Considering buying a Prius and I have a question about MPGs.

Sounds like an ideal Prius commute. Go book yourself as long test drive and see how you get on with it. Once you've crawled along in slow traffic on electric only and sat in complete quiet at a red light, you'll never want to drive anything else.

 

You can expect at least 45 mpg. Perhaps more in the summer when the temps warm up.

If you drive carefully and keep your speed at about 60 mph you will most likely get 50 mpg or more.

A few pointers, keep your tires inflated properly, I keep mine inflated to max sidewall pressure which is 44 PSI, but you may wish to keep them a little lower. Use synthetic motor oil, 0W20, and do not overfill the crankcase.

With our Prius living in the cold northwest with rain and temps in the 40-50's 8 - 9 months out of the year we average right about 50 mpg.

In summer it is quite easy to get low to mid 50's in MPG.

We have nearly 50,000 miles on our Prius and if anything happened to it, say it was wrecked or stolen, we would get another Prius to replace it without hesitation......

alfon

 

The 50 percent interstate driving will really help keep the battery charged. On long straight (level) interstate highways expect to get 53-55 mpg without too much trouble. Of course wind is always a factor.

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-fuel-economy/64296-updated-mpg-vs-mph-chart.html

Shows the relationship between MPG and MPH.

 

I agree with others.....your commute sounds perfect. As for sitting in traffic........that's when you will really glow. !!!!!!!!!

 

Do the math.
I suspect that you will lose a lot of $$$ when you trade in.
I strongly doubt that the difference in gas mileage will make up for the cost difference in less than 5 years.

My suggestion is to stay pat.

 

Ah, yes. Bliss.

 

My experience is certainly consistent with all of the prior comments. The Prius is a remarkable machine that is very fuel efficient. Steady driving is a key to good efficiency, but it does not necessarily need to be slow ... at 73 mph I consistently get 52+mpg ... but you cannot be hitting the Pwr button and accelerating around every vehicle in front of you on the interstate.

Driving in the rain will lower mileage; cold weather will not be such a big factor, because you are not letting the ICE cool off like you would if your driving habits were stop, sit for a time, then start, drive a short distance and stop again.

Winter blend gas will also take a toll as well.

Good luck.

 

Hi we live near you and we get 47 lifetime MPG with 90000 miles on a 2006. Really 50-51 MPG in summer and 44-45 in winter. The only special +MPG technique I use is letting my wife drive the car. You could probably do 50 MPG average with the best low rolling resist tires. Your stop and go will get a good 50 mpg, but the 75 MPH (on the beltway?) will make a little negative impact. No probs with car and I plan to keep until 250K miles if poss. I now see you were saying 2011 model so even a little better MPG.

 

The Civic gets, what, 35 MPG? The Prius would be 50, so it would save about 1/2 gallon per round trip. $2 or so per day versus the several thousand dollar bath you would take trading cars.

 

we've had our Prius II since December and only when gas hit $4/gal did I start using it on my 60 mile daily trek to and from work.

for the past month, I've driven it getting an "average" of 52.2 on the first fillup. since then, I've improved my 'pulse and glide' driving and I'm averaging 54.5. this is with about 35% city and 65 % highway driving.

while I've owned several Hondas and have loved them all, you really can't beat the Prius for what it has to offer for a very reasonable price. it has plenty of room, it's comfortable for short and long trips and then you have that gas mileage thing.

gotta love the Prius!

 

well, good point. consider what a USED Prius goes for compared to a new one? Prius's (Priii? ) hold their value VERY well.....just another reason to get out of your current car NOW before you take a bigger bath later.......JMO.

 

I agree with the responses questioning whether this trade would save money. Civic is very good for a conventional car, and a bit of hypermiling should produce excellent results. While it cannot match a Prius, especially in the city, it does well enough that the Prius fuel savings will take a very long time to pay for the transactions costs of trading now. Better to wait until there are additional reasons for a trade.

As long as fuel prices remain high, I doubt that the Civic's value bath will get any worse than the normal new car bath it has already taken.

