Tonight on one of the nationally syndicated evening news programs, a man who tests vehicles for Consumer Reports stated that he only managed 35mpg in city driving in a Prius. My results are much better. As an experiment, last week I decided to see how good I could do with the pulse and glide method. I live just a few miles from a small city where I picked a circuitous path that is probably about 7 miles around (I have never really measured its distance). There are 8 stop lights, 4 stop signs, and 1 stop and turn around. I can drive around and around this circuit and achieve 80mpg after the car is warmed up. My speed varies from 0 to 40 mph and other cars are in my way far more than I am in their way. I know this is not near the 109mpg achieved by the Prius Marathon recently in Pittsburgh, but my tires are 40/38psi not 60psi and they only have 2000 miles on them (the car is only 1 month old). I'm not running 0W20 oil either. And the terrain on my circuit varies from about 10 feet above sea level to about 25 feet above sea level (my best guess - it's really flat here on the Delmarva Peninsula). I'd be interested in seeing how this guy only gets 35mpg!
It is very simple to get 35 mpg in city driving. Just get into heavy traffic going around 5 to 10 mph and stopping and starting continuously. Then turn on the AC set to 70 degrees. You should then be well under 35 mpg if you are lucky. Helps if it is over 100 degrees when you do this. Then there are people who want a little fresh air so with the AC going full blast they want a window cracked open too!
I bet you if I beat the crap out of it and hot rodded it I could get the mileage down to the twenties - but then I could get any other car down to single digits. Too bad they did not research the story here!
I've had mine for nearly a year and a half, over 20,000 miles, and almost always keep the air conditioner on. 47mpg average. i
I can get anywhere between 35 & 99 MPG driving in DC. 35 MPG is about average, maybe even on the high side, for stop & go traffic, such as rush hour or weekend errand running. I believe in A/C - as a sales guy I really don't want to show up all sweaty and olfactorily offensive. On the other hand, if I'm cruising through Rock Creek Park on the tail end of my commute - SOC in the green - then I can get get two 5 minute consumption bars at peak 99.9. If the driver they interviewed was using the Prius only as an urban commuter or in dead stop rush hour commutes then 35 MPG is accurate. Didn't see the report, sounds like they could have used a larger sample of Prius drivers. Cheers, Jeff
Maybe - maybe not. Because bad driving habits make the ICE run more, the Prius is not as forgiving as a conventional car on gas mileage. I suspect that a bad habit that would cost say 5% on a conventional car will cost at least 10% on a Prius.
It would be nice if they'd bring on an owner occasionally to talk about mileage. There are hypermilers who do get 60MPG, and there are normal folks who can at least get 45. But keep the lameos off TV for a while, please...
hMMMMPH.... In my commute, I regularly get 48/49 and that involves 60% city, and half of that is slog.... In my experience, even with the HCH, the ICE turned off at stoplights, so haw is he keeping it on all of the time?
