Well I am taking some of the advice I have received here on Prius Chat. Our Prius has just over 600 miles on it. 1st fill up we got 35.9 MPG, 2nd fill up 39.0. I am very particular about my tire pressure in all our vehicles, however I did not check my tire pressure after I picked it up from the dealer. They "looked OK". Yesterday I decided to increase the pressure to 42 front and 40 rear. When I checked them I had 29 front and 31 rear!!!!! Good thing I checked. Our salesman told us to keep the AC on all the time. Changed that to off for first 5 min then auto with no AC, set at 67 dgrees. I have not blocked any engine vents yet, I am curious to see what these changes will make. Another thing that should help is the temp here has finality gone into the uper 40s from the single digits and teens. Thanks again
Once you get used to the car, and your habits get better, the mileage will go up for the same terrain if you're even 'medium' with the pedal. My first two tanks (600mi) averaged 40-41mpg, with OEM wheels and tires. With less than 800mi on the car, we took a cross-country trip; over 4 mountain rangesecos, Guadalupe, Sierra, Tehachapis, at 75-85mph on cruise control with 17" rims and 215/45-17 tires, I got 38.5mpg. Average for 6000mi trip was 37.5 all freeway. (I kept a detailed log separating pure freeway miles from combo miles). Nowadays, with 9000mi on the car, we're getting 44.7mpg combined; this is the measurement at the tank, not the MFD, and the 44.7 number is derived from the last ~2800mi, not just one tank. 40/60 freeway/street. This includes the added 'rolling resistance' of heavier wheels/tires and tire footprint. It took a while to get used to the usual routes we drive and some practice to 'glide and pulse' at the right times.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tom 6850 @ Feb 21 2007, 10:51 AM) [snapback]393973[/snapback]</div> Temperature change will make a big difference. I start seeing the effect on anything colder than about 45'F, so single digits will take a big hit, particularly on short commutes. Check out TonyPSchaefer's mileage/temp chart (available on the link at the bottom of one of his numerous posts). The auto feature doesn't blow cold air while the engine is warming up, so you can leave that on if comfort is your goal. But it does make the engine run more, so it will probably rarely turn off at stop lights in the really cold weather. A/C is used for defrosting, not just cooling the air, the term may be ambiguous in this context. We're reaching the low 40's after weeks in the +/- single digits (last 5 weeks it only got above freezing once, but before that it was unnaturally warm from early December to early January). I'm seeing improvements on my mpg already, even with >200 miles on this tank, should hit 40 mpg going home today after struggling to stay above 37 mpg (I have a blocked grill, but a short commute).
Another factor you don't mention is how long your trips are. If you do a lot of short trips (<10-15 minutes) then your gas mileage will drop low as it spends most of the time warming up (and it has an aggressive warm-up period).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Feb 21 2007, 01:15 PM) [snapback]394029[/snapback]</div> I do have a lot of short trips, thats why I will not turn on my heater until after about 5 min. TonyPShaefer That is a very impressive spreadsheet.
HONDA!!!!!all the way HAHAHHAHA, thats pethetic, my 93 del sol gets 45 miles to the gallon. So why the hec would i pay for a crapy looking prius when my hard top convertible looks nicer and gets just as good miles per gallon. you guys are wasting your money on toyota, my 2000 celica motor was trashed,it had a horrible ticking noise in the engine. i will never drive a toyota AGAIN!
Thanks. I started keeping the stats because I was curious and I wanted hard proof of my mileage. Then added the temperatures after about a year when I noticed that there might be a correlation with the weather. But these days, when I'm at car shows, I take a printout. And when I'm talking with someone and they claim that their car achieves the EPA average consistently, I whip out my graph and ask to see theirs. The same goes for when I'm talking with someone who doubts the ability to get more than 60 MPG.
Thank you for making the effort to join PC. Somehow your concern for the OP's question is lost in your posting, but I'll assume you will work that out later. Pretty impressive performance out of that del sol! For having an EPA rating of 34 city/38 highway, you've really been able to make it sing. If I were to have that kind of improvement over EPA ratings, hmm. I'd have to get about 69 MPG. As you can see from my signature line, I really haven't been able to meet that high number. Speaking of recording mileage . . . Can you share with us your mileage figures? Only the past year or so, really.
Hahaha troll, we aren't on a Honda site putting down Del Sol owners for having a strange looking 2 seat coupe that only ever sold fewer than 75,000 in America. I guess the Del Sol is the perfect car for you to go out in with all your friends and still have room for a hitch hiker.
heh for a car that was originally designed to be a MID engine car honda really **** up the ball park on the del sol. Although with a crappy drag co efficient i was very surprised one of the prius marathon drivers, managed to milk over 60 mpg with a del sol, it really shows driving habits is the most important skill when it comes to not being a gas company's biatch.
Thanks for honoring the gas mileage of my del sol. yeah i know they are suppose to get 34/38, and thats what it even says in the owners manuel. but whenever i fill up i use the trip-ometer and i easily get 40 miles to the gallon. I have never touched the engine to improve the mileage and i will never touch it, im leaving it completely stock and im happy with it. Im not sure what you mean by sharing my mileage figures????? I just recently bought the car about a month ago. but please explain what you were meaning. O and whoever is the gay owner of this chat banned my last username so i have a new one, and i'll keep making new ones if this keeps happening. ......WHats a matter......? scared of someone talking alittle trash and making a good point?
No, no one's scared. It's called civility. Good points are welcomed, regardless of the point of view. Trash talk in the form of infantile name calling is not. The juvenile forums you might usually hang on might tolerate it, but we're mature adults here.
