Well, recently returned from our family vacation trip and I couldn't be more happy with the results. We travelled from NE lower Michigan to southern Pennsylvania to visit the Battlefields at Gettysburg and the chocolate factory at Hershey. The crew consisted of myself, my wife and 2 teenagers. We were very comfortable and even the 2 kids in the backseat never complained of being cramped. We mostly traveled interstates and turnpikes. I tried to keep the cruise set at 67 MPH but did find myself creeping up into the lower to mid 70's at times. The whole trip we counted only 3 other Priuses on the main roads. Most of the other traffic consisted of SUV's, mini-vans and semi's. I felt a great sense of pride as the huge gas-sucking boats cruised by me. I could almost imagine the $$'s flying out of their tailpipes. Anyway, when the final results were totaled we travelled 1505 miles roundtrip and used a total of 33.2 gallons of gasoline. This works out to an average of 45.2 MPG on the trip. Not the 51 MPG that the EPA rating says but I was also travelling in excess of 70 MPH alot of the time and the roads in Pennsylvania are extremely hilly. The MPG's readouts were tough to watch as we climbed up the large hills on PENNA Turnpike 76, but then were fun to watch as we descended downward. One 15 minute interval we had 60, 80 and 99.9 on the readout. That was fun to see. What was really fun was when I got home and figured what I would have gotten if I had taken my 02 Ford Explorer on this same trip. In total I spent $81.50 averageing $2.45 per gallon of gasoline on the trip. If I had taken the Explorer and taking into account the 17.5 MPG that I traditionally have gotten on past trips I figure I would have spent over $210.00 on the same trip! The $128.50 I saved almost paid for the 3 nights we spent in hotels on the trip. Not to mention the satisfaction I got in the reduced pollution that I generated over the SUV. All in all very happy with it!
The EPA highway test is 10 miles, averaging 48 MPH never exceeding 60 MPH, moderate temps 68F - 86F, no AC, no aerodynamic drag, no hills (no actual road either ). You shouldn't be expecting 51 MPH when your minimum set speed was 67 MPH even though the EPA 'adjusts' for their lack of real world conditions. Oddly, the max speed on the city/suburban test is 56 MPH. I have NO idea who determined what city/suburban and highway mean. Certainly they didn't mean Interstate highway! They do the city test starting with a warm engine, the highway test starts cold. Of course a 'cold' engine at ambient temps of 68-86 isn't exactly the same as a 'cold' engine at -10F either! It has been very warm (for Vermont) this winter, I managed to stay above 40 MPG on every tank, mostly mid 40s. About 5 MPG higher on average than last winter. In the summer, I avg 52+ MPG. Yes, temperature does have SOME effect EPA link
I'm thinking of a 3 week trip this summer with 4 adults and have a couple of questions for you. Could you maintain an adeqaute speed on the mts. in PA? How did you manage the lugage? I take it that the seats were adequately comfortable in both front and back.
Jeff: I had no problem keeping up my speed while climbing hills. The luggage worked out well for us, although it was a fairly short trip of 4 days so we didn't need tons of luggage. Basically my 2 daughters luggage consisted of a medium size duffel bag each, which I was able to stuff in the compartment under the trunk area. My wife and I shared a large suitcase, and we had another bag full of toiletries, hairdryer, etc. Another bag of shoes, a large size laptop bag, a couple of pillows and blankets. We still had a bit of room left and still were able to pull the luggage cover over top of it all. I did sit in the back seat for about a total of 2 hours while my 15 year old got some driving time in and found the backseat to be reasonably comfortable. I found the drivers seat to be comfortable enough, although I wish there was a bit more lower back support. Hope that information helps. Steve
