Being somewhat of a creature of habit, I often drive my o6 thru the city to get better gas mileage. But decide to take beltway with no stop and go, to get back home, it dropped the mileage down slightly . I'm thinking a few miles loss is ok, like most cars, the Prius will have more wear and tear, from city driving. Anyone have any thoughts on this . My whole trip was 30 miles, got 55mpg overall. Last quarter was on the beltway.
If I had a choice I would bypass the city. Just like buying tires for a Prius. Buy what you like. So you get a little drop in the gas mileage. Doesn't make a lot of difference because the Prius is still going to get great gas mileage. Just my outlook.
That's the point. I live in a Chicago suburb. Would I drive straight through the city if I could drive around it? Not a chance. I would drive around it.
unfortunately, around here, with the ocean on one side, going around the city isn't any better than going thru it.
Thanks to all, will do more bypassing the city when I can, when in my area. Both the previous owner and myself put most miles on this car from out of town trips. So hopefully that will keep the car going longer. I may go out of town once a month on a 600 mile round trip, the rest of the time I run errands in it, and put on charger when needed. I drive it around every 2 to 3 days. My 9 to 5 vehicle is a Tundra, not to worry it's not the huge one.
I often get better mileage on urban highways than in city driving. If the speed stays below 55 mph or so, the highway MPG can surpass the city, due to the more constant velocity. My highest MPG averages were on the highway, in relatively heavy traffic in the summertime, "playing accordion" with the traffic to keep speed as constant as possible. I would definitely bypass the city if it's not too much further in distance. There's also less chance of getting into an accident on the highway, provided you leave enough following distance not to get in trouble in a traffic compression wave.
Less chance of getting into an accident and being less stressful in bypassing a city are the big factors for me.
To stay in the flow on our beltway here, you have to stay about 65. It is not below 55, but as stated before the mpg is still awesome. Was returning from my trip recently coming into Raleigh on I-40 where average speed is 70. I passed a Prius that was going a bit slower, I was happy to go 70, to blend with traffic better. Plus I wanted to get home.
