I am aveaging about 54 mpg when doing freeway driving for a legth of time, say 2 hours. Driving around town for the same approx time it looks like I just break 38 mpg. It was my understanding the prius gets better gas milage driving locally. Is this a unique situation?
I don't think this is unique at all. I think your (my/our) experience with MPGs in different types of driving vs. the EPA estimates is that our driving behavior more closely approximates the EPA tests when we're on the highway. City driving is always less than the extreme ideal of the EPA test, but highways give us the chance to drive under conditions more like the test conditions.
I have always gotten better mileage on freeways and secondary roads than I have gotten in the city. I think that constant driving at 45-60 MPH with few stops and gentle hills gets the best mileage in the car. It has time to warm up and is at its best!
It all really jsut comes down to driving styles... if you take any two people and stick them on the freeway and tell them to go at about the same speed in the same cars, they'll get the same mileage. stick them on city streets, however, and the results will differ, possibly even dramatically. so much depends on the way you accellerate from a stop, or brake/coast to a stop. And the EPA tests definately don't simulate that very well.
We average 55 to 60 mpg on our secondary roads, while we get 47 or 48 mpg on the highway doing 70 mph. Our secondary roads are fairly flat (just rolling hills), with a speed limit of 55, which means we are usually driving 45 to 55 mph. We seem to get the best mileage at close to 45 mph. Tom
There are a lot of potential to improve gas mileage at below 42 mph. During the 112 mpg world record, she never drove on highway with that tank. http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=23380 Ken@Japan
My mpg is ruined by highway driving. When I go highway which is most of the time I can't get much over 55 mpg generally. On city type streets under 40 mph I can often break over 70. Depends mostly on how many times I have to stop per mile. Even one extra stop is costly.
Depends on which part of the city I'm in. If I'm in the downtown core, I'll drain my battery and lose mpgs but if I'm in the suburbs, I can maintain a good reading.
It all depends on your driving style and conditions in town. If you can keep moving without alot of stops and starts you could do better. I manage to get many segments at 100 if I can keep it moving at a steady 25 rather than rush up to a light and have to accelerate. I'm now up to 48.5 average over most of my 10,800 miles. ( I don't reset)
