I bought my Prius about a week ago and love that it delivers the mpg stated on the window sticker. It has many visuals that help to milk the mpgs. Yesterday, I put it to the real test by driving up to Boone, NC. I was not sure what to expect since it involves a good bit of hills. It was only me in the vehicle and the outside temps were in the mid 40's. On the highway driving up I drove 60 mph or less even tho the speed limit was 65. My mpg was around 47. Then I got to the major incline. I had to put the pedal to the floor a few times to get enough effort out of the car to make it up the hills at about 45 mph. The mpgs started falling quickly, however once I made it into town I was able to coast, drive in EV, and pulse and glide enough to bring the mpgs up some. Then when it was time to go home and back down the mountain I was surprised at how well the tranny held the speed down the hills and the mpgs began to climb back up. I ended up with 50.7 mpg compared to the 02 Honda Civic that gave me 38 mpg at best.
If you buy your car new wait until it's over 5K miles and warmer temp to smile and see the MPG is higher.
in the warmer weather you will likely get better mpg. also I keep my tires pressure at sidewall max rated pressure and I love the mpg I get in warm weather.
Yup, it's the end results that count. Putting the "pedal to the floor" is quite a different experience than with other vehicles. People think that means redlining the engine and pushing it to the extreme. With Prius, that's definitely not the case. It holds RPM well under what would happen with a traditional vehicle. So, you can drop it without the consequences. The computer figures out how to provide the requested power. It varies the draw from the battery-pack, to keep the efficiency from dropping too much. Being able to shunt electricity just created by the generator-motor to the traction-motor is a fancy optimization trick too.
It's funny that you mention fuel economy going up big hills because on my trip today when I had to step on the gas (up to 2700 rpm, not too high but still made the engine hum loud) I could still get 27 mpg, while going uphill. Meanwhile, when I had my SUV months prior, 27 mpg was my fuel economy just for a trip on the highway. I also inflated my tire pressure to 44 psi and I got 55 mpg on a road trip day (mostly highway). In the summer I've gotten 66 mpg for the same road trip. But the roads around here are currently a disaster. Huge holes and bumps everywhere. I almost want another snow/ice storm so that it could fill in the holes, and so people would drive slow again. You know you're in Maine when you want it to snow hard enough just to fill in the holes in the road and make the ride smoother.
