My family just took at 1,600 mile trip in our 2005 Prius which has 5,000 miles. At 70mph we got about 49 mpg for the trip when trying to "drive using the hills", about 46 mpg at 70mph when set on cruise control, and about 42mpg when my lead foot daughter was behind the whell. Is this typical of what the rest of you see? Also: 1) What is the best you have seen for mpg at these speeds? 2) At what reasonable highway speed do you see the most increase in mpg? Thanks, Jack
on my daily commute from san jose to san mateo, i average around 60 on highway. speeds between ~50 - ~70
I have a cabin I go to that is an hour and a half of interstate driving. I ussually beat EPA going 65 to 70 MPH. The day after we got our '05, we made this drive and got 51. 53 was the best I've done and 48 was the worst. It's real nice to make it there on 2 gallons of gas. I used to drive my Jeep Grand Cherokee there and it would take more than 6 gallons to get up there.
It depends on terrain, my friend. I live in a very hilly area and typically get 47 mpg around that speed range. That's also my average MPG on an average tank. On the other hand, my old college advisor (who is now a good friend and I keep in touch regularly) gets MPGs in the mid 50s in his Prius, which makes sense because that area has very flat terrain. I'd say that is a HUGE factor.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(V8Cobrakid\";p=\"98829)</div> That's about what we average on the highway. On a recent 1000-mile trip to Wyoming we got 59 mpg, and would have done even better if the temperatures hadn't mostly been in the 40s and low 50s. On the other hand, there was a fair stretch of mountain driving at 35-45 mph that pushed the average up a bit. (I know it's impossible, but it actually seems that, on gentle ascents and descents, the Prius' mileage improves more going down hills than it's hurt going up hills. We got 67.2 mpg on the 294 miles from Saratoga, Wyoming to Castle Rock, Colorado, which is a net drop of less than 600 feet.)
the hill effect is interesting. when you go up, you get 15.. 20.. somewhere in there. if it's gentle.. 25 to 30.. possibly higher.. so.. going up the hill.. but.. get to the top and no more gas needed. 100 all the way down + charging your battery full. I like going over highway 17 here. going to santa cruz is more fun because the decent is a lot longer.. so i average really high.
