I have been thinking of taking the plunge since the fall of '05...several things sidetracked that decision but that's beside the point. Current situation: I have 2 paper routes that together are approx 170 miles. The main route takes around 4 1/2 hours and is 80 miles in length ( 25 neighborhood and 55 rural). It consists mostly of 2 lane roads and highway, fairly flat with a few rolling hills. On a recent trip using a GPS tracker it showed it was stopped for 14 minutes of the 4 1/2 hrs and had an average speed in the 17mph range with a top speed of 76mph over a 6 mile uninterrupted stretch of highway. I basically drive between 15 to 35 mph with lots of coasting, very few harsh starts or stops. The second route is 3 3/4 hours long over much of the same area with a total distance of 90 miles with many less stops and approx 35 miles of uninterrupted driving in 5 and 7 mile chunks. Being an everyday grind, though at a fairly leisurely pace...doesn't really save time to be in a hurry.... So questions... How well would a Pruis hold up under this type of daily activity? What type of gas mileage would you expect to get with this type of driving with a Prius? A few added bits of information...location Ada, Oklahoma...with a temperature variance ranging in the low 90's with occasional 100's daytime and 70's at night during May-Oct and 50's daytime and 30's night late Nov- Mar... Your comments, opinions, and suggestions are greatly appreciated... thanks dave
Sounds like ideal to perfect conditions for the car. Taxis are lasting over 250,000 miles without major repairs.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(redbug @ May 16 2007, 04:12 PM) [snapback]443760[/snapback]</div> I can tell you that I wouldn't be without a Prius, if I were in the delivery business. Low speed most of the time should give excellent mileage. Actually, now that I have one, I wouldn't be without my Prius in any case. Dave M.
Seriously your situation seems like a perfect one to make the best use of the Prius. My thinking is you will be like many of us and find once you have one, you'll wonder why you waited so long and never want to drive anything else.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(redbug @ 2007 May 16 4:12 PM) [snapback]443760[/snapback]</div> Wow, that's quite the paper route. Even I wouldn't ride my bike on that one every day. I think a Prius would do just fine, and you might find an EV button to be especially useful. You should be able to master the pulse and glide technique in no time.
Just think of how many teenage boys you're putting out of work by delivering all those newspapers! I wouldn't have been able to waste all my time and money at the video arcade when I was a kid if I didn't have my paper route... And where would I be now? Actually I'd probably be better off I imagine you'd do the same as the rest of us on that drive: low-to-mid 40's if you don't think twice about how you drive, and 50+ if you adopt some new driving techniques (about which you can learn quite a lot here at PriusChat).
Greetings Dave, Myself and a co-worker have been using our '05 Prius's to deliver the US Mail on rural routes here in Wisconsin. The cars perform great year round including nasty winter weather and hot/humid summer weather. I've achieved as good as 42 mpg, but average around 35 mpg doing the route. (50 -55 mpg when I'm hauling my kids instead of mail) I do use the Coastal EV mod when moving only a few feet at a time between mailboxes, but using "Pulse and Glide" is the most efficient method. Another GREAT benefit is that the brake pads last much longer than other vehicles due to regenerative braking. I was lucky to get 5K miles out of the brakes on conventional buggies in the past. I just hit 30K and my original Prius pads are just fine still! Click the link below and scroll down the thread to view some pics: http://priuschat.com/Introducing-the-Wisco...rum-t28395.html Timm
