The real world MPG numbers scares me...

Hi Folks, this is a first post but I've been ghosting for a couple of weeks. I get delivery on March 13, lucky for me.
I think we should congratulate the Civic owners. It isn't a contest, you all are satisfied with your mileage and they have purchased a very capable car that also gets good mileage. That doesn't in anyway make your (and soon to be mine) Prius any less the outstanding vehicle that it is! I'm not about to swap, but that doesn't say something bad about the Civic, only something positive about the Prius.

 

I suspect he's a practitioner of Zen Buddhism, and drives the car like it was a woman, always gentle and loving. I can't do that. For me a car is just a car and if I get a late start, or have a very long drive, I'd rather get there sooner than save gas. I'd flunk out of Zen school in the first week, if I lasted that long.

 

Right on! Different folks have different needs, and each car is better for different people.

 

I agree 100%

 

Welcome Jeff.... no harn intended...and no one is putting down anyone else nor thier car..... But this particular thread is Honds "vs" prius.

The two are close enough based on commercial images alone.... its hard for the layperson to discriminate between the two. The Honda commercial tries to protray the image it has everything the prius does. Isn't it funny that in thier specs for the HCH, they just "happen" to use 110HP as thier rating?.. when in reality they had to bump up the rpms by a 1000 to make it look like they were on par with the prius.

Its a marketing tactic and somewhat deceptive. We just want all the cards on the table so everyone knows what the scoop is.

People honestly want to know the issues, benifits, pros and cons so they can make an intelligent buy.... why spend more for a prius?.. and if so what are you getting?..
Thats the question anyone has to consider.

Most everyone out here acknowledges the Honda is a fine car.. its just not a prius, as I think you acknowledge also.

As long as folks can make an intelligent decision and then decide whats best for thier family, no one out here seems to want to put them down except a select very few.

Thanks for sharing your feelings as many others maybe are getting the same impression... thats why this forum is good.

 

I only considered the HCH for a moment. Gas mileage aside, it just didn't compare in my opinion to the Prius choice of options. How could we ever live without Smart Key?

We picked up our Prius Saturday on the coldest (3F) day of the year so far. The overall average for this tank goes up about 1 mpg every time we drive it. I mentioned on the way home that driving the Prius is like playing a game.

I upped the tires to 42/40 tonight and we'll see if that improves mpg. So far the average after 275 miles is 36 mpg and it has been quite cold here. The first 35 miles the average was at only 26 mpg. 150 of those miles was interstate driving at 70 mph on the coldest day of the year. I'm confident our next tank with our day to day normal driving will get 40+. In the city, I've been getting at least 50 mpg today and had 5 minutes at 62.5 mpg.

Andy

 

heck my mileage is not that great. lots of people here tops my mileage all the time. i do think i have the advantage of a favorable commute and i dont do late. i leave in plenty of time for all appointments, and if i arrive early, i circle the block at 35 mph to boost my mileage just a little bit higher...

oh oh... secrets are starting to get out

 

OK I have been thinking about this for a while. First I have a couple of friends with the HCH (not the 06). I have not seen the 06. One of the original premisses of this thread is that the HCH is driven in a more contemporary fashion than the Prius. This may and may not be true. The HCH user feed back is minimal compared to the Prius. Second is that the HCH has less opportunity to adjust the system at lower speeds. I think that the Prius driver pushes the limits because of two things. First there is a lot more feed back on how the system is operating on the Prius vis a vis then the HCH. This affects the driving on a moment to moment basis. Second the Prius system is a lot more complex than the HCG, and therefore gives the operator a great deal more opportunity to modify the system operation particularly at lower speeds. The HCH driver has less chance of modifying the over all performance than the Prius driver. I don't think the HCH driver has the same incentive to improve performance in the same way that the Prius driver is, and that is with out something like the CAN-View! I think that the MiniScanner on the P1 and the CAN-View on the P2 confirms this thesis.

 

I thought about 55 or maybe 60 was the most efficient speed.. maybe you better try circling a little faster!

