Help possible Prius buyer, couple questions on load, FE

you should rent one for a week. highway is a prius killer at high speeds. you really can't take much advantage of battery storage.

 

Sure highway speed can be a killer for someone chasing 55 to 60 MPG, but not so much in the context of 40 to 45 MPG that the OP is talking about.

I took a little 500km trip last weekend, and although it was a lot of highway it was mostly only at 100 km/h (62MPH) and I still averaged 54 MPG for the trip.

 

sorry, i was looking at post #19 where he said he drove 70mph on the highway.

 

Ok I missed, thanks for pointing it out Bisco.

Even at 70 MPH though, I can still maintain about 45 MPG. OP also said his route is roughly 75% city and 25% highway. So I think the frequent stops are going to be his main MPG concern.

Lilbilly, it would be interesting if you could log your actual MPG on *this* route (miles traveled and gallons used) over several tankfuls, to get a good baseline to compare against. Based on what you've got and the miles you're traveling I think you'd probably be save around $2000 pa on gas.

 

The Raleigh area doesn't have much in the way of hills

You should be getting around 45 -50 in summer time. And 40-45 in Winter time. Cut your speed to 65 mph or follow safely behind a semi on the highway and you can up that to 55 mpg for the highway portion.

My wife is averaging around 53 mpg in the hilly part of FL, doing around 45-55 mph.

Just read through the posts on how to maximize your mpg.

Look ahead at lights and learn their patterns. Coast as much as you can up to the red lights.
Stay around 42-44 mph for the best mpg.
I got 70 mpg at that speed for about 4 miles the other day.
Pump up tires to 44 front psi /42 rear psi
Put in 0w20 Synthetic

 

Ok so 20 to 22 MPG is what you're currently getting on your actual route (including all the stops etc)? In that case you can be pretty certain to double that figure in the Prius.

 

FWIW, from Compare Side-by-Side (or use Compare Cars Side-by-Side, if my link doesn't work), the 3 different configs I can find of the 93 Ford Taurus have (after adjustment) EPA city ratings of 17 or 18 mpg, 25-27 highway and 20 or 21 combined and vs. Gen 2 Prius' rating of 48 city/45 highway/46 combined.

 

I think 40+ mpg is very realistic based on OP's driving needs. 400 lbs of cargo shouldn't affect the mileage all that much. I haven't noticed any significant mileage drops when traveling with passengers.

 

I deliver pizza along the foothills in the Rocky Mountains in my 2008 Touring edition and as long as the temperature stays above 30F or so, I can always get 50 MPG or more.

When the temperature drops down below 27, my mileage drops-- the lower the temp, the lower my mileage. The lowest I've ever managed to get for a whole tank was 38 MPG but when averaged out over 3 tanks it was actually closer to 42 MPG (the bladder tank throws single tank measurements off sometimes).

In warmer weather it's easy for me to get in the mid-50s, and this spring/summer I'm hoping to break into the 60s for whole tanks full. With a little practice, and a Scan Gauge II those numbers are doable if you're really interested in getting them, but the techniques required aren't for everyone, it does take some work. My average "high" tank when averaged over multiple tanks is about 58 MPG. I do about 10-15% highway driving and the rest is city, stop and go, delivery.

In cold weather it's best to shut the car off if I'll be stopped more than 5-10 minutes depending on how cold it is, but in the summer it's actually better if I leave it turned on if I'll only be stopped for 20-30 minutes, otherwise the mandatory warm-up cycle burns more gas than it would burn if I leave it turned on (with the climate control turned off-- A/C will burn up the battery and force the engine to run a lot more often, somewhat similar to making heat for the heater in very cold weather but not as bad). I just lock the doors with the key while I'm not within line of sight of it. The battery will power the car without the engine needing to start for quite a while with the climate control turned off and even when it does come on to do some charging it only runs for 1-2 minutes. You could get used to just leaving it on and locked, and if your stop begins to look like you'll be more than 20 minutes just go out and shut it off and come back in. That's what I do between deliveries at work, it's easy enough.

