This car doesn't like me - and the feeling is mutual!!

Hi brower...,

The first thing to learn in the Prius is that it has a wierd warmup cycle. Allot of the fuel economy accellerator manipulations do not become consistent till your ten minutes down the road. Are you driving that long?

As such, it takes 20 or 30 minute trips to get good gas mileage.

The first manipulation to learn is the glide. To glide you have to be below 40 mph. Get up to speed, pull all the way off the peddle, then ease it forward until all the arrows on the MFD go blank. Hold that for as long as your speed stays fast enough for conditions. If the car is all warmed up, what is happening is the engine is shutting off, and the car is rolling along unpowered. If you can syncronise with down-slope sections of the road, all the better.

 

48 to 59 mpg, how does that compare to the RX300? Pretty good I bet!

 

Spend more time with her and she will give you above 50 per ride.

 

Also look at your typical trip profile. Short trips will always net worse mileage than longer ones. If I drive around our little village, I can end up with a 42 mpg average. If I mostly drive the 25 miles to Traverse City, then I will average 57 mpg in the summer. Same driver, same techniques, but different distances.

If you drive on the freeway at 70 mph and he drives on secondary roads at 55, that will also generate differing mileage. I suspect there is more than technique behind the discrepancy.

Tom

 

I couldn't explain the discrepancy, but remember to check tire pressures often before driving. I carry a nice dial gauge in the glove box and get free air at a station less than a mile away.

I think tire pressure will make an immediate difference in fuel economy for whoever is driving the car.

 

As a trial use CC (cruise control) in town / rural roads at say ~40 MPH and 54 MPH on a HWY. When you drive it yourself don't think about it so much and baby it. Accelerate at a rate of ~1/2 iMPG to MPH and when you get just above your target speed ease off the pedal to induce a glide (on a warmed up engine).

Good luck,

 

It's simple. Every time you drive her, pump the tires up to 42 front/40 rear. When you get home, before your husband takes over, let 5 psi out of the 4 tires. :cheer2:

 

browercreed,

48-49 is pretty good, so there is nothing to be ashamed of. Our situation is similar to yours as I almost always get in the 50's while my wife gets about 4-5 mpg less. She does very well at times, but doesn't take the "fighter jock wannabe" approach to maximizing small advantages the way I do. (Ironically, despite the mpg difference I'm the leadfoot, she drives like a granny.) I set up the glides carefully, vary speed more, and change lanes as needed to preserve energy/momentum and thereby minimize braking and ICE-on time. I also use the heat/AC less and run the blower at lower settings when I do. I don't drive slowly, but I do attempt to maximize the energy efficiency at any given speed. Subtle differences add up.

Although the conventional wisdom is that the warm up cycle kills you on short commutes, I've been able to get in the mid 50's or higher on some of these by using the warm up and terrain to advantage, hill climbing and accelerating more briskly until the car is warm. (Doesn't work well for me in cooler weather where the warmup is more substantial.)

There are some "sweet spots" in the operating curve of this vehicle to be found (one in the low 60 mph range for example). You can get two vastly different fuel usage rates at about the same speed on the same open stretch of road depending on how you manage the throttle, just getting the engine into a high efficiency mode vs. low. I use the power flow display to keep track of what is happening and adjust, looking for sweet spots. On the other hand, my wife is annoyed or distracted by the display.

 

Ahhhh, it's not that the car doesn't like you, it just gives a slightly nicer reward to your husband.

 

Sit in the back seat and watch him drive it awhile. You'll decide whether doing what he does is worth saving an extra 10% on fuel.

 

I found that connector you were looking for

Cindy, is this the thing you were looking for?
www.liangdianup.com/computeraccessories_1.htm
It's on the list of computer accessories and parts. They have the DVI video thing to convert that jap monitor to work with your other computer. Just about any other kind of wire adaptor, usb connectors, monitor extension wires, ps2 extention wires, and all kinds of female and male swap connectors and things that I think would help your shop. If that above link don't work then goto www.lducompany.com and click on computer accessories. Let me know if that is what you need and give me your email address again.
:cheer2: