I just logged a 1100 mile trip from Whiitier, CA to Clarkston, WA and recorded 53.7 MPG. What an amazing car! Imagine, for about $50.00 worth of gas !
It was very comfortable. A/C was required about 90% of the time. Temps. were in the 90's all the way up here. BTW, the seats are just fine.
As soon as my wife gets past the fear of other drivers doing something to our new Prius, we like to take trips from Reno to Vegas and San Diego annually plus the bay area even more often. My test drive included a drive half way to Tahoe and back just to see how it performs in the mountains. Since we bought it, the results speak for themselves.
The Prius is amazing no doubt, but I think your calculations are off a bit (unless you're somehow paying $2.50/gal for gas). 1100mi/53.7mpg=20.48 gal gas consumed. Let's say gas is $3.75/gal so $3.75x20.48gal= $76.80 cost for fuel. I only noticed your error because I just calculated my fuel cost for the PIP for Aug a few min ago and was wondering how our costs could be close where you got 53mpg and I got 113mpg... In August I drove 1251 miles at 113mpg, so I consumed 11.07 gal of gas for the month. Gas here cost $3.85/gal x 11.07 gal used- cost me $42.62 for the month of August.
I scratched my head a little bit at first on the 50 bucks too but he may have had some gas rewards saved up from his grocery store. I know I have 50 cents off per gallon right now which would put each gallon at about 3.05. Either way great trip!
A few weeks back we did a vacation run over to the Tofino/Ucluelet area, west coast of Vancouver Island (wonderful area). Not that long, maybe 700~800 km total. The road over there gets pretty twisty/hilly for some parts. This was with 3 adults in the car, and the hatch pretty much full. Also, we have the low profile 215/45R17 tires. I was careful with the gas pedal, but not overly so. I'd filled up about a day before we left, and then tanked up about halfway along the way back. That tankful worked out to a calculated 53.5 miles per US gallon (converted from 4.1 liters per 100 km). FWIW, the in-dash display of mileage was 57.4 miles per US gallon (again, I've converted, from 4.4 l/100km). There's roughly 7% variation in those two numbers, fairly typical in my experience. I've found that 53~ mpg sort of a wall. I can actually achieve a bit better at lower speeds around town, if I was doing a protracted run, with the car fully warmed up. But on the highway, while you get the protracted run, the increasing wind resistance at higher speeds becomes a factor. Probably the best mileage is achieved on secondary highways, lower speed routes.
I remember when gas was $3 when Bush was Pres. If war breaks out expect rapid gasoline price increases
The given is gas is up 4 fold but buying power stagnate. What Should You Be Earning? | Economic Policy Institute I digress
One day I'll sit my grandchildren around a camp fire and say gas cost 60 cents a Gallon when I first drove a car. My grand child will say what's Gasoline Grandpa . Joke
Heck, I distinctly remember (and posted about this a bunch of times) around Christmas of 01, down in So Cal, gas was under $1/gallon. For some reason, it was cheaper than what I recall in Nor Cal. I was with my parents and we were amazed. We didn't even bother shopping around for cheaper gas before driving back up to the Bay Area.
My sister had a poster that said "life is a gas, 33 1/3 cents a gallon". Who was president? Gee, probably Nixon, possibly Johnson. Women's hemlines were really high. Maybe that's a better indicator.
