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First Major Road Trip Results

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by aubergaz, May 22, 2006.

  1. aubergaz

    aubergaz New Member

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    Started a thread on 5/17 re a proposed trip to California from Phoenix.

    The results are in, and generally I was very pleased.

    PHX to the Queen Mary, exactly 400 miles from our 'gas up' in PHX just before we hit the road. 49.8 on the gauge. Included about 4 stops for food and some picture taking by the windmills outside of Palm Springs. Speeds from 70-80 mph on the freeways until we hit LA. Then some pretty heavy traffic. (made a pit stop outside of Palm Springs near a George Patton museum, gas was $3.619 for unleaded, needless to say we didn't 'top off'.)

    Trip from Queen Mary to San Diego yielded over 53 mpg because we took the scenic route along Pacific Coast Hwy. Much lower speeds going through Beach communities. Then some stop and go in and around the downtown San Diego area.

    About 49 from San Diego to Palm Springs. Some pretty severe upgrades at highway speeds. NAV system sent us through some beautiful backroads that also yielded some good mileage. Climbs not too severe and speeds a little less than freeway norms on that section.

    About 48.7 from Palm Springs to Blythe, Ca on return. Then BAD mileage (40.4) from Blythe into Phoenix. Steep climb from California border to just outside PHX most of it at 75mph just to keep up with traffic. Never caught back up to earlier numbers, but still have about 3/4 of a tank to go.

    Some other observations. This is my 1st NAV system and while I see a lot of criticism on the website here, I was pretty impressed. Some flaws. But generally found it to be reliable and accurate. Gave me near perfect direction to both specified locations and intersections. (Only downside was between the NAV lady giving directions and my wife alerting me to the fact that I wasn't going at least 5-10 mph over the posted limit I didn't have a moment without some nice woman giving me an 'order' of one sort or another.) :blink:

    Overall a great trip. Mileage just a bit over what I was hoping for and expecting.

    One final observation. You Californians sure jumped on the Prius bandwagon!!!! Saw 10-20 each day betweeen highway and parking lot sightings.

    If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post a nice shot of the Prius by those energy generating windmills near Palm Springs.
     
    #1 aubergaz, May 22, 2006
  2. troe

    troe New Member

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    Thanks for the post, I will be going on my first long trip this thurday when I go about 300 miles from Panama City to Atlanta, I hope I can get as good a milage average as you did. That drive won't have as much of a stready clime that you did, but there are a lot of smal and not so small hills on the trip. Used to get 30 MPG on our Miata, know I can beat that, and with a lot more room for lugage. I don't have the Nav system, but I will have a nice little ladies voice reminding me to stay over the speed limits. Hope the DVD movies keep he occupied. :rolleyes:
     
    #2 troe, May 22, 2006
  3. stevedegraw

    stevedegraw Member

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    Thanks for the report, know the routes well. I've had my new 2006 two weeks. Just did a round trip of 105 miles from San Diego to Laguna Beach and we counted 38 Prius (without looking too hard and probably missing a lot them), they were mostly white ones. 52.1 mpg because we know the roads well.

    The prius has become main stream out here !
     
    #3 stevedegraw, May 22, 2006
  4. auricchio

    auricchio Member

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    You do realize that it's amusing to hear you call 40.4mpg "bad," don't you? Think about your prior car!
     
    #4 auricchio, May 22, 2006
  5. subarutoo

    subarutoo New Member

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    This weekend I did a round trip LA to Bakersfield over the Grapevine's(4100 ft pass) steep climb. I was showing 49.4 when I left home. The instant mpg readout dropped into the high teens, climbing the hill, but on the long glide down into Bakersfield, the overall returned to 49.4. I didn't realize I had left the A/C on during the climb, and had the cruise set at 73. I was quite impressed with the performance. We had more traffic comimg home, and the overall dropped to 49.1, and I didn't have the A/C on coming home. The highway performance never ceases to amaze me, while returning good mpg numbers, too. :)
     
    #5 subarutoo, May 22, 2006
  6. aubergaz

    aubergaz New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rick Auricchio @ May 22 2006, 10:28 AM) [snapback]259214[/snapback]</div>
    I agree. The term 'bad' was a relative one. My most recent vehicle was getting about 22-23 combined city highway, but was over 30 on the highway between relatively 'flat' points such as Phoenix to Tucson. Never tried it on the PHX to LA route.

