No, this isn't another thread complaining about the gas gauge, and there isn't a typo! I got 325 miles on one tank of gas, my best ever! I did it all in my 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlas Ciera 3.3L V6! I'm picking up my Prius (BC Tideland) later this month, and my fervent anticipation has had me practicing my "Priusing", i.e., coasting down hills, taking my foot off the gas with an imminent red light ahead, and just plain slowing down. My MPG went up about 15%. Has anyone else among the pre-Prius-ed tried this experiment? I don't have the regular mpg updates, of course, but the game of trying to get the trip odometer (reset at fill-ups) to new, lofty heights is still fun to play. Let us know, I'm curious how much driving habits can affect mpg, even without regen, HSD, and the like. Brad
I've sort of tried it in my wife's minivan. It has an avg. mpg readout. No matter how much I've tried, and I've driven it most of the 3/4 tank used so far, I can't get it to budge off of 15mpg. I can accelerate hard, exceed the speed limit, A/C on max....still at 15mpg. Certainly that is not the most accurate measure an I haven't dedicated entire tanks on consistant routes to the experiement, but I think it's enough to say that even minor improvements are very hard to achieve in these lower mpg vehicles.
Add my Ford Explorer to the list. It has a mpg read out and I have gotten up to 22 mpg for best tank with out highway driving. I do what I call rural/city commute. About 10 min at 40-50 the second 10 in the city stop lights. The city of Lacy has a interesting program for their lights. They are fixed so everyone stops at every light no matter how fast or slow you drive. I know exactly when to take my foot off the gas for every turn, stop sign and signal. I accelerate briskly up to speed limit and use cruse control. The engine appears to run 200-300 rpms lower than I can with my foot. Don't know why that is. Turning on the air drops it 2 mpg.
Tried the same thing with a VW. I traded a 2001 VW Jetta manual on the Prius. Before the trade, I tried the same thing, driving a little slower, coasting etc. The Jetta had a computer also, which recorded my average mileage until I reset it. I was averaging about 27 mpg, and that went up to 29 after I changed my driving style. Not much of an improvement, but definitely noticable.
A week or so ago the Cartalk guy mentioned about the MPG readouts. From what they said the general implementation is to use the existing inputs to the ECU and read out the MPG the car should be getting under those conditions. It is not a read out based on measured gas consumption and distance though it the displayed MPG is not far off from actual.
I have checked mine a few times and it is within a few tenths of actual as measured by the pump and odometer. (see various posts on the accuracy of the pumps in Washington)
During my five months of gas-guzzling guilt while awaiting my Prius, I took a very concerted effort to push my Plymouth Breeze’s gas mileage as high as possible. In doing so, I increased my MPG from around 24 mpg to over 27.5 mpg (a 15% increase). While this is still FAR less than I am currently getting (around 52 mpg), it did buy me one free round trip commute to work from each tank.
Using E-85 Gas Does anyone have an 04 Prius and live in CO? If so, have you asked your service department if it is OK to use E-85 in your car? The reason I ask is because my service department here in Omaha, NE said that my 04 Prius would have no problem using it if I went over to Denver. Ben
'04 in Colorado I just picked up my new '04 Prius at Stevinson Toyota in Denver last week. During the "orientation", they told me that the manual recommends 87, but that 85 was fine and they had found no problems or issues with using 85. And this was unpromted, i.e. I didn't ask about it.
King: you're talking about octane ratings. Removeum is talking about 85% ethanol + 15% gasoline. A friend has told me that cars that accept E85 generally say so on the gas cap. My guess is that the Prius is not designed to use it, but maybe someone else knows for sure. My owner's manual is in the car, so i don't have it in front of me.
After driving a Prius for about 4 months, I have noticed that my driving technique has changed even when driving my other car as well. Ridiculously feathering the gas pedal in a 5300 lb truck. I have also tried to open the locked door without using a key many times. It has suddenly become "inconvenient" to have to use a key to open the truck, and even the front door to my house.
