703 miles on one tank! (finally)

Miles driven on tank 703 miles
Gallons squeezed in 11.5 gallons
Displayed mileage 59.1 MPG
Calculated mileage 61.1 MPG

Morning temps 75 degrees
Afternoon temps 95 degrees

These are US gallons in a bladder type tank. I used AC most of the time but only drove short trips when absolutely necessary. I drove 60 mph on the highway, even when the speed limit was 65. About half of the miles were highway and half were in town or on back country roads where I was able to coast effectively. At speeds below 42 on back country roads, I regularly shift to neutral for the easy coast. I have Mobil 1 in the crankcase. I have 42/40 in the tires. In cool temps when I'm alone, I crack the window and turn off the AC. On our commute I just run the AC to keep my lady comfortable. I don't think I will do this again soon.

On my next tank I am driving fast and over the speed limit and taking short trips anytime I want. I'm going to make the AC run cold and I may not coast even once. It's been fun but verging on ridiculous. This morning I drove around in my sweeties parking lot for 3 miles because she wanted to see it read 700. She told me to turn off the AC for the last 2 miles! She finally got into it, like the fan that roots for the home team in the last 2 minutes of the championship game. hehe So the test will be what the car can do without trying at all versus going all out. OK all out would have been what Wayne did at 35 mph for 967 miles with no AC. Most of what I did I will reincorporate into my driving after this next tank.
Go Prius!

 

Sorry ya'll. I meant to mention that I always set trip "B" to zero when the last bar starts blinking and on this tank it read 134 miles at fillup. I may have been able to squeeze in the other 1/2 gallon or so but the initial click off was at 10.5 gallons. I trust the mfd more than the accuracy of the fillup. I also wanted to say that the car has 11,000 miles on it now.

OK, now for the flipside. This weekend I started the wasteful tank. I have travelled 220 miles and did everything wrong, including sitting in the parking lot in the hot afternoon sun with the AC running to stay cool while the engine started a few times to keep the battery charged. I made a dozen short trips of just a couple of blocks. I drove 77 on cruise for over 100 miles and even hit 85 a few times. I floored it numerous times and was so close to the traffic ahead that I often had to brake inefficiently. It was so hard to maintain this agressive behaviour that, until last April, was just my normal driving style. I got to my destinations less than my now normal Prius calm self and my passengers were ready to get back to the Prius style as well after complaining about the slow pace for the last 5 months.

The results so far are an average of 41.2 MPG at 220 miles. I will post more later including how much time we shave off the commute with the aggressive style of driving.

I am sure that my brakes and tires as well as all the other components of the drive train will last longer with the conservative style and that is if I avoid accidents. 50 is safer than 60 is safer than 70 is safer than 80. I noticed that my SOC ranged from 1 bar to 6 bars with the agressive style while tne conservative style usually sees an SOC ranging from 4 to 7 bars. This tells me that even the battery will last longer when driven conservatively. The engine really gets loud and sounds strained when there is only 1 or 2 bars. Well, that is all for now. Go Prius!

 

The flipside results.(Driving for low mileage)

Well I just finished the drive like a maniac tank and I'm glad it's over. It is stressful to try to achieve the lowest possible mileage. I was only passed a few times all week. I took many short trips. I tried to drive 7 mph over the limit and sometimes much more and I raced away from every light. The one thing that kept driving my mileage up was my 30 mile one way commute. Even with lots of short errands and racing around the long trips kept bringing the MPG back up. The AC on high helped to knock it down some but I just couldn't win with that long commute. So here are the results.

508 miles at 44.2 MPG. I filled up with 11.9 gallons which cancelled out the discrepancy the other way on the previous tank. I think stopping at 11.5 gallons would have calculated out right and left the tank at the same level as the previous fillup. So no matter how hard I tried to waste gas, the Prius got triple the mileage of my old F-150 and when I try for mileage, The car gets four times the MPG.

The commute in the morning takes 45 minutes on the 59 MPG tank and 40 minutes on the 44 MPG tank. The wear and tear on the vehicle adds additional operating expense as well so it's back to a modest 56 MPG style of driving for me. I always feel much more laid back and relaxed at the end of a drive in Prius mode and that is the best part of all.
Go Prius

 

Combine your trips. Run your errands in the pleasant temp. time of day. Don't be in a hurry. Very important to use the brakes as little as possible. If you anticipate the lights ahead, you can coast much further and brake less. I use neutral below 42 mph when coasting to a light or down a gradual hill etc. Others have warned against this but I have heard nothing that convinced me not to use this method. Don't be in a hurry. Avoid speeds above 60 or 65 mph. Try not to run on battery alone except in rare occasions. It is much more efficient to accellerate with the ICE. Don't be in a hurry to get to the red light up ahead. No arrows are good arrows. Minimize use of the electric motor. Use slow starts in the morning until car is warmed up to minimize running down the battery because the ECU tries to run on electric when the car is cold even though the engine is running. 42/40 in the tires. Mobil1 in the crankcase, below the full mark. Don't be in a hurry. Listen to NPR. Don't vote republican. OOPS, I think I may have started to ramble. Enjoy!