topped 51 mpg

Bob,
I think it is possible. I have gotten averages in the high 50's and once 64 mpg (after I first got my tank filled), but unfortunately due to the driving conditions and lower temperatures the car was not able to sustain it. My average so far on this tank is 51.5 mpg with 250 miles. I am finding now that short trips (5 - 10 minutes) are real killers of mileage. I know this has been stated before, but when you see your average mpg drop because of a short trip, it "drives" home the point. Pun intended, sorry. At any rate, the car isn't broken in yet and warmer temperatures are on the horizon...

 

I've hit 61. I got a boost because I filled my gas tank about three minutes away from home, so some of the initial warm-up phase was wiped out of the calculation. But after that, I drove the remaining 16.5 miles to work with an average MPG of 61 on the display. Mostly between 30-45 mph, with a few traffic lights and slow spots thrown in for good measure.

I can typically get around 56 MPG for that entire (18 mile) trip.

 

I'm confident mileage is most significantly influenced by trip length. No matter what the conditions, driving for 2+ hours will surely be in the 50-60 range unless there are severe obstacles, including rain, wind, trees...

 

I completely approve of the view of Jason.
Running a long distance improves the mpg of that time, and the mpg of a total also becomes good.
I think that the Prius is a car exceeding the mpg of the catalog.
I am enjoying myself with interest most to it.

It is trying to exceed 750 miles by this tank , the first time of this year.
There are various short runs and long runs since 3/5/’04 and it is 697 miles now.
The last bar does not blink. Temperature is 40 to 60 degrees.
The number of times which ran 10 miles or more by the present tank is 20 times.
The highest is 69.8 mpg and, also at the lowest, is 55.3 mpg and 60 or more mpgs are recorded 11 times among them.

_______________________
USK Bordeaux mica 2001
20,668.29 miles / 353.55 ga. = avg. 58.5 mpg 3/5/04

 

Last week it was reading ove 74 mpg!
My drive to work is largely downhill and I had just filled up the night before and reset the calculator. By the time I needed a fillup tonight I was getting about 51.5.
Still not bad.

 

Jason, while I agree with you don't forget those of us living in hilly areas like San Diego. I routinely get high 60's to 70 on my 11 mile commute to work. I even sometimes break 50 mpg for the first 5 min. As it's slightly downhill overall to work the commute home is the killer. The best I've seen is 43-44 and below 40 a couple of times. I've tried every trick I know. And the traffic is worse coming home which doesn't make it easy to crack 50 on that commute.

On some casual around town driving of maybe 20-25 miles total I'm usually hitting mid 40's. Even with warmer weather. I appear to be increasing somewhat with each tankfull. At 3500 miles I'm at 47.2 mpg overall. I'd say that hills are at least a close 2nd to short commutes in hurting gas mileage. There isn't anything short of a move to Orlando that will help!