Are people really getting 40+ MPG in Gen 2?

Curious. Did you get the used battery from a junker or someone who reconditions batteries? If you drive the car a lot you may have it for some time to come as the car conditions it.

 

I purchased the reconditioned HV battery from a "local" reconditioner called Alex (a Ukrainian fellow from Brooklyn who advertises on CL). Alex came to me and did the install for a flat $800. Still working nicely almost 60k miles later (and 28 months).

 

So over 50 mpg is pretty respectable then? I'm not being sarcastic. I've only had the car a month, started tracking fuel economy a couple weeks ago. So far, I've refilled twice (14.3 gallons total) and driven a total of 822 miles. So that's about 57 mpg.

Seems like each car has a certain trick that works best for fuel economy. For example, my previous daily driver was a Jetta TDI. Diesel engines use very little fuel at idle, so I tried to coast with the engine idling as much as possible. The car rewarded me with good FE. For the Prius, it seems that regen braking is the ticket. So when coming to a stop, I get off the gas and start coasting as soon as possible.

 

Yes, 50 mpg is respectable. Since Florida is warm all year, you’ll probably stay in that neighborhood if you’re a gentle driver. The efficiency drops in the winter where it’s cold.

 

Here in Florida, efficiency drops during the summer because you're running the A/C all the time.

 

Not sure about your particular area of Florida but the roads you routinely drive on have a lot to do with it as well. Long runs of 45-55 mph on flat roads are perfect for this car. In 2008 I rented Prii on my business trips to Pompano Beach and computed the mpg at 63 mph on multiple trips. That was based on actual gallons used, not the optimistic MFD. I achieved similar mpg when driving the panhandle around Tyndall AFB.

We live with the a/c on all the time here in the desert as we're even warmer than Las Vegas. We moved here in the fall of 2019 from Rancho Cucamonga in southern California. The roads are flat with very long stretches between signals and most of them are coordinated to keep traffic flow moving steadily at 40-55 mph. After averaging 42.9 in California, our Prius has averaged 45.8 mpg on the roads out here.

Even my wife's 2009 AWD Acura MDX averages about 21 on the road here.

 

just over 200 highway miles at 65-70mph and around 30 degrees (Fahrenheit). miles driven divided by gallons at pump= 44.5mpg

 

Do you use cruise control most of the time?

 

yes, the whole time

 

Seems low in my experience. I used to get that in Midwest on short trips but on highway in winter always was close to 50 mpg. Are tires at specified pressure?

 

Was this during the 55 mph winds lately?

 

Not really. Your experience was with a totally different car. We don't know how hers was "broken in" 15 years ago and if it has been maintained meticulously over the years. Additionally, 378 Prii from her model year have reported on almost 13 million miles at fuelly. Average fuel economy for them is 43.9 so she is actually slightly above average where she should be for a 2006 Prius. That also means that to offset your 50 mpg experience someone else only got around 38 mpg.

 

Yes, I check and add air when necessary pretty regularly

Nope, I check the wind too before longer drives and this one was 16-17 mph. Half of the trip I had the wind in my favor, and then the other half it was on the side of the vehicle.

Thanks for sharing this! Still the original hv battery and that data point is reassuring

 

I guess my car is a keeper

 

Did you use gallons at pump and actual miles to obtain the 50 mpg or just base it off the energy monitor?

 

This is ironic. My previous daily driver was a Jetta TDI. It was generally accepted that using cruise control would hurt fuel economy. If you wanted to maximize fuel economy, you would learn to keep the engine load steady, instead of trying to keep the speed steady.

I guess the Prius is different? In any case, I'm still averaging about 57 mpg. If you're so inclined, you can check out the fuel log on the Ecomodder site: https://ecomodder.com/forum/emgarage.php?do=details&vehicleid=10940

 

My 2007 with just under 250,000 miles is averaging 47mpg on Fuelly, with the energy monitor reading 50.3 but slowly dropping since it's significantly colder outside. Last tank was only 41.5mpg, assuming the tank actually filled to the same level as the previous fill up.

 

I always check the meter with actual gallons and miles. Usually close.

 

On flat terrain the use of cruise control is key to high mpg in my experience. And so long as 18 wheelers aren’t constantly butt-chasing you, less stressful.

 

I don't try to keep the speed steady. When I go uphill I lower the set speed of cruise and when I go downhill I'll increase the set speed. you just push the lever up and down to change the set speed and this technique is how you would maximize mpg with cruise on non-flat terrain