Warm Weather MPGs

I have yet to experience warm temps. Warmest I drove the C is about 44F and did pretty good, was showing over 65mpg for the few hours it was warm, actual was probably 60. Beats the low 40s from past few days.

 

I filled up my C3 for only the second time last night.. I got 47.1 MPG for the tank. Most of my driving is on a 70mph highway. Wish I could hit those high numbers... I can get "99.9" around my neighborhood but that's all.

 

Try slowing down to 65. That helps me jump up over 50 on my way home from work.

 

Thanks for the advice

 

No problem. I've noticed on my ride home from work that in the 55 areas I avg around 60mpgs. In the 60 areas I avg around 55mpgs. In the 65 areas I get around 50 and it just drops pretty quick from there.

 

My average has sadly been dropping ever since I bought the C over a year ago. I miss the 60+ mpg tanks.

 

Made the 440 trip to Orlando today. We averaged 72 - 73 mph and ended up with 45.2 Mpg.. I was impressed considering our speed and how loaded the car was

 

I cannot wait for the warmer weather to appear. My trip to work everyday was between 55 and 60 MPG. Today I had a nice 64.9 MPG trip only cost .79 cents to get home

 

Thrilled it is warming up. Managed 69.8 on the 7 mile trip back from the grocery store. Amazing to me that this little car performs so well!

 

I'm in northeast Ohio and the past few days have been in the 50s. I got 56 mpg on the way to work and 60 on the way back, and usually I'm lucky to get to 50. I got it in January so I haven't had much of a chance to drive it in warm, dry weather, and the 45mpg average I was getting in crappy weather was kind of disappointing.

 

Patience - the warm weather brings mileage rewards!

 

My daily commute is roughly 63 mi roundtrip in somewhat hilly terrain (nothing too extreme though). I’ve tested several routes to/from work to determine the most optimal route to take, factoring in time, distance, and MPG. The most optimal route into work (30.2 mi, 27% city/73% hwy, 45 min) gives me between 60-70 MPG’s, depending on weather, traffic, etc…and the most optimal route back to home (32.8 mi, 11% city/89% hwy, 40 min) averages between 50-60 MPG’s. Other routes I tried either took too long and/or used more gas. My ‘setup’ is nothing too extreme…tires are at 35 PSI and only my top grill is blocked (bottom grill was unblocked about a month ago since temps began warming up). I’ll probably unblock the top grill once temps start hovering above 80 consistently (it’s been only in the 70’s lately and 50’s at night). I have an Ultra-gauge to monitor the coolant temps…highest I ever saw it was when I was going up a long and fairly steep incline at 65 MPH and the readout peaked at around 208f. This was back in January when it was still cold (i.e. temps in 50’s during the day, 30’s at night), and had both top and most of the bottom grill blocked.

After 10K+ miles, I now get roughly between 57-60 MPG (55.6 MPG lifetime) per thankful, provided that the weather cooperates…and I’m quite happy with that. Speaking of weather, since it has been warming up a bit lately, I’m noticing better MPG’s already…although I have no pics to show for it, I did hit 106.4 MPG about 3 weeks ago, 103.1 MPG a couple weeks ago, and most recently 102.8 MPG this past Monday, all on an 8.7 mi stretch from work to a local casino. The reading does include the initial ICE warm-up time. Granted, the route is mostly downhill and low speeds of 35 MPH, but it also has a lot of traffic lights and it’s very difficult to time them as to not get stuck at too many of them. I can barely manage 70-80 MPG if it’s cold outside or if I catch too many red lights. On average, I’d say I normally get between 80-90 MPG. I think what happened when I hit those 100+ MPG numbers is I happened to time the lights pretty good so I didn’t waste as much fuel accelerating from a stop. Of course, the readout on the MFD shows 99.9 MPG so I had to manually calculate the MPG to get the actual numbers. Nevertheless, just wanted to add my 2c…the ‘c’ really likes warmer weather J

 

I do have an Ultra-gauge, but I don't think I have it set up to calculate trip MPG...just tank MPG. I should look into seeing if it's possible to do that so I don't have to manually calculate the MPG all the time when the MFD maxes out at 99.9 I wonder why that is...I'm guessing it's like the speedometers in older vehicles which maxed out at 85 MPH, even though folks could drive the car much faster than that

 

As an update to my earlier whining:
When the weather is dry and 50-70 degrees, I've gotten 60 mpg on the way to/from work (8 miles, 2/3 highway going 55-60mph), with some grille blocking depending on the temperature. 55 today in the rain. I also got 60 mpg on a 150-mile highway trip going 57-63 mph with 3/4 grille blocking at 60 degrees, and 62 mpg on the return trip, avoiding interstates. That was at 60 degrees and only the bottom-most grille block in place, with an average speed of 45 mph and 12% in EV mode, plus a decent amount of hills because I was driving in the middle of nowhere. All of this is with tires at 44 front/42 rear psi.

So, I look forward to hopefully hitting 70 mpg on my ride home once the temperature is around 70 degrees, and maybe 65 mpg on the 120-mile highway commute I do every few weeks. And my average should be above 50 mpg soon (currently at 47.9 reported, 47 calculated). Even with that, I have $100 in gas saved over the past 2200 miles. That makes me happy

 

Impressive! There is something highly satisfying if not downright addictive about getting high MPG's. I keep reading speculative news pieces about the anticipated MPG of the 2015 Prius. I know that if the rumors are true I'll be a buyer.