 

I have the advantage of living in the same radio market as CireEdorel. Today our big news station WTOP radio was reporting (do not know if really true) that used cars are getting great resale prices these days. In particular they mentioned Honda Civic was getting great resale value and they also said new Hybrids retained their value for about 4-years before losing value. Pls take all this with the usual grain of salt, but I thought I'd report back.

 

:welcome:Greetings and welcome! If you wanna roll a new G3, and you can afford one, I don't want to discourage you however (comma!) you're not going to save loads of money trading a 2010 Civic for a 2011 Prius.Now is a very poor time to try to buy one, and if you're really lucky you'll only get a +15MPG bump in your fuel efficiency. YMMV.That's something like $2,000 a year in savings for fuel to cover what could easily be a $10,000 to $20,000 ding in what it would cost you to upgrade to a G3.You may bend the numbers enough to make it sound good, but that does not mean that it will be good.

 

the way to figure out is go to fueleconomy.gov, compare side by side, put your numbers in and figure what the savings on fuel would be. Then use payment calculator (Auto Calculators) to figure out what the the monthly payment difference. It would be worth it if you are saving money.

you should expect ~50MPG, a little more in summer. The other reason to trade in if you live in VA and can get on HOV lanes, then it is worth it all the way!

 

I wouldn't trade in your civic for a prius based on fuel economy alone. Considering cab drivers recover the costs in a few years but that's due to their huge driving mileage AND they're moving up from Crown Vics.

Instead, if you really like the prius because of how it drives, and all the neat gadgets, it'll make your purchase a lot more worth it in the end I moved from a stage 2 wrx which had heated seats and AC as the only features to a prius tech. package. Sure I save a bit of gas (actually, quite a bit) but that's not the only reason why

 

Great point about HOV can be a life saver here in DC metro area.
That must be one reason we have so many Prii. Unfort, VA has been trying to get away from allowing Prii on HOV, so check the new regs and rules. Older Prii are grandfathered if you have the special license plates. I never got the special plates so I am out of luck on some roads.

 

With a outside temperature of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit
tire pressure set to 44 psi front 42 psi rear
with no stopping at all ... the 2010 Toyota Prius FE looks like this...

30 mph with cruise control on the Prius gets about 70 mpg
43 mph with cruise control on the Prius gets about 67 mpg
50 mph with cruise control on the Prius gets about 64 mpg
55 mph with cruise control on the Prius gets about 60 mpg
65 mph with cruise control on the Prius gets about 54 mpg
75 mph with cruise control on the Prius gets about 50 mpg

I live in the MD/DC/VA area and I have a 14 to 16 mile
commute (in one direction) all of it is urban/suburban
(no superhighway section) and much of it is stop and go.
initially I was getting about 55 mpg by just being light
on the gas pedal on ECO mode with the tire pressure
set to the standard 35 psi front and 33 psi rear settings.
I am able to increase my fuel efficiency of my last
tank to 66 mpg, by raising my tire pressure to 48 psi
front 44 psi rear and by practicing hypermiling techniques.
When the outside temperature drops below 40 degrees
Fahrenheit, even using every trick(*) I knew I was only
able to get 52 mpg from the Prius last December.
Sofar after a total of 12000 miles my overall fuel
efficiency is 58 mpg. Before I purchased
my Prius I was estimating that I could raise the EPA
50mpg to an overall 60 mpg by employing hypermiling
techniques but that it might take me two years to
learn how to effectively hypermile on the Prius.
I am now working on my second year of learning
how to hypermile - which turns out to be a skill
that may sound easy but much harder to master.

(*) tricks = 100% grill blocking, monitoring the coolant
temperatures and relying on the ICE more than
the battery to power the car when the coolant temp
fall below 140 F, tires at max sidewall pressure, keeping
the car parked in the sun during the winter so the
car is initially warmer during startup. Minimize
defroster/heater usage, remove the snow (to keep
extra weight) before driving the car.