As for highway mileage and hauling loads, shortly after buying mine, I took a ~1,000 mile (each way) trip from Denver to Phoenix to empty out a storage unit I'd had there for a couple years. Driving it over Vail Pass at over 10,000 feet I still managed to get over 45 MPG on every tank in both directions for the trip. I didn't do any hypermiling on that trip, I just got in and drove it because it was too long and I had too little time to care about mileage. Coming back I had the car packed to the hilt, front seat, back seat, cargo area, floors, everything. I'm positive that I had at least an extra 350 lbs. of stuff in there in addition to my own 265 lbs. but it didn't affect my mileage on the return trip by more than maybe 1 MPG. The bulk of that trip was spent with the cruise control set at 4 MPH over the limit, so 79 MPH, 74 MPH, or 69 MPH for at least 850 miles of the trip. That should give you a pretty fair idea of what kind of mileage you can expect to get with a Prius. I started with a full tank, and by my calculations and fill-up data, I could have made the entire trip down with only one fuel stop at the half way point before arriving at my destination, but I wasn't willing to gamble.

Delivering pizza, I drive between 350-600 miles per week, and I save almost enough money on gas to make the car payment vs. my Subaru that got about 23 MPG. I only have to fill up once a week, which works out to every 5-7 days depending on work and what I do on my days off. It's a friggin' awesome feeling to deliver all week, stop for gas once, and only pump ~$20 worth of gas while the guy in his SUV who was pumping when I got there is still there pumping as I drive away. I wouldn't trade this car for anything after having put my first 10,000 miles on it. You can have my Prius when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!

 

That's interesting bb, that you can leave it running for 30 minutes and still save gas. Just wondering how you lock it up when it's running. Do you have to use the key or is there another way?

 

I wish I'd found another way, but I have to use the key. I have two key rings I carry on a lanyard on my belt, one has the fob and the other has a plain old $2 key I had made at Home Depot. That way I'm not fumbling around with my fob and risk losing it, I just use the cheapo copy to lock and unlock the door. I'd give anything for the fob or SKS to work with the engine on but I doubt I'll ever figure out how to make such a mod. Heck, I'd be happy to have the anti-lockout feature disabled so I can lock the doors with the switch in the car while the door is open.

Yeah, it works out better because the car with all the accessories off (lights, heater, A/C. But radio seems to make little if any difference) can sit with a well charged HV battery for at least 15 minutes without running when it's warm out, and it seems to consume less gas on a charge-up cycle than a power-on warm-up cycle. That seems to be because of the way stage 1a works-- until that's finished it's impossible to get more than about 25 MPG without pulling out onto a downhill freeway because there's no fuel-cut no matter what you do. You also run the risk of not being able to jump straight back into stage 4 from stage 1a if the coolant temperature doesn't hit 159F before it finishes stage 1a, and then having to go through stage 3 and find a spot to stop and sit while it does the 7 second idle check to enter stage 4 again. Woefully inefficient if you don't have just the right driving conditions. With pizza delivery especially, it can be all the way until I reach my customer's house before I could re-enter stage 4, and all the way there I may not be able to enter fuel-cut or engine off glide at all and I'm stuck struggling to get 35-40 MPG instead of 60+. It adds up quick in my driving situation.

Leaving the headlights and/or parking lights on at night cuts down on how long it'll sit before starting up by a fair bit though. It may only make it 10-15 minutes with the lights on if the SOC is high when I get back to the store, whereas with them off it can sit for over 20 minutes with a similar SOC.

It's probably pretty close to break-even between shutting it off and leaving it on for over 15-20 minutes in warm weather, I'm not sure where the efficiency cut-off point is yet because the difference over a tank is so negligible and there are too many other variables. But it's a lot easier to keep my trip and daily average over 50 MPG by leaving it on than it is to shut it off and get it back up over 50 MPG, so unless I'll be off the road for a while I don't shut it off.