 

the Prius in the hands of some gets EPA and some don't, the Classic Prius gets closer to the EPA than the G2. As the EPA test's are conducted by the manufacture and submitted to the EPA there is a possibility that they have under-reported the mileage. Were never going to prove it one way or the other.

 

I believe maximum efficiency is in the range of 35 to 45 mph.

 

the EPA sets the test standards, the manufacture tests to those standards and the EPA does random test to confirm the manufacturs results, to their standards.

 

I own a 2006 Civic Hybrid and have rented a 2005 Prius twice, and the Prius wins hands down when driven normally. When I drive my HCH pretty normally, I get 38 mpg. Driving a Prius the same way, actually slightly faster, yielded 46.5 mpg.

On GreenHybrid, most of those drivers (of Civics and Accords) drive very conservatively and slowly to try to pull off good mileage. You can do that in the Prius but it's just not necessary.

 

Many of those people on GH would turn up their nose at your mileage

 

EPA Tests are conducted in a test lab on a treadmill/dynamometer which 'simulates' a driving loop.

They also do not measure actual fuel consumption but extrapolate it from emissions.

One Description:

"A trained person drives every car, truck, and SUV on a dynamometer (a treadmill for a car) inside a building where weather conditions are erased from the equation. Two different tests and gas mileage estimates are performed for each vehicle. There is a city test, designed to represent everyday city driving and there is a highway test, designed to represent driving in a rural setting. The dynamometer adds rolling resistance to the vehicle’s drive wheels to simulate the different driving conditions.

The test for city driving simulates a 7.5-mile stop-and-go trip, with an average speed of 20 mph. The trip takes 23 minutes and has 18 stops. About 18 percent of the simulated driving is spent idling. The highway test represents a mixture of ‘non-city’ driving. Highway and interstate driving simulation is designed for a distance of 10 miles at an average speed of 48 mph. There’s very little idling time and the engine is fully warmed up. After the numbers are crunched, the EPA says that it adjusts the laboratory-controlled results down by 10 percent for city driving and 22 percent for highway driving to better establish a real-world estimate. Also, note that the test data is compiled based upon tailpipe emissions, or actual waste from burned fuel, rather than the amount of fuel consumed."

In addition to controlled climate, they also don't use any accessories.


Here's an interesting Link about hybrid car efficiency, which shows why the mileage gap narrows at higher speeds.

 

It looks 31 mph is the peak.
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=15285&st=26
There is a 42 mph barrier.

Ken@Japan

 

We owned an 03 HCH for 3 years before getting our 06 Prius last month. We always liked to tweak our driving with the HCH to improve our mileage but could never get above 45MPG and usually got low 40's with normal driving. For our Prius we got 52 and 53 on our first 2 tanks, to our surprise and joy. It is easier to improve the Prius mileage because the HCH engine would not shutdown until it came to a near stop. We now get 46-48MPG without special driving. There are many thing we like better about the Prius, although we also liked our HCH very much. For us, the most important difference was the ability in the Prius to fold down the rear seat to make for more space during trips.

 

When you get down to it, it can be very difficult to compare two vehicles for gas mileage. Every car out there gets the best mileage in it's own class as long as you limit it's glass to cars that look like that car.

A VW jetta TDI if rated on mileage alone makes the Prius seem not so impressive in mileage. However, diesel fuel costs about 5% more than regular gas. Also it's smaller and has less power.

A Honda HCH is a smaller, lighter and doesn't accelerate from a standstill as well. Probably the biggest thing you can do to increase your gas mileage is to use a smaller engine and make your car smaller.

The 1973 Honda Civic easily got over 40 mgg. The 1982 Honda Civic FE got 55 mpg on the highway. This sort of makes a Prius seem less impressive. But these cars were small and had less power. ( http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Featu...articleId=68272 )

A Honda Insight more likely than not will beat out the Prius. The Insight is smaller and has less horsepower.

The fastest motorcycle can out accelerate the fastest super car and get much better mileage than a Toyota Prius.