I read these threads on gas milage for hours this past weekend and it got me thiinking, there are a lot of claims of incredible migeage in here. I thought I would see how easy it is to minipulate the facts to appear to do this. So here it is. This picture shows the milage the car ( not I) got over a short distance at a location I picked. How ever the car does not really get this kind of mileage. Actual mileage is what the car can do in all circumstances for lets say a full tank of gas, maybe 500 miles. Anyone claiming super high mileage should be able to show it for the long run.
+1 People do get 55mpg, 65mpg, and more on full tanks of gas. For instance Hata Hata was getting 118.6mpg over 1740 miles of driving on a single tank of gas: New World Record Challenge: over 50km/L(117mpg) tank | PriusChat
Agreed. Most of the great MPG misers show full tank's mileage. Granted it is easy to be excited and possibly post when you get 80+ mpg, but I've never seen a claim as a full tank unless shown via pics. Gotcha back OP!
Actually, it's not easy to manipulate the display to show a really high mpg number AND a large number of miles. At least not on the Liftback. In fact, I don't know that one could do it.
Check out my mileage. My commute is ~20 miles each way. I typically average 65-70 mpg in the morning and ~85 mpg in the evening. This particular one I got lucky and was stuck in stop and go traffic for the highway portion. The lifetime mileage just reached 60 mpg (over 1700 miles) and climbing. All it takes is a long highway drive to ruin everything! Edit: I should have mentioned that my area is mostly flat. There are some small up and down hills and the elevation change is about 100 ft.
How much elevation change over this distance? We have had informal contests about how far one could maintain 100 mpg. It depends both on skill and on how much mountain descent is available. Only the real masters can do it on flat roads.
I can go about 12 miles at 99.9 mpg then it is back up hill. With my daily travel about 55 mpg is all I can maintain. I can go 20 miles at 80 mpg again if I pick the longest down hill area I travel to start with.
You just need a longer hill: Some folks here have driven significantly greater distances without a hill. But my skill (and travel time patience) is not there yet. Among us mere mortals, there are plenty of examples of 70+ mpg in favorable conditions without hill assist, generally at speeds under 50 mph.
Down a mountain is easy. The hour down from my brother's place is an overall elevation drop of ~3500 ft though it has its ups and downs. It's 62km (38.5 miles) and takes about an hour with a mix of mostly 60 and 80 km/h zones, moderate traffic and some traffic lights. I know I've seen 1.9l/100km (123.8 MPG) at the bottom of that hill. The road connects directly onto the freeway where the limit changes to 110 km/h (68 mph) so I can never be bothered finding somewhere to stop to take a photo and of course at that speed the numbers start climbing instantly.
Thats my point exactly, enyone can find a place where they can get maximine mileage for a short distance, but sooner or later you have to go back and mileage will show this also, in the long run. I think if you can get 45 to 55 or 60 for an entire tank of fuel, that is great.
Yeah, if I only count my daily commuting I average 75 mpg. However, I drive much more highway for weekend trips and it brings it down to 65 mpg for the full tank. I suspect a lot of the record tanks of gas don't involve any highway driving at all. If I were to only use my car for commuting to and from work, I could use my 1 day best 20 miles to work at 74 mpg and 20 miles home at 92 mpg. No overall change in elevation, warm outside, no use of the heat/ac, slow traffic averaging 30 mph or so. And it would come out to 83 mpg. But for real life driving I get 20 mpg less than that.
If I only counted my commute to/from work, I'd get 67-70 mpg but it'd take me 8 weeks 'til the next fill-up, if I filled up after using 8 gallons.
I have more perspective on Gen2 mpg which has a small percent of average computational error. The best average for me that I get is in a range of 54-60.9 mpg. The seasons and temps play a role in this too. Warmer ambient temps my mpg goes to the higher range. I see some pc posters with either gen2 or 3 with higher.Toyota dealers advertise on the car lot on Gen3 51mpg. what gonna do.
Fuelly seems to be a good source of data on MPG. I put in accurate figures and the result is keeping with the other drivers in similar car year and make. Browse the vehicles. This is the web site. www.fuelly.com
There are two problems: first terrain and two; too short distance as you've noticed. Most high mileages are the result of downhill courses. Its easy to get 100 mpg on a 20 mile trip from Hendersonville, to Bart Cave, NC, because its downhill and in the last 5 miles you can drop the clutch and still easily exceed the 55 mph speed limit. Personally, I never accept any mpg numbers on trips less than a hundred miles over varying terrain. Typically, we have seen 47 - 48 moph in that circumstances just have other have. One thing we combat routinely from all drivers is they do not understand that refilling their gas tanks to the same level each time is not really possible so they will get variations in mpg; if they take 10 refills and average they'll be more correct in mpg. cheers.
Now that the weather has warmed up, I'm managing 70-80 on my daily drives. My normal travels do not require me to take the freeway (though that may be changing late next month as our office is relocating), so all my driving is done in 25-45 MPH zones, with traffic, up and down very moderate inclines.
Yep. Generally, I fill up when I'm down three bars. It depends on timing, gas price, etc. I'm trying to be patient this tank, so I can post with a higher number of miles.
