I bought a 2008, Pkg #3 this month. I drive 32 miles to work one way, 5 days a week (sometimes 6). One mile on a gravel road, about 29 on a hwy with cruise control set to 64 and then 2 miles in town with 2 stops signs. Then I reverse the process to come home. My MPG is about 42. My question is during the first 5 minutes of driving is it best to drive on the hwy going 64 mph or other road going 50 mph? Is there any "tricks" to get better mpg on the hwy?
Definitely the other road and pulse and glide all the way to the hwy if traffic will allow this .. 1. What PSI are you running should be at least 44(front) and 42 (rear) 2. The use of a Engine block heater would help also.. 3. If you are only going 29 miles on hwy try 55mph and on any big downhills turn cruise off and glide . 4. when getting on the hwy accelerate slowly and when getting off turn cruise off before exit and glide if traffic will allow.. You want to try and be almost not moving when you get to your turn or stop when exiting hwy.. 5. Drive like you have no brakes count the number of times you hit them..I am not saying run lights or stop signs but try and time the lights where they are green and you don't have to stop . Stop signs let off early and coast up to them.. 6. keep us posted of your progress...
This past week I made two trips on the highway of extended milage for the first time in a while. This was the first time that I had made a longer trip with higher tire pressures (50 or so all around) and set the cruise at 59-60. A trip from Morgantown WV to Pittsburgh PA was 66mpg on the way up, average was down to 64 by the time I got back (175 miles round trip). Morgantown to Washington DC at the end of the week gave 60-61mpg for the roughly 650 miles of driving. I had never seen milage like this on the highway until the tire pressures were up and I pulled back my speed. I'm sure that some of the increase is the better broken in car (15000 miles now) compared to much lower the last time I did such a long highway trip. The temperatures were upper 40's lower 50's so I had upper completely blocked and lower blocked saved one slat. (Temperatures were perfectly normal even during the climbs of Marlyland and WV) I would definitely recommend the grill blocking (to some degree only if you don't have a way to monitor temps). Hope the my long drawn out two cents helps
First of all :welcome: welcome to PriusChat! Secondly, there are many factors. Personally, I try to avoid cruise control. There are exceptions, of course, like when I'm driving from Chicago to Nebraska. But for day-to-day and even <100 miles on interstate the cruise is not used. Secondly, there are some advanced techniques for highway driving. However, truly maximizing these techniques requires a really good feel for the car and it helps if you have additional instrumentation. I can understand that you are not reaping the 50-60-70mpg you have read about people getting in their Prius. But you ARE getting in the forties which is the rating for the Prius and considerably higher than almost all other cars on the road. What I always tell new drivers is to let the car break in, get to know the car, let yourself break in. Only after having driven the car for a few months should you really start trying to work on advanced mileage techniques. You will start finding out what works on your own given your very specific driving conditions, habits, and environment. I know from personal experience, from working with people and seeing them here that attempting to incorporate hypermileage techniques before the car's properly broken in and before the driver truly has a good feel for the car leads only to frustration.
i find i get better fuel economy on the freeways by staying in the right lane with the cruise set at 55-62. the 30 minute history looks more or less even. with the cruise control off, the 30 minute average is all over the place, and not even i seem to have better luck with going up to speed, letting go of the pedal first, and then setting cruise vs setting cruise and letting go of the pedal afterwards on downhill runs i turn off cruise, and keep foot off the gas pedal
Try this on downhill runs: Turn cruise off and slightly push on gas pedal and your speed will increase. This is called super stealth and it works a lot better than just keeping foot off gas pedal..Here is a pic of what you should see:
kingskid, definitely check all your tire pressures often. Keep a good gauge in the car. I'm running 38 psi front/ 36 psi rear. My highway mileage has been well over 50 mpg. I didn't like using cruise control on hilly terrain at all. I turned that off immediately. Let us know of any non-stock or anomalies on the car. Are you running 87 pump octane, name brand fuel?
if its like a 6 % downgrade, sometimes i actually accelerate up to 70-80 or so without even touching the gas pedal and the picture you provided matches what i am getting without touching the gas pedal. ill have to try the gas pedal on downhill runs that are not as high
Increase your tire pressure to 42F/40R. Use your cruise control on the interstate and keep your speed at 60 MPH or less. 60 MPH = 60 MPG in the Prius. Learn to pulse and glide in town. Try to keep your speed below 41 MPH. Learn how to consciously manipulate the gas pedal to attain glides and warp stealth. Lift your foot completely off the gas pedal and lightly reapply to cancel all arrows below 41 MPH, or attain yellow arrows from the battery above 41 MPH. Be patient and committed and the results will astound you. Routine 60 MPG tanks will become effortless. Be aware, Winter and colder temps are going to hinder your efforts. Until the northern hemishere is leaning toward the sun again, next year, and things warm up again ;.)
Being that the OP is in North Dakota, grill blocking will probably be necessary to get decent mileage this time of year. Even here in Missouri I'm seeing serious mileage hits when the temps drop below 40. I haven't done any grill blocking yet, but plan to block the top later this week. I can tell some difference with the mileage when the pressure is below the 42/40 I've been setting it at. Also, I keep my oil level about 1/4" below the full mark (by adding 3.5 qts. to a fill, rather than Toyota's 3.9 which will put you about 1/4" higher than full.) I also run Mobil1. I'm still trying to figure out the cabin heating/cooling. It was absolutely killing my mileage the other day in 39 degree range, but I had to run it some to keep the windows from fogging. (I was comfortable with the interior temp as the vehicle had been garaged.) Having to run defog/defrost seems to keep the ICE on nearly all the time. On the return trip two hours later the temp was about 12 degrees warmer and I could see about 5 mpg difference on the average of both 45 minute highway trips.
