My Prius only getting 35mpg

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(catgic @ Jul 12 2007, 03:49 AM) [snapback]477410[/snapback]</div>

I'm going to have to agree w/chuck_k here. You HAVE twisted words. 45 mpg on the interstate is NOT 45 mpg in the city.

To top it off, that Civic CX was only 70 hp vs. 110 hp of the Prius, weighed ~800 lbs. less, was 15 inches shorter, about an inch narrower and ~5.5 inches lower in total height.

 

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(catgic @ Jul 13 2007, 07:30 AM) [snapback]478008[/snapback]</div>

Nobody is against hypermilers.

What we're against is (a) twisting of words like you did, and (B) your assertion that everyone MUST drive like a hypermiler--and that unless one does, one does not get any benefit from HSD. In other words, one might as well just go out and buy a non-hybrid.

Which is simply not true.

So, let's put 15 years worth of safety advances in that Civic--along with all the weight they cause. Let's see you get 40mpg in the city then.

I'll take my Prius with 15 years of safety advances, thank you very much. You go right ahead and drive your 15 year old Civic.

And in the meantime, stop lying and telling everyone that unless they drive like you do (weird), they can get the same mileage out of a non-hybrid car.

 

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Great. And the Prius with its HSD, doing 41-50mpg under normal circumstances and normal driving conditions being driven by a normal driver in normal ways, beats by 10-15mpg any other equally modern car of similar size and power with similar safety features.

Every driver ALWAYS gets the benefit of HSD, no matter what. No one bypasses the usefulness of HSD, "effectively" or not.

A leadfoot driver will realize the benefits of HSD every time, as will a careful driver. Because if they drove that way in any other car, they'd see 10-15mpg fewer.

 

To respond to the original poster

This is one reason you're getting crudy mileage. ESPECIALLY if you drive primarily in the city. San Francisco has some of the worst excuses for driving streets in the whole country, hills all over the place lights that don't operate off switches in the road (i.e. the light changes even if there is no car in the direction it's going green), a few streets do have timed lights that will allow you to cruise at the posted speed limit, but those are far and few between, not to mention typical drivers don't realize this and end up stopping at every light requiring you to slow down because they now have to re-accelerate. Even in residential areas, short blocks, with many stop signs. It's really a lose-lose situation. You can't simply slowly accelerate via the electric motor, with the slightest of inclines you'll be run off the road going 0 to 25 in 30 seconds. Even at a moderate acceleration the display shows 8mpg or less on most hills, really hard to make that up when you'll be braking in 200 feet too.

I normally commute to San Pablo (teacher) and usually get upwards of 50MPG, that includes a daily drive up hill 15 blocks off the freeway . However since summer I'm getting really low 40s, currently I'm at 42, and probably only that high thanks to freeway driving to get to the home improvement stores.

So if you're like me, you live in a hilly part (i.e. not the sunset), and you get screwed leaving because the car warms up on what is all downhill driving (should be net gain of MPG, but ends up being crudy), and end up having to go up multiple hills to get someplace, then yes you'll get low MPG numbers. But remember this, you'll probably get lower numbers with other cars as well. And remember it's not about MPG stats, it's about saving gas, if you have to drive out of your way by miles to gain an extra 10mpg on the display, you're not doing a good thing.