Does anyone drive their Prius 'normal'?

habitual speeder here. i did drive nice for a while, but switching cars with my husband for a few months brought out the serious leadfoot again. regular commute in town gets me upper 40s, i'm sure i could easily beat 50 if i actually let up on the gas pedal once in a while.

cross country trips get us 40-43 mpg depending on the season, we usually clock through the countryside at 75-80 (cough or higher cough).

there's a lot to what kind of mpg you get beyond what kind of driver you are though. maybe you could rent one for a day or 2 and test it on your regular drive?

 

I drive my Prius normal. I have always have had a heavy foot. Used to drive a Nissan Armada with a big V8. It was pretty quick. My wife has an Infiniti G35 that is downright fast. I live in Arizona where speeds on the highways can get up to 85mph or more. I don't hold back with my Prius.

Bottom line: my mpg averages to the low 40s. Usually right around 42 or 43. I have only had the car a few weeks so I expect with some more miles, it will loosen up and the mpg may get a little better. This is way better than what I got in my Armada which averaged between 13 and 14 mpg.

A lot of Prius owners make a game about trying to get the best mpg. Nothing wrong with that. It is hot rodding, just a different kind of hot rodding.

 

If by driving normal, you still mean that you would be obeying all of the traffic laws then yes you should have no problem staying around 40mpg. I find that if I just drive it I am around 43 to 45 mpg in town in the winter here. However I can easily keep a tank around 50 mpg by playing the game with MFD. I look forward to even better numbers as the weather warms. But you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Normal? As in treating the throttle like an on/off switch, and making the tires beg for mercy? Nah.

 

Welcome to PriusChat! It depends on what your "normal" style of driving is? My normal was 80-90mph on the highway to keep up with michigan traffic. My 52mpg @ 70mph Florida trip did take some attention to keep the RPM below 2300 so I would not call it 'normal' blind driving. If I turn my displays off and ignore my PriusChat knowledge my mileage would be around 46MPG. This is what others achieve (when I let them drive my car) also. You should have no trouble beating 40MPG.
-Scott

 

I think it's hard not to average at least 40 mpg.

I believe the 2008 EPA average of 46 mpg is fairly accurate for the "normal" driver.

If there's going to be a killer to your mpg it probably will not be be fast acceleration or high speeds, but lots of cold starts/short trips.

 

after you buy one, you'll try to beat the mileage you had the day before. Then you'll build on that, and even if you turn off the displays, eventually you'll have to turn 'em back on and see how you're doing. Hay, you could do worse than saving gas and polluting less.

Welcome to the addiction............

 

I have a 140 mile round trip commute and drive "normally"
My commute takes me from the high desert, over a small mountain range (elev. 4500') down to sea level.
It's a hurry up and wait type of commute. While on the 14 FWY, if I'm not doing at least 75, people will start tailgating me. Once I hit the 405 it's all about inching along in stop and go traffic. The same is true on my way home.
My current average is 48MPG. Although the Prius is supposed to get better mileage in traffic, I find the opposite to be true in my case. Maybe because the traffic lasts for so long, that the batteries don't get a chance to recharge without the use of the ICE.

 

I drive my Prius just like I do any other car. For me that means driving the speed limit and trying to time lights. In the summer I average 56 mpg on our local roads. On the highway I average 47 mpg at 70 mph. In the winter those numbers drop to 47 and 44. Note that the highway mileage doesn't suffer as much from the cold.

Tom

 

I drive 135 miles round trip every day between Ventura and Los Angeles. My trip varies between going up and down grades, stop and go traffic and dealing with the usual crazy L.A. traffic. I drive "normally" and easily average between 45-49 mpg without trying to increase the mileage at all. Not too shabby .....

 

Brian,
You will find that your definition of normal will change after getting your Prius. You will have no problem getting MPG's in the 40's. After a while this car seems to get under your skin and change some of your driving habits.

One of the major factors has to do with braking. Whe you let up on the gas the car goes into regenerative braking and in many cases will slow you down to where you want to be without even touching the brakes. This teaches you to try to time traffic signals to avoid using the brakes. Also with this feature your brakes will last much longer.

