 68 miles from the gas station to my garage.that trip must have been all down hill as i got 78 mpg.highest mpg trip i have ever had.
i don't mind a bit telling everyone i know about my 68 mile trip getting 78 mpg,in fact i really enjoy doing so.
i don't tell many people that in the winter time short trips only get 38 mpg.thats my little secret.

 

I think you were right. Although typically I have told people it overrates by 2-3 mpg, I can see not wanting to get into it with a bunch of people. I bet some of them won't soon forget that you are getting over 50 mpg and that they are getting 20-something and gas is costing way over $3/gallon.

I guess you could have said "well, that's what it says!"

 

My experience has been it doesn't really matter what you say to people pre-convienced that Hybrids or Prius aren't viable.

You could tell them it runs on the dying hopes of abandoned orphans. You could tell them hitting the power button resulted in a Millenium Falcon like jump to hyper space. If they cannot handle the truth? Your lie will not convince them.

But get out of the habbit of lying anyway. The real world MPG's of The Prius are impressive enough.

 

There are lies, damn lies, and the MFD. Pick one!

 

When the MPG dropped, a little, while you were carrying them to and from lunch, you could have attributed the decline to the additional payload now carried by your car. To prompt the really big lies, you might have asked each of your passengers how much they weigh, as you pretended to factor the total payload into your mileage calculation. This could provide an additional mileage boost, as you drive solo to and from lunch in the future.

 

I have done the same with people riding in my car. It depends to me on how serious they are about learning about the car and its capabilities. If it is just a casual comment and they show no other interest in the car, I just go along with it rather than explaining. If they are genuinely interested in knowing more about the car, then I will explain the difference.

Like you, I can feel the little guy sitting on my shoulder each time I do this though

On the other hand, if someone asks me what my average mpg is, I tell them the calculated at the pump number.

 

In some strange cases I've known the fuel consumption display to read out true mpg or even a little higher mpg than what was calculated. Without double checking, how do you know it wasn't true at the time or even better than displayed?!

 

Outside of PriusChat, no one knows, nor cares, that the indicator is off slightly (as it is in EVERY car).

My wife ignores my Fuelly calculations and generally quotes people the number on the dash (reset at every fillup) and I have no problem with it.

I'm getting a calculated 38.7 over 15 fillups but when people ask, I tell them "around 40 this winter" there's no point in getting into the details, people really aren't that interested.

 

Yeah, it's no big deal. I lie to myself even though I know the truth

"Wow 60 MPG!!!" Even though it's only actually 56.7

Well you know, if it weren't for E10, it would probably be 60