MSN Autos criticizes Prius for small gas tank!(?)

I was also disappointed in the fuel tank capacity. I had dreamed of my fill-ups being rare occurrences where I fumbled around with the pump because it had been so long. I fill up just about as much as I did with my last car, it just costs less (which is nice of course ).

You see people screaming here that the Prius is a mid-sized car and not to compare it to a civic or whatnot; well then its 11.9 gallon capacity tank is way below the 17.1 gallon average for midsized cars. You'll be hanging around the gas pumps just as much.

 

This is a great example of picking numbers to make your point. The comparison was set to "mid-size" cars and most mid-size cars have a bigger gas tank - duh - they need it!. When you change it to "Hybrid" it gets a + for driving range, but a minus for front headroom! Ok, compare a Prius to a HyHi for space and surprise, the HyHi wins!

 

Why have a large gas tank when you don't need one to go 400 miles? Saves weight and space. Cars with better mileage tend to have smaller gas tanks.

 

Look at the bright side, you're dollar cost averaging more often by having a small gas tank

 

10 gallons of gas is around 62lbs. A 20 gallon tank can contain 120lbs of fuel. Do you want to drag all that around for 500 miles before it gets down to half?

 

i get around 40mpg.. so.. yes.. i would rather have 20 gallons than the usual 9 to 10 gallons that fit in.

wishing aside... they keep the tank small so that every time you go to the pump and look around, you know you're cruising just as much if not more than these other people around you. Keep in mind it's usually about 20 to 30 bucks to fill up... no other car around you spends that little on each fill up.. top off maybe.. but not fill up...

so it's done to be a moral booster?... instant gradification of seeing yourself spend less to fill up.... (shrug)

 

hampdenwireless you beat me to the best explanation. Of course we want to keep the weight down. And, we need a driving break occasionally.

 

I picked up my 2010 Prius III on July 1st, '09. The first week I got 53.6 on a 210 mi trip with lots of hills. City MPG rose from 44.5 to 47.5 with lots of steep hills daily. Full tank driven to dry will be about 565 miles or 30% more than my larger tanked LeSabre & Avalon. I consider the tank generous, and see no reason for more. My Phd Brother in law regularly gets over 50MPG in his 2010 Prius.

 

Still don't understand why Toyota not use their parts bin from the Corolla though. The 13.2 Gallon size is not that large, while still get a little better miles per tank.

 

Yes, my Prius' gas tank lasts longer than I do. Don't enjoy those rest stops.

 

Do we judge runners by the size of their quads or how fast they run? Seems to me that judging a car by the size of its fuel tank is about as useful as judging a man's bedroom prowess by his shoe size. The car gets 500 miles to a tank with no problem, so who cares what size tank it has?!? I'll be glad when I can buy a Gen VI Prius that gets me that same 500 miles on a 2 gallon tank. Of course, I can't wait to see the reviews griping about how the reviewer's riding lawn mower has a bigger fuel tank... seems to me that maybe MSN has just taken one too many advertisements from oil companies

 

I suppose the 1.7 gal. extra wouldn,t add more than a few lbs, but the extra fuel would add about 13.5 lbs, couple with 3 more lbs for the tanks would add about 16.5 lbs. That does seem minor I agree.

 

16lbs here 10lbs there... it all adds up. Maybe one person wants a 600 mile range instead of 500, so they figure 17lbs worth of fuel ain't so much. But someone else thinks that there's a tinny sound coming from the cargo area and why couldn't we add a measly 10lbs of sound deadener... what's a few pounds for fancier wheels too while we're at it... Bottom line is compromises have to be made somewhere to make something as complicated as a car and "limiting" the Prius to a 500 mile range with a smaller fuel tank hardly seems like much of a compromise. Plus, no one has pointed out the space involved... another two gallons of fuel is two less gallons of milk in the trunk.

 

I would love to have an 18 gallon tank like my previous car. I would only has to gas once a month. More than a weight issue it is probably an space issue since it would rob from the cabin or trunk.

 

I would love a 60 liter (15.8gal) tank in a Prius if I was highway driving the car. Around town the 45 liter, 11.9 gal is fine.
550 mile range /20 miles a day = four weeks of fuel.

My highway car has an eighty liter 21.3 gallon tank that requires premium. Last summer during the gas spike was a real treat while on vacation in that car.

There is an Idea for an after market company, a 60 liter fuel tank that would give you a 750 plus mile range Prius.

 

Maybe they have to do EPA testing with a full tank and the extra weight would make it miss the number they were going for.
1 extra gallon would be nice to safely go 500 miles between every fillup without being in danger of running dry or hypermiling.

 

You shouldn't have to hypermile to get to 500 miles per tank... at the sticker MPG, which lots of people report getting in real life without any special driving, you can go roughly 600 miles on a 11.9 gal tank. A 100 mile cushion against running dry sounds like plenty to me. Are you getting less than 500 miles per tank (or even pushing to get to 500) in actual use?

 

The total capacity is 11.9 gallons, but all of it probably isn't usable for driving. There is probably some fuel left in the tank that is inaccessible when the car stops because it "ran out" of gas.