2003 miles trip Prius Review

I found this brace helped with passing semis and feeling wind pressure.
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Nice report. The 2nd Gens are truly dependable and have great mpg.

 

Awesome write up! Your prius seems to run differently than mine on the highway. Mine is almost always -engine powering the wheels, and topping off the battery, the battery usually only kicks in when going down and up hills. The arrows seem pretty consistent. P.s yours seems to get better milage then mine

 

I recently did a 2K mile trip on my "09 Prius.

A few things to point.

1. Avg speed always below 80 mph. Average is about 75 mph. The 90 mph sounds very rough on Prius.
2. Battery stayed at 85% full most of the time.
3. Was always refueling at 3 bars of gas.
4. The 90% was driving on cruise control.
5. Avg mpg was about 46.
6. Didn't have problem passing. If you drive fast, you might need to do a lot of passing which I hate, so I tried to follow the speed limit.

 

Just did a 300+ mile round trip from London (UK) to the Glastonbury area via Weston-Super-Mare and back. First really long distance journey of about almost 200 miles non stop.
How did my 2008 Prius T Spirit do?

*Most of the motorway part of the journey was accomplished on cruise control.
*I kept to between 65 and 68mph.
*It was a hot day (24 - 25c on the MFD) so the AC was on - set at16c, but on the lowest fan setting.
*I had no problems going up hills.
*The HV battery gauge was at least in the high blues, and occasionally would be all green (except the last top bar) for a short while - despite AC usage.
*The HSD bled off excess battery power on downward inclines, so that I was going downhill at 65mph (99mpg) with only the electric power arrows showing on the MFD.
*I'm absolutely certain that running the entire journey with AC was definitely beneficial for the HV Battery.
*On the return journey, I went a bit faster at 68mph for about half the journey. I didn't notice any appreciable impact on MPG.
*Indeed, I started the journey with 62mpg and finished with 66.2mpg and 532 miles from a tank of fuel. There were still 3 pips left.
*I'm now at 66.2mpg, 562 miles and have only 2 pips left - I might well hit 600 miles before I refuel.
*The Prius IS a very good cruiser, and at times, it felt like I was flying a private jet, not driving a car.
*Tyre noise depended on the road surfaces - some were very quiet, others produced a roar.


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First, I'm noticing 25C = 77F is a "hot day"! It was over 32C here this week! Still warm enough for A/C though.

Also, I'm assuming your 66.2mpg is imperial, giving 55.1 mpg-US. Given that assumption, it brings it right in line with good highway cruising for my vehicle as well. The battery-only for downhill was likely a power glide or "warp stealth", where the engine is spinning some without fuel but the system applies electric power to more or less offset the drag.

I would be scared to try for 600 miles on a tank! But my understanding is you don't have the fuel bladder in the UK? So you can more reliably guess that there's really 11.9 gallons in there at full.

 

Just to let you know that I was finally able to get 628 miles out of that tank of fuel. I had 66.5mpg indicated, and it took just over 43 litres to fill up the tank again. For me, that's a new record. And to put it into context, my old 1998 Mazda MX-3 1.6i used to give me only 230 miles before it needed refuelling. My last tank was about 575 miles @ 62.5mpg - though I did fill up before the last pip started flashing.

Overall, this is indeed a very impressive vehicle, but the truth is, to achieve these types of MPG results requires driving to an entirely new set of rules and discarding some old ways of driving that we've learned from driving fossil fuelled vehicles.

Like a Glider pilot learns to take advantage of air thermal layers in the sky, so we Prii pilots learn to take advantage of favourable inclines on the road, and momentum from energy produced by the ICE. We learn to glide powerlessly where possible, and feather the throttle where applicable to still fly along at say 55mph while getting 99mpg on the MFD while the ICE is running!

We don't have to be slow to get these kinds of figures - however, you quickly realise that you've become another ECU in your Prius, albeit a biological one

 

Comes out to ~55 mpg-US, very nice!

You're absolutely right about the new driving style. Unfortunately, I occasionally make trips that require driving to make good time rather than being overly concerned with MPG (which is how I usually drive). I recently drove a 1200-mile round trip (600 miles in one day there, 600 back a week later). Making such a long trip in one day, I find it more important to make decent time and cruise at 75 mostly (usually crested hills around 70, some bigger ones even slower, while driving down hills at 1500 RPM or 85mph, whichever was slower) and make pretty good time while being somewhat conscious of fuel economy and vehicle health. I found I could get pretty good economy (~45 MPG) with this technique while averaging ~75 mph for the trip. Sadly, to make my preferred economy, the trip would be over two hours longer, and I'd be a hazardously slow vehicle in 70mph speed limit zones.

 

Go ahead, speak Geek, I still respect y'all. One day Ill need your know-how, but for now, I'll just be be me.
- just got my beautiful sheepskin seat covers and a sheepskin steering wheel cover. Gray. All gray. So perfect. So pretty. My interior is all gray. I haven't covered my back seat, but being that it is leather, And I rarely have passengers, I just may leave it bare.

Adieu for now. Luv my Prius!!!


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