2 things, love my 2006, highway mileage?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clifford @ Apr 30 2006, 11:57 PM) [snapback]247775[/snapback]</div>

As the EPA says your mileage may vary....

I'm outside Orlando, most of the area is pretty flat. Picked up my prius Wed, Thursday had to drive to Tampa (about 100 miles, mostly highway). Temps in the mid to upper 80's, sunny, and no window tinting yet!

On my way out to Tampa most of the trip was open road, moderate traffic. Using cruise control and A/C on nonstop one setting below medium got according to display about 48mpg pretty consistantly. Most of the time I was cruising between 60 and 75, more around 65 than not.

On my way home I hit Orlando's rush hour, speed up to about 40, slow down almost right away to almost stop, repeat for 45 minutes to cover 15 miles. Display read 60mpg. Still learning with less than 500 miles on it.

First tank 355 miles, 48 mpg overall. Warm weather seems to really help from what I have read in the postings, but why after reaching operating temp should air temp matter?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clifford @ Apr 30 2006, 11:57 PM) [snapback]247775[/snapback]</div>

How fast were you driving? At highway speeds (70 mph) at that tempurature over flat terrain I get 47 or 48 mpg.

Tom

 

What are your tires inflated to??? Use 42 front and 40 rear. Also you might want to change the oil to full synthetic. with the synthetic and tires set as above Ive been averaging 55 in the stop and go and back road 30 50 MPH driving. Yesterday I drove to Newport RI and back to Boston along with some driving around Newport, with my highway speeds in the low 70's and my MPG was 48.6 overall. I have just over 1500 miles on my 2006. I did use the AC on part of the trip as needed.

 

I hate to go on the freeway it thrashes my mpg. I don't get on the freeway often and have not learned a best way to manage freeway driving. Two things that I do is slow down. I use the cruse control. I suspect that if I tried a bit harder managing the hills I would do better. Cruse control does not do hills to the best mpg but works way to hard to maintain speed. I get between 51-53 on the freeway now. Not much flat here in Western Washington.

 

My highway mileage just took a big jump this past weekend. My highway mpg has been in the low 40's. I suspect something just got broken in. I had to whip out the cell phone camera while driving on Saturday because I couldn't figure out how I was getting a few maximum bars while cruising along at 65. My tires are at 40 front, 38 rear. I've had it for almost 2 months and it's at just over 2,000 miles. My overall average on this tank is way down because of lots of short trips.

My guess is that your mpg might still improve as you put on the mileage.

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clifford @ Apr 30 2006, 11:57 PM) [snapback]247775[/snapback]</div>

Check your tyre pressures, and your hand-brake.

If those two are OK, then it was your vehicle speed, or wind (presuming a round trip). I benefit from 5000 ft elevation that gives me an extra 1 -3 mpg at highway speeds, and easily get 60 mpg at 60 mph.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clifford @ May 1 2006, 09:53 PM) [snapback]248294[/snapback]</div>

In Aug/05 I drove from Orlando Fl to Bryan Tx on 2 tanks of fuel, (75-85mph w/cruise) I have the 04 prius, I was getting some killer mileage, I recently changed tires went to 195.60R15, wow lets just say it dropped my mpg avarage to 43mpg. Where as before with the stock Goodyear integritys I was averaging 58 city / 47 hwy..

Can't wait till the new tires wear out.....

 

What type of tires?
.
_H*

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clifford @ May 1 2006, 09:53 PM) [snapback]248294[/snapback]</div>

Seventy-four to 83MPH?! I can't imagine your mileage improving much if you continue at those speeds! I recommend leaving home a few minutes early and using the slow lane if you're really concerned about improving your fuel economy.

 

"Could be head winds or hind winds or side winds I am not sure but there was wind!"

I can vouch for YMMV...especially with South Dakota wind!

150 mile trip in...easily...40 MPH sustained winds, gusting above that at times...about 30 degrees F...fairly uphill from 1,000 ft to 3,300 ft (over the 150 miles, so very even)...3 people on board...doing 65 MPH...36 MPG!! With my 8 mile combined city/highway commute (over 4 days worth) to finish the tank, it ended up at 41 MPG.


Same trip in warmer temps and somewhat milder winds (say, 20 MPH)...47 MPG.

Just like in real estate...location matters, or in this case conditions matter.

And it seems all the other cars out there are unaffected by these things! Most everyone I tell these types of things, just tell me their car gets 40 MPG on the highway all the time. Yeah, right, just quote your best possible day...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ May 1 2006, 07:05 PM) [snapback]248306[/snapback]</div>

Part of the difference may simply be due to the different tire sizes. Check the revs/mile for the new tires. The OEM Goodyears do 833 revs per mile. If your new tires have fewer revs per mile, the MPG reading will be lower.

 

Here are my average, mostly flat, almost no wind mpgs:
40mph = 80+mpg
54mph =54 mpg
65mph = 51 mpg
75mph = 46 mpg
80mph = 42 mpg (break in mph, 800 mile trip)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(200Volts @ May 3 2006, 04:03 PM) [snapback]249230[/snapback]</div>

I just did a 300 mile highway trip from western Massachusetts to central Maine, averaging around 65 mph at around 50 degress F. Got 52 mpg, which is right on target with 200volts' averages (above).

One thing very interesting: I took delivery of the car last January and immediately put on Michelin X-Ice snow tires. With those tires, the car averaged around 54 mpg for the kind of driving I do. As the weather warmed up in March, the mileage went up. One tank of gas then yielded 56 mpg according to the display computer. BUT when I put the OEM tires back on in April, the mileage went DOWN by about 2 mpg. That was an unpleasant surprise! I can't wait (but I will) to get rid of them and buy some low-resistence tires. Too bad Toyota didn't have the sense to use low-resistance OEMs. Oh, well.

 

I've found that the MPG on the display does NOT correlate well with actual MPG as calculated by miles and fillups. mostly it's lower , but on occasion higher..... ????
tire pressure is key!

 

As you already know, driving at the speeds you drive really is the answer.

Ask yourself this - WHY do you drive at those speeds?

I used to drive a Jeep and would drive 80-90 or even faster on occasion. When I got the Prius, I saw the light (and the fuel economy) and changed my driving. I occasionally when I'm in a rush push 75-80, but my normal crusing speed is between 60 (in thicker traffic) - 75. I tend to stay in the middle on a 3 lane highway or sometimes even to the right.

I have not noticed any difference in how long it takes me to get places. The only thing I've noticed is how much happier I am driving.

 

Hi Clifford,

Just in case somebody else did not mention this, check the oil level. Too much oil creates extra engine crank housing heat.

Another guy had bad handling. He found the alignment was poor. A wife of a Toyota tech chimed in and said this the shipping handling can sometimes knock the front ends out of alignment and her husband has fixed this on a few cars. The mis-allignment would effect higher speed driving drag, especially toe-in.

But, it could just be wear in. I saw allot of improvement week after week up to 2500 miles, and since then its started to flatten out. Now at 3000 miles on my 2006 bought in early Febuary. Last 3 tanks have been above 54 mpg in the tollway shuffle. Starting this latest tank out right, thanks to steady and slow traffic. 55.3 mpg for 48 miles so far.

On a side note I fill up in two weeks at 9.3 gallons, versus every week at 8.0 gallons with the ol SL2. Which is a 41 percent improvement in fuel consumption.