Go for it, you will enjoy it regardless of how you drive.

 

An interesting omission from the subject title...

HERE is hardly representative of the typical owner. We are enthusiasts & supporters here, a "small" group of devotees. After all, most owners don't participate in online discussions about their vehicle.

JUST DRIVE IT is the motto for the typical. Those are the owners that, at most, do a few online searches for Prius content. They're the ones I hope to at least catch their brief attention long enough for a download of the User-Guide. Beyond that, they just enjoy the drive.

.

 

69mph is a sweet spot for highway. last week i made a 200 mi trip and kep it at 69-70 with cruise on. My mpg was about 49.7 anything over 70 though will be lower from what i have seen. If you gun it, or dont feather foot pedal at all or try to coast at least to light's your mpg will be in the mid 40's or lower.

 

69mph is a sweet spot for highway. last week i made a 200 mi trip and kep it at 69-70 with cruise on. My mpg was about 49.7 anything over 70 though will be lower from what i have seen. If you gun it, or dont feather foot pedal at all or try to coast at least to light's your mpg will be in the mid 40's or lower.

 

What is "normal" anyway? LOL. I live in RURAL Montana. 67 miles to the closest town. That is where I work! So, it's a decent commute on a two lane rd that is all up and down. During the day, when I am in a hurry to get to work, I set the cruise at 70 (and still get passed!) and get about 40-45 mpg depending on the weather. At 4am on my way home, I have the whole rd to myself, so I have to admit I play the game with the MFD! it is fun to see the little green cars stack up, and that mileage just go up, up, up! (to about 50-54mpg) I am still new at driving the car, and the commute, but I am sure it will get better as I break in my new "yota!"

 

Switching from mildly agressive (fastest two lanes, 10-15mph over the posted limit) driving in a 1995 Subaru Legacy L (2.2L, AWD, 140hp, 5 speed manual tranny) to sedate (speed limit, two right lanes) got me from 22mpg to 50mpg.

Switching my driving style in my 1995 got me to 30mpg.

So the first 8 mpg (~30%) improvement is pure driving style. The next 20 mpg (~90%) improvement is purely from the technology of the 2004-current Prius.

Regarding driving style: if you have multiple lanes to use, do the math to determine the difference between 55mph, 65mph, and 75mph; on my 25mi commute in Southern California, it was less than 5 minutes. I found that well worth the relief from worries of speeding tickets, and the general mellowness of just cruising along without looking for the next gap in traffic.

I'd consider myself mostly a "normal" driver; I accelerate briskly to the speed limit, then use the cruise control as much as I can. I see anything from low 40s (on 75-80mph rural interstates in the desert southwest, at 5000+ft elevation) to low 50s (long 55mph secondary highway miles, or 45mph arterials).

Either way, I'd say "just drive it" and see how amazing the milage is. If you want to put the effort into the hypermiling techniques, well, the sky is the limit. (Well, at least 100+mpg, but you'll be pissing some people off at that point.)

Happy driving!

 

"Normal"?? I know I have modified my driving habits since purchasing my Prius. Still, I would frequently find ways to better regulate my driving when I drove an Altima. The big differences?: I can truly and easily coast with the Prius and I can take visual cues from the MFD to allow me to drive at a farily high efficienty.

I know that I accelerate at a much more even clip when driving my Prius. I also pay even more attention to MPGs because of the MFD. The instantaneous feedback really has made a difference in how I drive.

You can see my lifetime MPGs below. Please note that this number represents about 2.5 months of late summer/early fall and 5.5 months of cool to frigid weather. My three most recent tanks all have been above the 50 MPG mark, so I believe I am doing fairly well and getting back on track. I expect it will be a couple of months before I get my overall average back obove 50.0.

 

yes i avg 42mpg drive about 100miles/day with 90+% of it on freeway
one of the reasons why i bought a prius, u can still drive how you normally would and still save gas...period

only thing i do differently is use the cruise control as often as i can, since it will help in economy just a bit