Huge loss in fuel economy with wheels

It is called the 'Edit' button. It won't delete the post, but it can be used to erase all the incriminating content.

 

???
Lets say, your normal tire gets 100 miles w/ 2 gals gas = 50 MPG
Your car reads 60 MPH and is calibrated accurately.

Now you put on a larger tire say 5% less revs per mile.
With the larger tire, when you read 60 MPH, you are really going 60 x 1.05 = 63 MPH
When you calculate MPG you will use still 2 gals gaso but you think you only went 95 miles = 47.5 MPG calc

So to adjust MPG take 47.5 (obs) x 63/60 = 50 MPG (corrected)

 

Run a couple of tanks and see how it goes. One trip is not very telling. Shorter trips over the course of a full tank could drop you into the high 30s. If you regularly do longer trips then you may be ok in the low to mid 40s.

 

Don't want to hijack this thread, but one thing I agree on with the OP is the ugliness of the OEM wheels.

The Prius for me is about HSD and being efficient. I'm not so much into new rims, wheels or modifications that lower suspension.

I pretty much like the way The Prius looks driving it right off the dealership lot. But I do have to ask, what was/is Toyota thinking? You have to work to make a wheel cover that looks as ugly as the one that comes standard on Prius. To me the covers look like little Nazi Iron Crosses....and that's NOT a look I want or like.

And for me, with Sea Glass Pearl, and "black" rims underneath, I don't think removal would be an improvement.

What I'm eventually going to do about this is a "Back Burner" idea for me at the moment. I'm actually just thinking of getting some cheap generic alternative Wal-Mart wheel covers. IMO the ones they have on the shelf, look a world better than the ones Toyota put on my the Prius.

 

...and the Walmart wheel covers probably move a lot of air and add drag at high speed.
What was Toyota thinking? They were reducing drag and improving the high speed fuel mileage.

 

If you can find someone with 2010-2011 silver wheels who wants to trade for your black wheels you can use your 2013 covers and have a decent looking wheel. Or you can paint your wheels silver.

 

That's my fear, and why I say, the whole "project" is a back burner idea at the moment. I realize that the provided wheel covers probably aid somewhat in reducing drag.

But even being flat, and smooth...do they have to be so damn ugly?

The Wal-Mart aftermarket covers IMO look nice, and they are cheap. I might be willing to go a $30. experiment and just see how much they impact fuel efficiency.

A lot of Prius drivers have removed the covers leaving the rims underneath exposed. I'm thinking that action itself removes a lot of any aerodynamic advantage the covers may or may not provide, and I haven't heard a lot of screaming about how the removal of said covers suddenly resulted in a huge plummet in efficiency.

Trust me, if I slap a set of aftermarket covers on...I'll carefully remove the originals and keep them. If I can't live with any loss of fuel economy I'll put them back. I've spent more money on other failed experiments. And it would certainly be cheaper than buying entirely new rims.

 

So, where do you drive to put 50k on your car each year? Is it strictly the Thruway or more interesting terrain?

 

Don't get me wrong, if you have the kind of money it sounds like you have, then why are driving a Prius to begin with?

I don't want to sound rude, but I just can't make sense out of your actions and your statements. Humor this old man here.

 

When you get older you'll realize that much of what you feel is important now was either foolish or irrelevant.

Personally, I think the WRX is hideous and the stereotype of boy-racer that goes with it is worse than owning a Prius. See how opinions work?

 

Yep, I've only skimmed some of the OP's latter posts and am puzzled.

There are many more reasons why someone might own a Prius than about "payback" such as the technology, knowing that some braking energy is being recaptured (and is repurposed) instead of all being wasted as heat and brake dust, putting less $ in the hands of big oil, foreign countries where most of the world's oil resides and terrorists, emitting less CO2, driving a AT-PZEV rated car (so, emitting fewer pollutants), etc.

What's the "payback" on a BMW, a V8 engine or sunroof? Nothing wrong w/paying for a feature that performs the functions I mentioned. If were all so concerned about "payback", then any car more $12K Versa isn't "worth it".

I also owned a sports car (287 hp Nissan 350Z) alongside my Prius for many years. It got roughly 1/2 the mileage and required premium. My Prius replaced a 255 hp Nissan Maxima.

I personally don't care that I'm running w/stock wheels and running on stock sizes. I've never changed the wheels from stock on any of my cars. FWIW, I think it's a waste of money for the OP to be bothering w/the expense of that AND losing mileage. I'd hate to have a set of wheels stolen as well. Heck, when I lived in WA, someone who lived a few blocks away from me had their STOCK 5th gen Maxima wheels stolen. His car was up on blocks. I don't know the guy, but drove over there to take a look, after he posted about it on maxima.org.

I don't get why he's so obsessed w/wheel weight when a huge factor is likely his tires are of higher rolling resistance than good LRR tires.

 

Hmmm. I always thought most folks bought a Prius to save money. And most of those here have sure kept them a lot longer than a year. After reading the above, it makes me think that all the research and study I did over the years was for nothing before we bought ours.

Oh well, to each his own I reckon.

 

My feelings exactly! Thank you for bringing that up.

Furthermore, I still think that if the OP would not have made the mod's in the first place, he would not have the reason to be complaining now. IMO, he brought it on himself by his actions.

 

The direction this thread is going reminds me of this from the very respectable Yo Gabba Gabba.. "get the silly's out, get the silly's out, and that's what its about"....

 

After awhile you can predict these things.