Prius Owners Question Mileage Claims

Wayne hit the nail on the head.
I'm going to buy a new car in the next two months or so.
If I wanted 'economy', I would buy a $15,000 Corolla that gets 30+ mpg.
If I could afford what I really wanted, I would buy a $60,000 BMW.
If I want a nice reliable car, with good (very good even) mileage, nice (but not luxurious appointments), some cutting edge technology, and an engine system that makes ecological sense, then I would buy a Prius. (And, in fact, mine should arrive sometime in Jan 2006 )

You buy what you like and what you can afford (or what your wife says you can afford).
Why don't these moronic writers go pick on the real bad guys, the oil companies

 

Silver 2005 purchased end of March and gone through first oil change, main driver is spouse with a heavy foot, getting just under or just over 50 mpg and is very, very happy. My most recent 35 mile round-trip commute that I drove the Prius, I increased the mpg from something over 42 mpg up to almost 50 mpg and on two trips in July of more than 4 hours each (interstate highway) I got 59.4 mpg going and 61.7 mpg returning, one person and small suitcase, hot weather, AC running.

 

Heh-heh. They'd just use that to PROVE the MFD was lying! After all, what's this 99.9 MPG when they are really getting so much MORE??? :lol:

 

No car gets the EPA rating MPG because no one drives at exactly 45 miles per hour on completely flat road all day! We just bought our Prius and it drives smooth and currently getting 45 MPG. Helluva lot better than the 25 MPG Camry! And watching the meter (yes, more eyes on the road, I know) go up to 99.9 MPG makes me giggle every time.

 

I am happy with my Prius. I use it for work, as I travel a bit. I just returned from a trip, about 550 miles. This was mostly hiway miles (hilly). I averaged 44-45 mpg. This was great. My average speed was between 70-80 mph and I use the pedal more than most. My wife and I also have a full size truck and a SUV. They average 14-18 mpg. I saved a bundle, and I am happy. I know if I drove 55mph and did not accelerate fast, my MPG would be higher, but I am happy with what I did get.

You MPG you achieve will greatly vary by how you drive.
2005 Prius #3, white

 

Back in September '04 when I put my name on a list, the dealer said that the sticker was too high and 44mpg was more average. Consumer Reports in their report at that time simply said to expect 44mpg. I wasn't disapointed when I wasn't getting 60mpg and am happy it's more than 44mpg (my last car was getting 22mpg so I was really happy).

 

I'll admit, I am breaking my own rule, typing this without reading all the previous posts.

Anyway, after filling up this morning, the 19 miles I drove (mostly highway) yielded me 60mpg. So, it IS possible.

Normally I average about 50mpg.

 

These people are just writing this crap to get attention. We shouldn't even acknowlege their drivel with a response. It seems like someone is just taking the same tired old "arguments" and "proof", rearranging the order of them, changing the names on the "testimonials" and printing a "new" article. Have I used enough "double quotes" yet? Staring to sound like Chris Farley in one of his SNL skits.

 

The EPA fuel-efficiency tests are bunk, since they are based on emissions created rather than actual real-world driving. Unfortunately, since the car makers are required by law to use the EPA figures, it leads to some unfortunate problems.
It could be worse- Just ask anyone who bought one of the Honda Civic Hybrids, where the EPA vs. Real life is worse than for Priuses.

Apparently EPA has realized this, and are planning to change the test.
After working in the energy efficiency industry for several years, I expect the MPG of ALL vehicles will decrease when the tests change.

As for the Prius, we have found that with our 2005 Prius, there are two "sweet spots" for MPG. Keeping the speed at 38 MPH or 68 MPH has consistantly resulted in mileage of well over 50 MPG.

I drove last weekend from Luray, Virginia to Washington DC (about 100 miles) and averaged 55.5 MPG, by keeping at the two above speeds.

Anybody else noticed this MPH/MPG correlation?

-Luther Wills-Dudich

 

ten bucks says this comes from the 'complaint form' link at the top of their page, which means it was based entirely upon an upset someone's submission.

i will be sending them a complaint about their own website, saying it was a waste of time and full of bad information with no sources cited...

 

My car loves the 30's, so can't argue with that, but my testing showed a realitively flat response at highway speeds:

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=11741&hl=

 

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/radio/benton.html

LOL - check out his picture... I'm SURE he took her word for it. And you know why the dealer told her the numbers were fudged? because they were probably tired of dealing with some stupid lady standing there complaining about something that they KNEW she was wrong about. customer is always right? "fine, lady, you're right... the company sets the computer to fake the numbers, and you're right.. happy now? good. get off my lot."

And you know what, I would have told her the same thing, rather than sit there and explain that her 1 mile trips at 60 mph to bingo and back on a daily basis were screwing up her mileage since the car was warming up the WHOLE TIME...

Ugh... I'm done.

 

In summer Winnipeg city driving - especially without A/C - I can easily average 4.2 litres per 100km. About 67 MPG Imperial gallon.

In winter I probably get the worst fuel economy of any PriusChat member. At -40 stuck in stop-n-inch traffic thanks to the Snow Routing, I got 9.8 litres per 100km. About 29 MPG Imperial gallon. Let's contrast that to the 2000 GMC Sierra operated under similar conditions:

The GMC in summer city driving, without A/C, usually got 22-20 l/100km. About 12-14 MPG Imperial gallon. In winter at -40, the same stop-n-inch drive, try 45-50 l/100km. About 5-7 MPG Imperial gallon.

So every vehicle operated under extreme winter city driving will experience huge fuel economy penalties. I've noticed a lot of car brochures here and window stickers carry the caveat "Your city fuel economy will probably be worse. Winter city fuel consumption will be substantially more" or words to that effect.

 

I have a short commute to work. 5 miles one way, not
the most ideal for higher numbers so it is written.
Even so, my tanks thus far are:

48.5mpg average - 1st tank
54 - 2nd
58.5 - 3rd
60 - 4th
60-5th

reason for the increase is that I have been experimenting
and listening to the car, and allowing it to teach me how to
drive it to maximize fuel economy, while maintaining speed
limits and not becoming a hazard on the road by driving too
slow.

It is how you drive the vehicle without a doubt.

 

Whenever you see some hokum or something slanted so badly as to be proto-hokum, just remember that it's highly likely that the same amount of diligence and honesty went into the other articles in that paper/magazine/website.

There's a lot of misinformation out there. You've got to think for yourself. This is Prius chat so its natural for people to be upset about anti-Prius material, but remember that a lot of the other material out there is trying to fool you in other ways. Some of it is far more malicious and worthy of outrage than misinformation about your car.

This possibly sounds offensive, but we chose a Prius even though we could afford a BMW. The Prius is the car we wanted.