    Previously I had a GM EV1. Couldn't have done a trip like this without MAJOR planning so I have no way to compare. In the city my 6 1/2 years with the EV1 was a real pleasure. I put almost 100k miles between my Gen I and Gen II versions. It cost me about a $1.00 per day to run and for a while had about a 40 mile roundtrip commute.

    In a perfect world I'd still have my EV1 for around town and would have rented a Prius for this most recent trip. Alas, it is far from a perfect world. :(

    Still haven't figured out how to post a photo here. I don't have a 'URL' for the image. How do I create one? It won't take a simple 'copy' and 'paste' command.
     
    #6 aubergaz, May 22, 2006
  7. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

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    Yesterday my wife, my friend and I went from San Diego to Anaheim, Puente Hills (to see the shopping mall where they filmed Back To The Future), Riverside, then back to Anaheim (long story) and finally returning to San Diego. 325 miles, roughly 7 hours driving and about 52 mpg. No problems either with the seats or nav system. We saw other Prii, but they didn't bother to look in our direction. Ah well. Did see a nice Packard.
     
    #7 aaf709, May 22, 2006
  8. seasidetraveler

    seasidetraveler Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(subarutoo @ May 22 2006, 04:46 PM) [snapback]259338[/snapback]</div>
    Why'd you stop in Bako? You should have come a lil farther up the 99 fwy and said hello hahaha

    I do that drive all the time over the grapevine, except I usually have the cruise set at 80mph- I normally wouldn't be going so fast, but it is such a boring drive! The drive between Fresno and Bak. is the worst- nothing but cows and crops to see and smell. The funny thing is, once you are on the LA side of the grapevine you begin to see the Prii everywhere- then as you get further into LA you would have to be blind to not see one on every corner.
     
    #8 seasidetraveler, May 22, 2006
  9. Sarge

    Sarge Senior Member

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    My wife and I took our Prius on her first road trip from Toronto to Montreal this weekend (~350 miles). Interestingly, I had very different results on each trip.

    On the way there, I averaged about 52MPG. On the way back, I averaged 'only' 43MPG (!). Both were on Cruise at approximately 72MPH, and while there were some minor uphill/downhill en route, nothing significant. I did come back with a bit heavier cargo on the way back, the ambient temp was lower (about 10 degrees), it was raining, and had a pretty strong headwind. I guess all those factors add up. <_<

    Nav worked pretty well, though I did find one street in my hometown near Montreal that was simply named wrong (?), the streetname indicated by the nav was actually a couple blocks away. Ah well... no mapping is perfect!

    - Kevin
     
    #9 Sarge, May 22, 2006
  10. subarutoo

    subarutoo New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(remaxmanager @ May 22 2006, 03:45 PM) [snapback]259420[/snapback]</div>

    I was in Bako for a family gathering. My two brothers are monster pickup drivers, and had their first Prius ride. They thought it was wierd when the engine kept dying. I went to Fresno State, so I know how exciting Clovis can be. Go Bulldogs!
     
    #10 subarutoo, May 23, 2006
  11. seasidetraveler

    seasidetraveler Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(subarutoo @ May 23 2006, 04:37 PM) [snapback]259862[/snapback]</div>

    HAHAHAHA. Small world. Yes, Clovis is VERY exciting! I am from Ventura County (Thousand Oaks), so it's kind of like a step back in time haha.
     
    #11 seasidetraveler, May 23, 2006
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