I'm new here and was reading some of the fuel economy threads and seem to be a bit confused on something. From what I understand the Prius should get better city mpg then hwy mpg. But after reading some of the threads it seems as though some of you who drive a majority of hwy miles notice a decrease in mpg when you hit stop and go traffic. Can someone help me understand this? My boyfriend just purchased an 05 prius and I have been strongly considering doing the same, I drive 45 miles one way to work and I would say about 70% of it is stop and crawl hwy traffic. Thanks for any input! Amity
The city being better than the highway numbers put out by the EPA are a bit misleading. Everything depends upon the driving style, frequency of stops and starts. Aggressiveness of acceleration, aggressiveness of braking, whether the trips are short or long, whether you're using A/C or not. A modest steady speed will produce very good FE no matter what. Depending upon the type of "city" driving you do you may get very good FE or you may be a little disappointed compared to the EPA 60mpg number. I'd say that driving style and technique are much more important for city driving if one desires to achieve optimum FE...learning to anticipate stops and slow-downs in traffic and just accelerating modestly go a long way to optimizing ones FE in the city.
"City" and "stop and go" aren't necessarily synonymous. True stop and go (e.g, traffic jam conditions) takes a toll on any car's gas mileage, Prius included. However, Prius will still do better than most cars because the engine doesn't run when it doesn't need to. Prius shines in urban or suburban driving at speeds of 40 MPH or below and where steady progress is interrupted only by the occasional red light or stop sign. It's in those conditions that you can probably expect better mileage than at steady highway speeds, though highway MPG is still quite respectable.
In Chicago rush hour highway (stop and crawl) traffic I can easily get over 60 MPG for 6-8 miles in the summer. Extend that to 15 miles it would not be easy to reach 60 MPG. Your driving style has a lot to do with it. Wayne
Thanks for the responses. I would say that the traffic conjestion keeps me at 5 to 40mph (if im lucky). Then I do have some city driving with speeds of around 45mph hour with semi frequent stop lights. And after the city driving its on the freeway again for about 10 miles doing 70 mph. I just want to gather as much info as possible before I make the final decision on trading in my current car or not.
First of all . . . how rude of everyone for not saying . . . WELCOME TO PRIUSCHAT SASSY! The Prius also loves the hills. At ~1,200 feet (Lake Elsinore), you will notice that the Prius gets good gas mileage going uphill, and stupendous mileage going downhill. In the hills it all tends to average out to higher gas mileage than in the flatlands -if you drive to take advantage of the hilly conditions.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Apr 27 2007, 02:57 PM) [snapback]431292[/snapback]</div> WELCOME TO PRIUSCHAT SASSY! Who's rude?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Apr 27 2007, 02:57 PM) [snapback]431292[/snapback]</div> I don't think this is exactly true. All things being equal, you can't recover all of the energy used to go up hill on the downhills. I realize that you can glide downhill without using gas, but you expend more gas on the uphill side than you would if you were to travel the same total horizontal distance on flat terrain (assuming no change in total elevation in either scenario). That said, the Prius certainly performs much better than any traditional vehicle in hilly terrain. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but it would seem to defy the laws of physics otherwise.
Hi Sassy... and Welcome aboard In 2½ years, a 2004 Prius traded for a 2007 Prius, I have consistently achieved better fuel economy on the highways and freeways than city driving. Could be my driving habits but on the highways and freeways I usually get 48-55 MPG cruising at 60-70 MPH, in the city 42-45 MPG. In any case, I'm at least doubling my MPG over our 2nd car, a Toyota Camry. EPA has clearly acknowledged that their formulas are outdated and weren't designed for "real world" driving conditions and beginning with the 2008 production models the EPA ratings will be radically different, nearer to "real world" results. You have a great car... ENJOY
I tend to find the Hwy mileage better, especially when I use Cruise Control. It just happens that way.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Apr 27 2007, 02:57 PM) [snapback]431292[/snapback]</div> It would defy the laws of physics if you got better FE in the hills than on flatlands, unless you have a strange driving style. Hills always have more distance to cover than flatlands. I'm sure you remember what a hypotenuse is don't you. The hypotenuse is always longer than the legs in any triangle. Just based on that simply math you can see how it's impossible to get better FE in the hills than on flatlands. That may be some fuzzy logic there, but ohh well. It's also why when you get 10 MPG for 1 mile, then 99 MPG for the next mile the average isn't 59.5 MPG, it's 18.2 MPG. So even though you don't really use gas on the downhill part, you more than make up for that on the uphill. Going uphill means you are fighting gravity, friction, as well as aero drag. On flatlands you are just fighting friction and aero drag.
Hey Sassy... Welcome to PC! I'm out your way in Corona. I drive 45 miles to work to Torrance every day. Most of my driving is on the 91 freeway in the carpool lanes. Barring an accident, I'm pretty much going 65 miles or faster. I've been averaging about 46 mpgs during the winter. During the summer I was actually getting higher at about 50 mpgs.
I also get significantly better MPG on freeway than in the city. Freeway is 65 MPH, averages about 50 MPG (cruise control) City is 45 MPH, but shorter trips (10 miles is long), so that hurts a lot.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eclectcmoi @ Apr 27 2007, 05:33 PM) [snapback]431388[/snapback]</div> Ahh someone who knows my pain of the 91!! Unfortunately if I get a prius I'm almost positive that I wont be seeing the advantage of a carpool lane, dang them for limiting those stickers! On a side note: Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU! to everyone who's been so prompt at replying. Just paid my gas card and I'm at the point where I'm really not sure how exactally I'm going to be paying for gas the next 2 weeks! Yet at the same time I'm not 150% convinced I should trade in my current car yet. But once again, thank you!!!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alexstarfire @ Apr 27 2007, 02:32 PM) [snapback]431370[/snapback]</div> That doesn't apply here as the distance you are measuring is actually along the hypotenuse - it is a longer distance but the odometer is measuring that longer distance. kevin <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Highly ImPriused @ Apr 27 2007, 12:39 PM) [snapback]431322[/snapback]</div> It may be able to get fuel economy if the engine is operating at a more efficient load than if on a level road - it is similar to an automatic "Pulse and Glide". kevin
