Having read a lot of threads about how to maximize mileage with the Prius, I started thinking that a good part of the advice on how to maximize mileage is just good advice. I wonder how much of the great gas mileage is the technology and how much is common sense. Of course, just having averaged 56mpg on a 350 mile trip (virtually all highway), I know the technology is a LOT of the difference, but probably not all.
Head on over to CleanMPG.com There are some incredibly intense hypermiling people over there. Some are a bit over-the-top in my humble opinion. But many of them have "regular" cars and pull incredibly impressive numbers. In case your wondering, installing switches to shut off the fuel injector in order to simulate the Prius glide is my opinion of crazy. Blasting the world record for most miles driven on a single tank of gas is brilliant. With that said, they're all a great group of people.
In my view, a "normal" car wouldn't get any gas mileage at all. A normal car shouldn't be burning gasoline! Wiithout doing anything out of the ordinary, I get infinite gas mileage in my EV.
By doing P&G on a Jetta TDI (PD), I got 5.4L/100km as a best average over several kms. The worst (out of the 3 runs) was 7.8L/100km when I was stuck in traffic + had to climb hills.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Oct 23 2006, 10:41 PM) [snapback]337152[/snapback]</div> I strongly second Tony's advice. The chat site is run by or very strongly supported by folks that won a great deal of attention by driving a Prius about 1000 miles in one weekend on one tank of gas at over 100mpg. Many of those brave, talented, and dedicated souls drive nonhybrid cars as their daily drivers. The pulse and glide technique is not unique to the Prius by any means. The Prius simply makes it much easier to turn the engine on and off automatically between pulses and glides. Of course, when using pulse and glide the way they do, use of the traction battery and hybrid system is minimized. It's amazing to see what they achieve in non-hybrid vehicles and how they do it.
